Movie & Book Reviews





A Critical Analysis On The Morality Of Literature in  Scorpio Nights 2 By Erik Matti



The film Scorpio Nights 2 by Erik Matti produced in 1999 focuses on a vivid portrayal of forbidden love between a teacher and a student, Andrew and Valerie (by Albert Martinez and Joyce Jimenez respectively.) It also presents several issues in the society which normally observed in a university and dormitories such as immorality or pre-marital sex, homosexuality, drugs, vices, and other form of addiction.  The film was set in the two venues. First is in the tenements of Manila intended for rent by students, families, and other occupants. This is where the two main characters stayed. The other one is in the university where the two main characters are involved.

            Moreover, it tackles about how he maintains it in the midst of temptation and the awaiting consequences of being fallen into temptation and sin. Meanwhile, the director of the movie Erik Matti, was known for his erotic films which includes several issues whether in society, or in man’s life. For this film he had used the life of the common people specifically the life of people in and out of the university. His main characters, teacher and student were a clear representation of high moral individuals who both failed due to their response to fornication. Moreover, other characters represents the negligence of morality either temporary or permanently which happens to be realistic.

            Furthermore, the search for morality in this film was greatly focused. Morality was defined as the accepted moral standards or the standards of conduct that are generally accepted as right or proper. In the film, each of the characters had the right to choose between good and evil specifically between sexual desires and ethics. But what is observed greatly is the immersion of the characters in sin. Andrew, as one of the main characters was one’s a meticulous, well-organized man but was debauched by his fellow teacher named Dana and little by little he was transformed into a messy guy. He had neglected every ethics he learned and Cicero’s reminder of morality because of this. It became worse when he developed this sexual desire with Valerie, a student of a university where he teaches. This succession of events had led him to become a nymphomaniac at the end of the movie. It was then portrayed that with his much desperation, he disguised as a woman in order to be near with Valerie, forcing her to make love with him. Furthermore, this choice in which he made has several consequences and proved to be his downfall. In the end, Andrew was dumped like garbage literally and figuratively by the society.

            Matti had also used symbolism in the film. This was presented by Cicero, a genius boy which symbolizes innocence in a world of chaos with high morals. He had served as a reminder to Andrew and other characters in the story but was affected by several factors which also ruined his life. The character was a proof that great minds are disturbed by pressures around. He may be look as a grown up but still he was a kid and still have some things to discover. His death by committing a suicide was a form of escape from the unsympathetic world he lived in. however, the title of the film points out to Val’s zodiac sign Scorpio, which linked to her immoral activity with Andrew occurring mostly by night. Also like a Scorpio or scorpion the attitudes of each characters was affected by a venomous sting of immorality and pleasure which poisoned their minds and turned them into wild individuals.

In general, the film was not made to encourage the immorality but to present why or how sin is developed and what are the latter consequences behind this choice. The film was not purely erotic but served as a warning to viewers on how a man drives himself to his destruction through his addiction and lack of self-control. Neither it do not talk  about the baring of the flesh nor talking issues about sex, sexual satisfaction, or consuming it but realizations which could change every man’s life in general.  For instance, Valerie, being engaged with Andrew in a daring romance had given into her sexual cravings but realized that morality must still reign. Thus, she avoided to get near with Andrew and set aside all thoughts of immorality.

As a whole, the film was looked as a movie bound with morality. The purpose of the film is to give warn and present how dark this immorality and how it dehumanizes man’s life. This is based on Father Gardiner’s criteria of measuring morality in literature. He pointed out some factors in order to validate a sin in a literary work. One of these is that, sin must be recognized in a literary piece. It must not become a temptation to a normally discriminating reader. Lastly, a single moral flaw or sin must not affect the whole film or story. This factor in relation to the movie was real as they fell and received consequences for their actions.

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A LITERARY CRITICISM OF THE NOVEL “LORD OF THE FLIES” BY WILLIAM GOLDING USING PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH AND NATURALISM AS TREND




I.        INTRODUCTION

Literature, through literary criticism allows an individual to study, evaluate and analyze literary works. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals. This criticism can be made by choosing from different pairs of approaches and trends. Among these approaches is the Psychological approach which refers to the inner drives or neurosis of the author and the characters used in a literary piece.

On the other hand, Naturalism as a trend in literature was a literary movement that began in the late nineteenth century (1865-1900) in film, art, literature and theater that portrays common values of an ordinary individual. It is a trend in referred to as an extensive realism. This trend originated as a French movement, where the naturalistic writers were influenced by the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin and the ideas of Hippolyte Taine, a philosopher. Naturalistic writers wrote stories that adopted the perspective that a person's character is determined by one's lineage and environment. The term 'naturalism' was coined by Emile Zola, an influential French writer. It was a literary movement that suggested the involvement of environment, heredity and social conditions in shaping the human character.  

