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The tone of
Throughout the novel, Golding’s tone suggests the island itself is as responsible for what happens as the boys. Golding’s tone when describing nature is anxious and distrustful. He personifies nature as a violent, vengeful force. The heat becomes “a blow that (the boys) ducked.” The trees rub together “with an evil speaking.” The tide is a “sleeping leviathan” and the sea boils “with a roar.” Clouds “squeezed, produced moment by moment this close, tormenting heat.” Evening comes, “not with calm beauty but with the threat of violence.” The boys are presented as almost as vulnerable to the forces of nature as to each other, sustaining the tone of justified fear. Nature is a destructive force that elicits the boys’ most savage natures. Their growing discomfort and unease with the effects of nature, as expressed by Ralph’s disgust at his filthy clothes, overgrown hair, and unbrushed teeth, heighten the tone of anxiety.
