The Image of a Writer in William Golding’s The Paper Men

Abstract

This article examines the character of Wilfred Barclay, the writer portraited in William Golding’s novel The Paper Men. Unlike the familiar image of a modernist writer, Barclay accumulates life experiences in order to sell them in paper form. When society wants to invade his personal space in the form of graduate student Rick L. Tucker, the reader uncovers the deep feelings of the protagonist, his struggles, and the personal crisis he is going through. The article also provides a review of E. Bufkin’s publication The Nobel Prize and the Paper Men: The Fixing of William Golding, which examines the conflict between W. Golding and the literary academic circle.