   Several writers had used these approaches and trend on their writing. One of the prominent authors, William Golding had paired this in his novel The Lord of Flies. His famous work was published in 1954, dealt with the issues of savagery and survival of man under the changes of environment. This novel presents naturalism and psychological issues. Golding is an English writer who was awarded by both prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983 and the coveted Booker Prize in 1980.

      From the discussion above, this paper will present a critical analysis on the characters of mentioned novel using psychological approach and naturalism as trend.



II.            BODY
BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM GOLDING
                 

Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies. He was also awarded the Booker Prize for literature in 1980 for his novel Rites of Passage, the first book of the trilogy To the Ends of the Earth.

In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Golding was born in his grandmother's house, 47 Mountwise, St. Columb Minor, Newquay, Cornwall and he spent many childhood holidays there. He grew up at his family home in Marlborough, Wiltshire, where his father (Alec Golding) was a science master at Marlborough Grammar School (1905 to retirement). Alec Golding was a socialist with a strong commitment to scientific rationalism, and the young Golding and his elder brother Joseph attended the school where his father taught. His mother, Mildred, kept house at 29, The Green, Marlborough, and supported the moderate campaigners for female suffrage. In 1930 Golding went to Oxford University as an undergraduate at Brasenose College, where he read Natural Sciences for two years before transferring to English Literature.
Golding took his B.A. (Hons) Second Class in the summer of 1934, and later that year his first book, Poems, was published in London by Macmillan & Co, through the help of his Oxford friend, the anthroposophist Adam Bittleston.
Golding married Ann Brookfield on 30 September 1939 and they had two children, Judy and David.
William Golding joined the Royal Navy in 1940. During World War II, Golding fought in the Royal Navy and was briefly involved in the pursuit and sinking of Germany's mightiest battleship, the Bismarck. He also participated in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, commanding a landing ship that fired salvoes of rockets onto the beaches, and then in a naval action at Walcheren in which 23 out of 24 assault craft were sunk. At the war's end, he returned to teaching and writing.
In 1985, Golding and his wife moved to Tullimaar House at Perranarworthal, near Truro, Cornwall, where he died of heart failure, eight years later, on 19 June 1993. He was buried in the village churchyard at Bowerchalke, South Wiltshire (near the Hampshire and Dorset county boundaries). He left the draft of a novel, The Double Tongue, set in ancient Delphi, which was published posthumously. He is survived by his son, David, who still lives at Tullimaar House to the present day.
In September 1953, Golding sent a manuscript to Faber & Faber of London. Initially rejected by a reader there, the book was championed by Charles Monteith, then a new editor at the firm. He asked for various cuts in the text and the novel was published in September 1954 as Lord of the Flies. It was shortly followed by other novels, including The Inheritors, Pincher Martin and Free Fall.
Publishing success made it possible for Golding to resign his teaching post at Bishop Wordsworth's School in 1961, and he spent that academic year in the United States as writer-in-residence at Hollins College, near Roanoke, Virginia. Having moved in 1958 from Salisbury to nearby Bowerchalke, he met his fellow villager and walking companion James Lovelock. The two discussed Lovelock's hypothesis that the living matter of the planet Earth functions like a single organism, and Golding suggested naming this hypothesis after Gaia, the goddess of the earth in Greek mythology.
In 1970, Golding was a candidate for the Chancellorship of the University of Kent at Canterbury, but lost to the politician and leader of the Liberal Party Jo Grimond. Golding won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1979, the Booker Prize in 1980, and in 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988.



