Civilization in Golding's The Inheritors: Progress or Decline?
This essay examines William Golding's novel The Inheritors through a comparative analysis of two tribes: the primitive but communal group led by Lok, and the technologically superior "new people" led by Tuami. The paper evaluates each group across four dimensions — technology, social organization, physical abilities, and morality — ultimately arguing that Tuami's tribe, despite its apparent advancements, does not represent a clear improvement in civilization. Drawing directly from Golding's text, the essay highlights the warmth and cohesion of Lok's people against the alienation, brutality, and suffering that characterize the new arrivals, leaving open the broader question of what constitutes genuine human progress.
- Introduction: Thesis: Tuami's tribe is not true progress
- Technology: Primitive tools vs. advanced but joyless implements
- Social Organization: Communal warmth vs. cold individualism
- Physical Abilities: Survival skills vs. superior but struggling bodies
- Morality: Innocent sexuality vs. brutal coupling
- Conclusion: For Better or for Worse?: Ambiguous ending questions meaning of civilized progress
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What makes this paper effective
- The essay uses a clear, consistent comparative framework — applying four parallel criteria (technology, social organization, physical abilities, morality) to both tribes — which gives the argument disciplined structure and makes it easy to follow.
- Close textual engagement is strong throughout: the writer quotes directly from Golding's novel with page references and provides interpretive commentary on each passage rather than letting quotations speak for themselves.
- The conclusion earns its ambiguity honestly, using Golding's own final image to leave the central question open-ended, which reflects the novel's own tone rather than forcing a neat resolution.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative textual analysis: rather than summarizing the novel's plot, it selects specific passages and details from both tribes and places them in deliberate contrast. This technique allows the writer to build a thematic argument (progress vs. decline) entirely from evidence within the primary source, without relying on secondary scholarship.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with an introductory paragraph that identifies the central thesis and previews the four comparative categories. Four body sections follow, each dedicated to one criterion and structured symmetrically: evidence from Lok's tribe, then evidence from Tuami's tribe, then a brief evaluative claim. The conclusion synthesizes the comparisons through Golding's closing image and poses the unresolved question of whether modernity represents genuine progress. One source is cited in MLA format.
Introduction
The opening scene of William Golding's The Inheritors depicts the reaction of Lok's tribe to the disappearance of one of the mainstays of its existence: the log at the edge of the river and the swamp. Lok's words — "The log has gone away!" (p. 12) — foreshadow both the major theme and the plot of the novel. By the end of the book, Lok's tribe, and the civilization it has built, is gone, replaced by something not at all certain to be an improvement or to constitute progress. This essay compares and contrasts Lok's tribe with the tribe of his counterpart Tuami across several important dimensions: technology, social organization, physical abilities, and sense of morality. The analysis concludes by suggesting that Tuami's tribe, although laudable in many respects, does not represent an advancement in civilization.
Technology
The weapons utilized by Lok's tribe were rather primitive. Golding describes how the entrance to the tribe's cave was defended from foxes and hyenas by "one man with a thorn bush" (p. 29). A "stone" is used to cut branches (p. 31). Fire is essential to the life of Lok's tribe — and to the imagery Golding employs throughout the novel. At the end of the first chapter, Golding describes how the old woman massages the "twigs and leaves and a log" so that "the fire is awake again" (p. 30). His description — "the sun was glowing and her eyes gleamed . . . so that the fire gave them a brilliant display of flame and sparks" (p. 30) — is passionate and virtually sexual in nature.
The technology of Tuami's tribe represents a subtle improvement over that of Lok's people. Tuami paddles a "dug-out" canoe sitting on a "pad of leather" (p. 223) and uses a "dagger" (p. 227). Vivani has a "comb" for her hair (p. 229). The tribe cooks with a "full pot" (p. 229) and puts its young children to sleep in a "bearskin." Golding does not suggest, however, that this more advanced technology has improved the lives of Tuami and his tribe. To the contrary, he employs descriptions such as Tuami having "shut his eyes and passed a hand wearily over his forehead" (p. 224) and "He shook himself irritably" (p. 224). The author seems to imply that the quality of life among the "new people," despite their improved technology, is suspect at best.
Social Organization
One hallmark of the social organization of Lok's tribe is the leadership of its elders. An early scene in the novel is illustrative: the people wait for Mal, the old man, to arrive at the river before taking any action (pp. 15–16). When he tells them, "Find a tree that has fallen" (p. 16), his people obey without hesitation. Golding describes how "obediently the people spread out along the water side" (p. 16). Community and storytelling also bind the group together; when Lok tells the story "of finding little Oa . . . the people applauded him, grinning" (p. 33).
The "new people" do not appear to be as cohesive or as tightly knit as Lok's tribe. Their relationships seem less affectionate, and the individuals within the group appear adrift. The image Golding uses in the final paragraph of chapter eleven perhaps best captures this fractured sense of society: "The ice crowns of the mountains were a-glitter. . . . There was a sudden tremendous noise that set the hyenas shivering back to the cliff" (p. 222). A society that repels even the hyenas is not one in which people will find warmth and community.
Conclusion: For Better or for Worse?
Golding's description of one of the initial encounters between Lok's tribe and the "new people" may be telling: "They were not merely hungry. Lok know famine when he saw it. The new people were dying" (p. 143). Lok's sense of the demise of the "new people" might be overstated and may constitute wishful thinking, but it contains a certain validity. The image that Golding leaves his readers with in the final paragraph (p. 233) may answer the question of "for better or for worse":
"Tuami looked at the line of darkness. It was far away and there was plenty of water in between. He peered forward past the sail to see what lay at the other end of the lake, but it was too long, and there was such a flashing from the water that he could not see if the line of darkness had an ending."
The novel's ending invites readers to reflect on the broader arc of human civilization itself. However many thousands of years modern humanity may be from the "inheritance," it is not evident that the picture has grown any clearer, or that we enjoy any more insight than Tuami.
Work Cited
Golding, William. The Inheritors. New York: Harcourt Brace & World, Inc., 1955.
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