6-English - IJEL - RHETORIC - Ranjit Kumar Pati - Paid

International Journal of English and Literature (IJEL) ISSN 2249-6912 Vol. 2 Issue 3 Sep 2012 64-69 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.,

THE RHETORIC IN GOLDING’S RITES OF PASSAGE RANJIT KUMAR PATI Reader in English, S.K.C.G.Auto College, Paralakhemundi, Odisha, India

ABSTRACT The language and style of Golding’s novels has often been praised for its intensity, and poetic qualities.His art is to invest apparently natural objects and events with enriching imagery which imply a new dimension of meaning. His language unites symbols and reality in as effective way as in any modern English novel.

Rites of Passage shows the spirit of good as well as evil surrounding and superintending mankind and its confused affairs. It is only a continuous process of deeper and deeper exploration that can hope to make darkness finally visible, beyond the paradox and different points of view, through some sequence of focusing.He has tried to picturize the the-then English Community. The novel represents the social condition of the time in an effective way. The figures of speech such as similes, personification, metaphor and rhetorical questions, oxymoron etc. used in the Rites of Passage elucidate vividly its various themes, characters and atmosphere.

KEYWORDS: Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Oxymoron, Rhetorical Question INTRODUCTION The uniqueness of Golding’s work lies in its density of texture, the tightness of organization and the profundity. He has meticulously and ingeniously put his novels together and has loaded them with ‘meaning’. Thus Golding’s writing explores moral dilemmas as the centre of human existence and he frequently places his characters in extreme situations to suggest a ‘mythological’ dimension to their lives.

The shape of the novel is an analogue for the shape in the universe. As Golding is a religious man, he finds the shape of the universe to be more orderly and comprehensible than most of his contemporaries probably do.

The language and style of Golding’s novels has often been praised for its intensity, and poetic qualities. His genius lies precisely in his ability to portray abstract moral and metaphysical themes in sensuous and seemingly everyday language. His art is to invest apparently natural objects and events with enriching imagery which imply a new dimension of meaning. His language is generally plain and functional, with a straight forward English that will be as intelligible to an educated adolescent as to a sophisticated adult. His language unites symbols and reality in as effective way as in any modern English novel. The language and imagery serve the archetypal elements of his novels.

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Rites of Passage shows the spirit of good as well as evil surrounding and superintending mankind and its confused affairs. The novel is about two opposed narrators’ experiencing a voyage on the ocean, which is a way of looking at man’s voyage through the living seas of their existence. It is only a continuous process of deeper and deeper exploration that can hope to make darkness finally visible, beyond the paradox and different points of view, through some sequence of focusing.

Golding’s language is uncommon for its ornamental value, vividness and impact. He has tried to picturize the the-then English Community. The ship stands for the England and its passengers stand for people of the country. The novel represents the social condition of the time in an effective way. The figures of speech such as similes, personification, metaphor and rhetorical questions etc. used in the Rites of Passage elucidate vividly its various themes, characters and atmosphere.

THE BODY Simile The similes used in the novel are very realistic and vivid. William Golding describes characters and their actions in a very uncommon manner. The use of such similes aggravates the quality of his language. The similes in the following sentences throw light on characters, their actions and states: “This last poor fellow tried to ask a blessing on our meal and feel; to eating as bashful as a bride (p.9)”.

“Lord helps us to laudanum that the poor, misused organ lay as quiet as a mouse that hears a kitchen maid rattle the fire in the morning.”(p.26) “He left me then with as courteous an inclination of the head as you would expect from a man leaning like the pitch of a roof (p.215)”.

“The gunner heaved once or twice with laughter inside him like a wave that does not break (p.81)”.

“That seemed like an extraordinary failure on the part of fighting sea man (p.99)”.

“I was quite overcome by the thought of Mr. Colley as a wit and concluded at once that he had left them to themselves and they were like school boys, amusing themselves with a mocking pantomime of the master, who has rebuked then left them (p109)”.

