The Critical Study of Moral Vision and Modern Civilization Reflected in the Novels of William Golding

The rapid strides are science and technology when man has become capable of surmounting the gravest of grave physical dangers and difficulties facing him and even gaining ascendancy over the universal order, life should have been pleasant and happy. There should have been a sense of fulfillment and joy everywhere. The writers and writings of the age should have fully echoed these feelings. But, unfortunately, it is quite the opposite. Conditions of poverty and strife continue to prevail, if anything, at a higher level. Social inequalities, injustice and mutual hatred rock the society. The sufferings of others go unnoticed unless forced into a realization the class-conscious society of Stilbourne had taken full advantage of Evie, without once stopping to think that she too was a human being with emotions. Oliver too had been using her for his own ends and was proud of his conquest. But, when Evie turned on him angrily, and, accused his parents and him of hypocrisy, he: ...stood, in shame and confusion, seeing for the first time despite my anger a different picture of Evie in her lifelong struggle to be clean and sweet. It was as if this object of frustration and desire had suddenly acquired the attributes of a person rather than a thing: as if I might as if we might have made something, music, perhaps, to take the place of the necessary, the inevitable battle. So strong was this feeling, despite my fury, that I cried out to her in the empty Square. (The Pyramid, p.111) Keywords: technology, feelings, sufferings, emotions, conscious, Stilbourne.