The Inheritors and the Pursuit of Form

The present paper is an attempt to read Goldings The inheritors with a particular reference to its formal and narrative aspects. If we bear in mind that most of the characters in this novel are premen and sentient men who represent the polar opposites, the problem of narrative technique and linguistic difficulty becomes all the more urgent and ultimately indispensable in any serious consideration of this novel and its position in contemporary fiction. Thus the points that will receive the most attention here are those related to narration, point of view and linguistic rendering of very different mentalities. The paper draws upon the findings of formalists, new critics and structuralists in shedding light on Golding‘s novel and its rich resources. The method followed throughout is basically technical, linguistic and aesthetic in that the emphasis is laid on the images, perceptions, view points and the authors interpretation of those inheritors of the title.