Free Fall (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: William Golding
- First Published: 1959
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: 1917-c. 1950
- Setting: Southeast England
- Principal Characters: Sammy Mountjoy, Beatrice Ifor, Rowena Pringle, Nick Shales, Ma, Fr. Watts-Watt, Philip Arnold, Johnny Spragg, Dr. Halde, Taffy
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman
- Subjects: 1950’s, Teaching or teachers, Freedom, Memory, Sex or sexuality, Art or artists, 1940’s, Prostitution or prostitutes, World War II, Guilt, Schools or school life, 1910’s, 1920’s, 1930’s, England or English people, Moral conditions, Prisoners of war
- Locales: England
The Story:
Sammy Mountjoy, a well-known painter, needed to review his past life, to discover where his sense of guilt had begun and his innocence lost. He was convinced there was a moment of fall, when a choice had been freely made that had cost him his subsequent freedom of action. Several sites of possible moments are examined, until a defining moment is discovered.
Sammy first examined his infancy. Born illegitimately, he lived with his obese, dirt-poor mother in a rural slum in Kent. It was an animal existence, however warm and sensuous. He enjoyed his infants’...
[The entire page is 1918 words long]
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