“Our tyrant was pleased to smile, but quivering like a man who knows that to have a tooth pulled is less painful than to have the exquisite torture left in (p.143)”.

“He has a voice like some fruit which combines the qualities – if there be such a fruit, a peach and plum (p.166)”.

“Now it must come limping after the drama like the satyr play after the tragic trilogy (p.266)”.

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“Billy Rogers was laughing like a bilge pump when he come away from the captain’s cabin (p.273)”.

The Rites of Passage is based on a story of voyage. The ship is moving on the sea with many passengers. There are some smiles used by Golding that describes the ship and the atmosphere of the sea in a vivid manner: “Our huge old ship with her few and shortened sail from which the rain cascaded was beating into this sea and therefore shouldering the waves at an angle, like a bully forcing his way through a dense crowd (p.16)”.

“At a little distance they resemble nothing so much as rocks with the tide washing over them (p.17)” “But no it was merely - “merely”-dear God what a world! – the good ship doing what Wheeler called “rendering like an old boot.”(p.20) “The break of the fo’castle rose like the side of the house, yet furnished with two ladders and two entrances, one on either side, that were provokingly like a stage – provoking since a performance could not be guaranteed and our strange expectations were likely to be disappointed (p.109-110)”.

“There is a large and school book word to run directly on like a rock in mid-ocean (p.139)”.

“The sunlight is warm and like a natural benediction (p.187)”.

“Here we are, suspended between the land below the waters and the sky like a nut on a branch of a leaf on a pond (p.192)”.

“There is no sky but only a hot whiteness that descends like a curtain on every side, dropping; as it were even below the horizon and so diminishing the circle of the ocean that is visible to us (p.219)”.

“The ship is motionless, her sails hanging vertically down and creased like aged cheeks (p.267)”.

Sailers are a superstitious lot and captain recognizes that to them “a parson in a ship” is “like a woman in a fishing boat- a kind of natural bringer of bad luck.”(p.193)

PERSONIFICATION A few numbers of personifications are found in Rites of Passage. Some inanimate objects are attributed with human qualities. Those are described and addressed as if they were human beings. A few examples where Smoke, Life, Death, Lamps, Nature, Dog, Gun, Hands are personified as follows: “Smoke is the very devil (p.170)”.

“It was the simple voice of Life mourning Death (p.262)”.

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“Lamps are dangerous to us all since once overset there is no controlling them (p.17)”.

“But this Colley has been dealt with by Nature with the utmost economy. Nature has pitched – no, the verb is too active. Well then, on some corner of Time’s beach, or on the muddy rim of one of her more insignificant rivulets, there have been washed together casually and indifferently a number of features that Nature had tossed away as if no use to any of her creations (p.66-67)”.

“Death does not come into it (p.104)”.

“Only when the sun is high does the sea seem to lack that indefinable air of Painted Art which we are able to observe at sunrise and sunset.”(p.142) “There is a copy on the wall in the tap of the Dog and Gun (p.169)”.

“Hands lifted me up and bore me to my cabin (p.239)”.

METAPHOR The use of metaphor is expressive in Rites of Passage. It indicates the point of similarity or resemblance between two essentially different things but not directly. The similarity is suggestive and speculative. The two examples of the use of metaphor cited below throw light on character: “He is an ornament to the service (p.53)”.

“She is the daughter of a cannon and might be presumed to know best how to handle the clergy (p.150)”.

Mr. Colley’s state of mind is expressed in a telling metaphor like this: “We agreed that a man might well suffer shipwreck on that coast and have decided to stand shoulder to shoulder in mutual defence. A mixed metaphor, my lord, so you can see how dull I find myself.”(p.120) Talbot’s wrong doing is exposed as follows: “The devil is in it, then I have been most confoundedly seasick and kept my bunk.”(p.11) The following metaphors are associated with Mr. Colly, Mr. Cumberslum and fellow passengers in the journey.

