The Inheritors (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: William Golding
- First Published: 1955
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Allegory
- Time of Work: Paleolithic period
- Setting: A mountainous, wooded countryside not far from the sea
- Principal Characters: Mal, The Old Woman, Ha, Nil, The New One, Lok, Fa, Liku, Marlan, Tuami, Vivani, Tanakil, Twal
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Fantasy
- Subjects: Europe or Europeans, Leadership, Communication, Jealousy, envy, or resentment, Fear, Good and evil, Hunting or hunters, Naivete, Prehistoric humans, Prehistoric times, Stone Age
- Locales: Ancient world
The Story:
Each spring, Mal led his small tribe, the last of their kind, from their winter quarters by the sea to a terrace and overhang above a waterfall, which was their summer home. The way to their summer homeland led over a river that divided around a rocky island. The people feared water and had never considered going to the island. When they discovered that the log by which they had always crossed the river had disappeared, they were confused until Mal imagined, in the form of a picture, a past time when wise members of the group had taken the original log and had used...
[The entire page is 2428 words long]
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