SUMMARY
The Lord of Flies
Britain is shot down over a deserted tropical island. Two of the boys, Ralph and Piggy, discover a conch shell on the beach, and Piggy realizes it could be used as a horn to summon the other boys. Once assembled, the boys set about electing a leader and devising a way to be rescued. They choose Ralph as their leader, where he appoints another boy, Jack, to be in charge of the boys who will hunt food for the entire group.
Then Ralph, Jack, and another boy, Simon, set off on an expedition to explore the island. Upon their return, Ralph declares that they must light a signal fire to attract the attention of passing ships. The boys succeed in igniting some dead woods by focusing sunlight through the lenses of Piggy’s eyeglasses. However, the boys pay more attention to playing than to monitoring the fire, and the flames quickly engulf the forest. A large swath of dead wood burns out of control, and one of the youngest boys with a mark on his face, disappears and was presumably burned to death.
During their first days in the island, the boys enjoy their life without grown-ups and spend much of their time splashing in the water and playing games. Ralph, however, complains that they should be maintaining the signal fire and building huts for shelter. The hunters fail in their attempt to catch a wild pig, but their leader, Jack, becomes increasingly preoccupied with the act of hunting as days progresses.
When a ship passes by on the horizon one day, Ralph and Piggy noticed to that the signal fire—which had been the hunters’ responsibility to maintain—has burned out. Furious, Ralph approaches Jack, but the hunter has just returned with his first kill of a wild pig. All the hunters celebrated their victory and seem gripped with a strange frenzy while reenacting the chase in a kind of wild dance. They almost killed one of the boys as they reenacted it around the bonfire. It also happened that Piggy criticizes Jack, who hits Piggy across the face. Ralph blows the conch shell and reprimands the boys in a speech to restore order. Also at the meeting, it quickly becomes clear that some of the boys have started to become afraid. The littlest boys, known as “littluns,” have been troubled by nightmares from the beginning, and more and more boys now believe that there is some sort of beast or monster lurking on the island. The older boys try to convince the others at the meeting to think rationally, asking where such a monster could possibly hide during the daytime. One of the littluns suggests that it hides in the sea—a proposition that terrifies the entire group.
Not long after the meeting, some military planes engage in a battle high above the island. The boys, asleep below, do not notice the flashing lights and explosions in the clouds. A parachutist drifts to earth on the signal-fire mountain, dead. Sam and Eric, the twins responsible for watching the fire at night, are asleep and do not see the parachutist land. When the twins wake up, they see the enormous silhouette of his parachute and hear the strange flapping noises it makes. Thinking the island beast is at hand; they rush back to the camp in terror and report that the beast has attacked them.
Immediately, the boys organize a hunting expedition to search for the monster. Jack and Ralph, who are increasingly at odds, travel up the mountain. They see the silhouette of the parachute from a distance and think that it looks like a huge, deformed ape and totally believed that the beast really exists. The group holds a meeting at which Jack and Ralph tell the others what they saw. Jack says that Ralph is a coward and that he should be removed from office, but the other boys refuse to vote Ralph out of power. Jack angrily runs away down the beach, calling all the hunters to join him. Ralph rallies the remaining boys to build a new signal fire, this time on the beach rather than on the mountain. They obey, but before they have finished the task, most of them have slipped away to join Jack.
Jack declares himself the leader of the new tribe of hunters and organizes a hunt and a violent, ritual slaughter of a sow to solemnize the occasion. The hunters then decapitate the sow and place its head on a sharpened stake in the jungle as an offering to the beast. Later, encountering the bloody, fly-covered head, Simon has a terrible vision, during which it seems to him that the head is speaking. The voice, which he imagines as belonging to the Lord of the Flies, says that Simon will never escape him, for he exists within all men. Simon faints. When he wakes up, he goes to the mountain, where he sees the dead parachutist. Understanding then that the beast does not exist externally but rather within each individual boy, Simon travels to the beach to tell the others what he has seen. But the others are out of themselves—even Ralph and Piggy have joined Jack’s feast—and when they see Simon’s shadowy figure emerge from the jungle, they fall upon him and kill him with their bare hands and teeth.
The following morning, Ralph and Piggy discuss what they have done. Jack’s hunters attack them and their few followers and steal Piggy’s glasses in the process. Ralph’s group travels to Jack’s stronghold in an attempt to make Jack see reason, but Jack orders Sam and Eric tied up and fights with Ralph. In the ensuing battle, one boy, Roger, rolls a boulder down the mountain, killing Piggy and shattering the conch shell. Ralph was then left alone and managed to escape spears from Jack’s tribe.
Ralph hides for the rest of the night and the following day, while the others hunt him like an animal. On the other hand, Jack had ordered the other boys to ignite the forest in order to smoke Ralph out of his hiding place. Ralph stays in the forest, where he discovers and destroys the sow’s head, but eventually, he is forced out onto the beach, where he knows the other boys will soon arrive to kill him. Ralph collapses in exhaustion, but when he looks up, he sees a British naval officer standing over him. The officer’s ship noticed the fire raging in the jungle. The other boys reach the beach and stop in their tracks at the sight of the officer. Amazed at the spectacle of this group of bloodthirsty, savage children, the officer asks Ralph to explain. Ralph is overwhelmed by the knowledge that he is safe but, thinking about what has happened on the island, he begins to weep. The other boys begin to sob as well. The officer turns his back so that the boys may regain their composure.