“We were a ship of war, store ship, a packet boat a passenger vessel, we were all things, which amounted to- and here I believe I detected a rigidity of mind that is to be expected in an officer at once junior and elderly-amounted to being nothing.”(p.23) “During-it may be half a minute, for what is time in a ship or to revert to that strange metaphor of existence that come to me so strongly during Mr. Colley’s exhibition, what is time in a theatre.”(p.129)

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RHETORICAL QUESTION In Rites of Passage, Golding has used a lot of rhetorical questions. In many where in the novel, questions are asked not for the sake of getting answers, but to put a point more effectively. These rhetorical questions highlight characters, situations, theme and artistry in the novel. A few examples of such are cited below: In the course of the voyage, the passengers of the ship stage a play for the sake getting entertainment.

Edmond Talbot, the main character of the novel has some explanation on the theatre. That is indicated by the following rhetorical questions: “Or may I stay with Greeks? It is a play. Is it a farce or a tragedy? Does not a tragedy depend on the dignity of the protagonist? Must he not be great to fall greatly (p.104)?”

Mr. Talbot realizes that something wrong is going on in the ship. Most of the people do not care and respect others. He expresses his feeling before Summers, a character on the above matter through the following rhetorical questions: “Is that wise, Summers? Was not the play-acting of the common people- forgive me! – directed not to themselves but to those in authority over them? Should you not avoid reminding them of it (p.151)”?

Anderson, the captain of the ship is in a drunken state. He makes discussion with Mr. Summers intoxicated. The rhetorical questions that follow hint about it: “What is the phrase? No need taps? A glass with all you gentlemen! But to return – Summers, what do you say to the story of the cheese clapped on the main as a mast capping? What if the snuff-boxes carved out of beef (p.165)”?

Mr. Talbot has some confusion in his mind regarding some matters. The rhetorical questions below indicate about that: “How then can water added to water produce opacity? What impediment to the vision can colourlessness and transparency spread before us? Do we not see clear through glass or diamond or crystal? Do we not see the sun and the moon and those fainter luminaries (I mean the stars) through unmeasured heights of pendant atmosphere (p.196-197)”?

Thus, rhetorical questions play a great role in expressing different situations, characters, their feelings as well as artistry of Golding’ language.

OXYMORON “It is a figure of speech in which two contradictory terms are brought together in what is at first sight an impossible combination. The “Darkness Visible” of Hell in Milton’s Paradise Lost is a serious use of oxymoron to transcend human perception.” * Golding uses this oxymoron as the title of his

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previous novel “Darkness Visible.” Golding has successfully used this figure of speech in Rites of Passage.

The ship in which the voyage is made is presented as follows: “But this ship has more strings than a violin, more than a lute, more I think than a harp, and under the wind’s tuition she makes a ferocious music.”(p.17) Mr.Colley’s condition is expressed here: “That was notable impertinence, Mr. Summers !”

As my vision cleared I saw that the man had a positive pallor under his brown skin.(p.129) “Though I had speculated on the horrid ceremonies of which I might be the victim, I thought then of shipwreck, fire, collision or of the violence of the enemy. I cried out, I believe.”(p.235) The discussion between Mr.Talbot and Summers relating to Mr Colley resulted in a didactic statement such as: “Anger, yes, embarrassment, yes-but also a kind of rueful amusement at having been taught two lessons in one day by the same schoolmaster !”(p.135)

CONCLUSIONS Thus, different figures of speeches employed in the novel highlight theme, atmosphere, characters, situations, and artistry of Golding’s Rites of Passage.

Moreover, those are adding

eccentricity to the language of the novel.

Golding’s achievement in Rites of Passage is as much linguistic as philosophical. The timely message is brilliantly conveyed through the language he has chosen for the novel where the rhetoric plays a significant role.

REFERENCES 1.All references of the novel Rites of Passage are from Faber paperbacks edition, Great Britain, 2001 2.Gray Martin: A Dictionary of Literary Terms, York Press Longman Group (FE) Ltd. Hong Kong, 1985, p.148