Rites of Passage by William Golding Nine out of 10

 Rites of Passage by William Golding

Nine out of 10

 

 

Like millions of other readers, the undersigned has been exalted, enthused when reading the classic Lord of the Flies http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/10/lord-of-flies-by-william-goldingralph.html about which William Golding writes “We’ve got to have rules and obey them…After all, we’re not savages…We’re English, and the English are best at everything’…in the book and when asked has had a memorable statement to make, which is more or less ‘when you have no rules, you have nothing and we need to have them’ in an interview he also added that he had only boys on the island because he has been raised with them, knew less about girls and besides, with boys and girls, the idea of sex in some form would have been raised…at least that is how I remember the statement of the great writer.

 

Rites of Passage has won the Booker Prize – which is the most important prize for English language literature in the present and has been for some decades – and it represents a big change from Lord of the Flies, although we have again a number of people, adults this time- with the odd children among the ‘emigrants’, where a newborn will appear during the journey – that are confined in a rather small space –tinier than the island of Lord of the Flies – wherein tensions will rise to the point where a tragedy takes place, conflicts between different parties culminate, though we also have at least a marriage announced, a birth and a couple of deaths…'God, what a world of conflict, birth, death, procreation, betrothals, marriages there is to be found on this extraordinary ship’ for indeed, we are invited on one of his Majesty’s vessels.

In this, Rites of Passage recalls The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-caine-mutiny-by-herman-wouk.html and it shares two aspects with the latter for this reader, who has stopped reading both books on his first attempt to connect with the characters, only to try again and finally see the light and take the voyage together with the sailors, the personages of the two ocean tales, some of them endearing, and quite a few loathsome…Rites of Passage is told mostly by Edmund Talbot, an aristocrat who has very high connections and he uses the fact that he is associated with one of the leaders of Britain and he is travelling to the antipodes to become an aide to the Governor of one of the important colonies of the then large British Empire…’The sun never sets on the British Empire”…These 150 islands and peninsulas are dependent on the British Crown, and at least ten of them are always in daylight at the zenith of the empire

 

William Golding is depicting the immense class difference, with passengers separated according to their position in life, the less privileged have no access in areas for the richer folks and towering over them all is the captain, with his absolute powers – and we know that ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ – which he seems to abuse, albeit we can argue that some rules are needed – as explained by William Golding in connection with the Lord of the Flies – and it is necessary in a crisis to be able to maneuver without travelers in the way, when there is a storm for instance and the sailors have to take down the sails or do other things necessary to avoid disaster and the sinking of the ship…

 

There is an early clash though over the rule that passengers are restricted as to where they are allowed to walk on deck and the narrator has to use the name of his godfather – though we are not told who his lordship is, it is clear that the mysterious protector has such a position that he can influence the fate of many, including the captain and anybody on the vessel – and only when he hears the name of that powerful symbol of authority captain Anderson would restrain his fury and then direct it over the head of the poor parson, James Colley, who will suffer this and a number of other indignities, insults and abuses that would lead him to a paroxysm of anxiety, humiliation, depression…

The evident humor of at least parts of the diary kept by Edmund Talbot does not hide the increasing sense of alienation, and the notion that something terrible might happen, in an environment where the narrator feels ‘like envoy at Grande Porte where heads topple all around’, the small is nauseating – indeed, travelers on this ship, which used to belong to the navy, but when they came to the point where hundreds of them where in use and need of maintenance, they sent a good number to be used for transport, are most of them sea sick, with mal de mere – there are farm animals on board, the cow Bessie will break one leg and end up, poor beast, on the table, depriving officers and some guests of milk…

 

Reverend James Colley becomes a central figure, in fact he may steal the title of main character from Edmund Talbot, starting on the wrong foot with the captain – we would later learn the reason why Anderson is so atrocious and hateful with the clergy…he is the ‘bastard son’ of a lord, who had sent his mother to be married with a priest and then, when young Anderson become a teenager, he would be sent to join the navy – and getting into all sorts of trouble, from the time when he vomits against the wind and thus all over himself, to the attempts he makes to come to an understanding with the hostile, tyrannical, abusive captain, who is so vile as to threaten to have the parson whipped, for he has the power…

A climax is reached when the reverend tries to have a service among the ‘commoners’, on the side of the ship destined for the ‘lower classes’, where there is ‘Applause as if Colley were an acrobat or juggler and there is a second round of applause as if (having earned the first one by keeping six plates in the air at once) he now added a billiard cue stood on his forehead with a chamber pot revolving on top of it’…they ‘Laugh at impersonations and the Parson is drunk as the butcher's boots…or pygmy Polyphemus pissed’

 

We learn that to Translate one person out of one class into another is impossible…Class is the British language’…the parson is confined to his small cabin after this incident, in the first place attributed to him alone, his lack of control, the intoxication that had taken control of him, resulting in a hangover…only his isolation is prolonged, for days the clergyman does not get out of bed and finally, officer Summers asks Edmund Talbot to help and then underlines that the latter had played a role in the unfolding drama, which has the poor priest near the other world, if there is one – he appears to be determined to die of shame and may well succeed – eventually, the captain is involved, then there is an investigation, ‘buggery’ mentioned and felatio…we also have the chance to read the account of the parson…