Term Paper on The Inheritors by William Golding

 

 

Golding's "The Inheritors" was originally published in 1955, and was his first book after "Lord of the Flies" made his name.
"The Inheritors" is a difficult novel and that is why it is being studied at Higher. You probably will be a little confused at the start but stay with the novel. What Golding is trying to do in the novel is to create the world of 50,000 years ago. This a time when language was developing and was nothing like we know it today. This is a problem for Golding who has to use the language we use today to mirror the language of the past.
 

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Golding imagines the time when Neanderthal man (one of our distant more primitive ancestors) meets another very different Homo sapiens (a more intelligent branch of mankind). The Neanderthals were an early form of human life of which very few traces remain. They have often been considered by science as primitive beings and far inferior to the Homo sapiens who are our direct ancestors. The two sets of people are different in their instincts, behavior and ways of thought. However, it is thought that Homo sapiens killed off the Neanderthals but some people think that the two groups interbred.
There are two distinct sets of characters in the novel, which are very different in all aspects of their thought and behavior. The main characters in each tribe have a parallel character on the other side and Golding uses this device to make sharp contrasts between them and the occasional striking similarity:

Tuami = Lok
Vivani = Fa
Marlan = Old Man

The major contrast drawn is between Lok and Tuami and Golding heightens this by describing most of the first 11 chapters of the book directly through the eyes and experience of Lok while the final chapter is told from the viewpoint of Tuami. The two characters are very different.

Lok is completely innocent and naive until almost the end of his life. He experiences the world in a very direct way and is not capable of complex thought. He even seems to lack intelligence in comparison to the rest of the Neanderthals and we see this in many of the scenes with Fa as she struggles towards an understanding, which Lok is incapable of achieving.
Tuami is intelligent and artistic - a natural leader. He is capable of complex thought and can express it through art. He is also capable of great cruelty as in the sacrifice of Tiku and the love scene with Vivani. He is respected by the rest of the tribe and plots to murder Marlan and take over when the time is right. Yet at the end of the novel he has been changed by the contact with the Neanderthals.


 

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