英文摘要 |
When speaking of Lord of the Flies, scholars, such as James Gindin, associate it with “the Prince of the Devils” (Gindin 15) or Beelzebub; masculinity is therefore imbued. In Lord of the Flies, however, the pig head equally connoted as “Lord of the Flies” is actually a mother sow bearing “deep maternal bliss” (Golding 147). Despite the seeming lack of female roles in Lord of the Flies, the sow and the initial “witch-like cry” (3) foretell the unknown island as chora—a female space coined by Julia Kristeva. An ignorance of these feminine elements might offer an unfair reading of this novel, for the hidden maternal influence is not considered. This paper intends to re-read Lord of the Flies with a focus upon the maternal power by means of Melanie Klein’s phantasy, an unconscious representation, to claim that the seeming absence but actual existence of the feminine aura (chora) constructs a unique setting that brings about two contrastingly-rendered characterizations manifested by Jack and his followers and by Jack’s counterpart, Ralph. Also, their phantasy is incited, urging to defend their fear and anxiety, yet mostly to no avail. All in all, the phantastic visibility and invisibility of a mother—mainly represented by the pig head, a Satanic role—pose a serious impact to these juveniles and throw them into a chain of events in which these boys witness “the end of innocence” and cruel reality that await them “in the distance” (Golding 225). |