ANALYSIS USING PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH

     William Golding’s novel dealt mainly with the neurosis and loss of innocence by a group of boys crashed in a tropical island. Under these circumstances, the evolution of human mind from an innocent child up to maturity was greatly observed. Yet several factors such as the environment had pushed this growth to barbarism.
     Using the psychological approach, one can understand clearly what goes into the mind of the characters in the novel. The major focus would be on the four main characters, Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon. Other minor characters are Roger, Percival, Henry, Maurice and the littluns or the young ones which would be scrutinized in later discussions.
Golding’s treatment of the novel has been called anti-science since he equated scientific and technological progress with dehumanization and traced the shortcomings of modern society to the inherent negativity off human nature. In short, this novel refers to the ethical nature of man as he responds to his environment. This clearly explains that man can be bad because of his nature or is already bad by nature depending on how he responds in order to survive. In the case of the boys in the novel, they turn out as savages having no adult supervision and properly imposed rules. The author’s psychological insights are reflected in the novel by concise depiction of events or scenes or savage perverted behavior and degrading moral standards. In his speech, Golding stated personally that the Lord of Flies is a story about the darkness in the heart of man. (Fable speech at Univ. of Harvard))
 Looking back into the novel, these boys had learned to put up an organized civilization of their own—had elected a leader and made every system from hunting of food to shelter and putting up the fire for signal or for rescue, due to the absence of adults. Using the psychoanalysis, this order of events from organization to devastation of human life and his society lies on the mind set of every character will be scrutinized.

            Sigmund Freud, one of the proponents of psychoanalysis, has a theory concerning the three division of human mind. This is also known as the three psychic zones which classifies the nature of man according to his consistent behavior. These three psychic zones or divisions of mind are the id, ego and superego. These classifications can be paired individually with the major characters in the novel.
            First of the four is Ralph. Ralph was described as one of the biguns, a term used for big boys in the group. He was the novel’s protagonist, described as the twelve-year-old English boy who is elected as the chief. He represents the human’s civilizing instinct and activates more of his ego than any other in the island. Such statement implies that he was one who has the control over things, planning and conforms to reality and morality.
 This was proven when he led the group to put up a civilization on the island. With the conch (a symbol of power or superiority among the boys) in his hand, he made rules and systems for the boys to follow.  However, being an ego allows him to weigh or mediate on the results of each plan. He often made consultations for Piggy whose intelligence was stunning. But it was disturbed due to these mediating ideas of considering the faults and opinions of others. Thus, his rules were broken due to its loose implementation. He was overpowered by Jack’s superego on the latter part of the novel.
In order to trace the character of jack, citations are provided below.
On being a chief, he put up orders on their new home, an island.
(p.38 chapter 1)

“Ralph waved the conch.
‘Shut up! Wait! Listen!’
He went in in the silence, borne in his triumph.
There’s another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on tip of the mountain. We must make a fire.”

Chapter 1, p. 42

‘We’ve got to have special people for looking after the fire. Any day there may be a ship out there---he wave his arm at the taut wire of the horizon---and if we have a signal going they’ll come and take us off. And another thing. We ought to have more rules. Where the conch is, that’s a meeting. The same up here as down there.’


“Ralph moved impatiently. The trouble was, if you were a chief, you have to think, you had to be wise…this made you think; because thought was a valuable thing that got results…

Only, decided Ralph as he faced the chief’s seat, I can’t think. Not like Piggy.”p.78

Look at us! How many are we? And yet we can’t keep a fire going to make smoke? Don’t you understand? Can’t you see we ought to—ought to die before we let the fire out?’ p.81



Piggy involved in Ralph decision making—Chapter 5, p.92
            ‘Blow the conch, Ralph.’
            ‘There’s the fire. Can’t they see?’
            ‘You got to be tough now. Make ‘em do what you want.’
            Ralph answered in the cautious voice of one who rehearses the theorem.
‘if I blow the conch, and they don’t come back; then we’ve had it. We shan’t keep the fire going. We’ll be like animals. We’ll never be rescued.’

