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Allusions
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis:
The boys speak not only in British dialect but childishly as well, with short sentences, informal grammar, and slang. This reminds readers throughout the book that these are children, a jarring and saddening realization whether they are the perpetrators or victims of violence. Golding's use of British dialect also distinguishes the characters from the island itself. Their Britishisms, just like their British memories, emphasize that they are not originally from the island, and it is a wild and unfamiliar place to them.
InChapter 1, some of the first lines of dialogue in the novel show Piggy's British dialect:
The fat boy stood by him, breathing hard. “My auntie told me not to run,” he explained, “on account of my asthma.” “Ass-mar?” “That’s right. Can’t catch my breath. I was the only boy in our school what had asthma,” said the fat boy with a touch of pride. “And I’ve been wearing specs since I was three.”
Before the reader even learns the boys' names, Golding shows us a brief interaction between Ralph and Piggy. Their dialogue contains dialect. Their speech here contains informal British grammar ("the only boy in our school what had asthma") and slang words like "specs," which is a shortened version of the word "spectacles."
When Ralph repeats the word "asthma," Golding spells out Ralph's exaggerated pronunciation—"ass-mar"—which is in part Ralph making fun of Piggy's accent. We don't know what kind of accent Piggy has, but we know from chapter 4 that the boys think it's strange:
There had grown up tacitly among the biguns the opinion that Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, but by fat, and ass-mar, and specs, and a certain disinclination for manual labor.
In other words, dialect serves not just to distinguish the boys from the island, but from one another, too.
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis:
The boys speak not only in British dialect but childishly as well, with short sentences, informal grammar, and slang. This reminds readers throughout the book that these are children, a jarring and saddening realization whether they are the perpetrators or victims of violence. Golding's use of British dialect also distinguishes the characters from the island itself. Their Britishisms, just like their British memories, emphasize that they are not originally from the island, and it is a wild and unfamiliar place to them.
InChapter 1, some of the first lines of dialogue in the novel show Piggy's British dialect:
The fat boy stood by him, breathing hard. “My auntie told me not to run,” he explained, “on account of my asthma.” “Ass-mar?” “That’s right. Can’t catch my breath. I was the only boy in our school what had asthma,” said the fat boy with a touch of pride. “And I’ve been wearing specs since I was three.”
Before the reader even learns the boys' names, Golding shows us a brief interaction between Ralph and Piggy. Their dialogue contains dialect. Their speech here contains informal British grammar ("the only boy in our school what had asthma") and slang words like "specs," which is a shortened version of the word "spectacles."
When Ralph repeats the word "asthma," Golding spells out Ralph's exaggerated pronunciation—"ass-mar"—which is in part Ralph making fun of Piggy's accent. We don't know what kind of accent Piggy has, but we know from chapter 4 that the boys think it's strange:
There had grown up tacitly among the biguns the opinion that Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, but by fat, and ass-mar, and specs, and a certain disinclination for manual labor.
In other words, dialect serves not just to distinguish the boys from the island, but from one another, too.