Ralph consulting Piggy of the truth about ghosts.---Chapter 5, p.93

The trouble is: Are there ghosts, Piggy? Or beasts?
Course there aren’t.’
‘Why not?’
“’ Cos things wouldn’t make sense. Houses an’ streets an’—TV—they wouldn’t work.”
…..“But s’pose they don’t make sense? Not here, on this island? Supposing things are watching us and waiting?’
“Ralph shuddered violently and moved closer to Piggy, so that they bumped frighteningly.”
‘You stop talking like that! We got enough trouble,
Ralph, an I’ve had as much as I can stand. If there’s ghosts--‘
I ought to give up being a chief. Hear ‘em
“Oh Lord! Oh no!
Piggy gripped Ralph’s arm.
‘If Jack was chief, he’d have all hunting and no fire. 
‘We’d be here till we died.’


On Chapter 7, page 114-115 he give in to savagely desires when he took part on the reenactment of the catching of the sow together with Jack’s hunters.

            “Ralph, carried away by a sudden thick excitement, grabbed Eric’s spear and jabbed at Robert with it.”
                        “Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.”

Another character who follows his superego was Simon, one of the biguns who loves nature. Simon represents natural human goodness. He is a small skinny boy, with chin pointed and has bright eyes. He is loner and always goes for long walks. He was the one who talked to Lord of Flies and considered having Christ-like character in the novel. In psychology, superego refers to the part of the mind that acts as a conscience to the ego. It develops the moral standards and rules through contact with parents and society. In relation to Simon’s behavior, he was always conscious and kind to the littluns and to everyone. He always helps on every work for civilization of the island and sensitive towards his colleagues as he is to the nature. However, his kindness was ruined when he was brutally killed by frenzied boys mistakenly identified as the beast. He failed to deliver the news about the truth. Some critics also look up Simon’s personality as that of Christ. They linked his kindness to littluns being the children or people and his sacrifice for truth. However, he was defeated by devil, the Lord of Flies. Simon for the whole duration of the novel was so conscious due to his aloof nature.

Below are citations to prove his aloof and conscientious nature.
On being Aloof and nature-lover:

              “He looked closely as Jack had done  at the close ways behind him and glanced swiftly round to confirm that he was utterly alone. When he was securwe in the middle he was in a little cabin svreened off from the open space by a few leaves. He squatted down, parted from the leaves and looked out into the clearing. Nothing moved but a pair of gaudy butterflies that danced round each other in the hot air. Holding his breath he cocked a critical ear at the sounds of the island.” (Chapter 3, p. 57)


By personal speech Simon explained to Jack why he goes alone to the dark.

‘I wanted to go to ---a place—a place I know
‘What place?’
‘Just a place I know. A place in the jungle.’
(Chapter 5 p. 85)
           
He is sensitive towards the need and feelings of others.
   “He walked with an accustomed tread through the acres of fruit trees, where the least energetic could find an easy if unsatisfying meal. Flower and fruit grew together on the same tree and everywhere has the scent of ripeness and the booming of a million bees at pasture. Here the littluns who had run after him caught up with him. Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight, Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach, pulled of the choicest from up in the foliage, and passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands.” (Chapter 3, p. 57)

He was known to have a disease called epilepsy. Below are proof that he had seizures in the island:

 “Simon was speaking almost in his ear. Ralph found that he had a rock painfully gripped in both hands, found his body arched, the muscles of his neck stiffs, his mouth strained open.” Chapter 7, p.111

He was epileptic at the time he had spoken with the Lord of Flies on chapter 8, p. 143
Simon’s head was tilted slightly up. His eyes could not break away and the Lord of Flies hung in space before him.
Simon’s mouth labored, brought forth audible words.
‘Pig’s head on a stick.’
‘Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!’ said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. ‘You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?
The laughter shivered again.
‘Come now,’ said the lord of Flies. ‘Get back to others and we’ll forget the whole thing.’
Simon’s head wobbled. His eyes were half closed as though he were imitating the obscene thing on the stick. He knew that one of his times was coming on. The lord of the Flies was expanding like a balloon.
This is ridiculous. You know perfectly well you’ll only meet me down there—so don’t try to escape!
Simon’s body arched and stiff. The Lord of Flies spoke in the voice of a schoolmaster.
‘This has gone quite far enough. My poor misguided child, do you think you know better than I do?
There was a pause.
“I’m warning you. I’m going to get angry. D’you see? You’re not wanted. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island. Understand? We are going to have dun on this island! So don’t try it on, my poor misguided boy,or else---‘
Simon found he was looking into a vast mouth. There was blackness within, a blackness that spread.
‘--- Or else,’ said the Lord of Flies, ‘we shall do you? See? Jack and Roger and Maurice and Robert  and Bill and Piggy and Ralph. Do you. See?’
Simon was inside the mouth. He fell down and lost consciousness.

The abovementioned citation also foreshadows Simon’s death as