Thinking+as+a+Hobby

William Golding explains to us as readers three distinct levels of thinking which he describes as grades. For each level he associates one of his former headmasters statuettes a leopard, a woman with no arms, and a naked man seated with his fist supporting his chin. Although i know Golding may have had different symbolic meaning, i have also associated each of these statuettes with the three grades of thinking. The leopard with its predatory senses, and brutal nature represents the most basic of thinkers. like the leopard these people only have a basic understanding of how deep thinking can be. these people are followers, and have little to no intrest in forming their own opinions.The leopard follows the same guide lines, only using instinct rather than intuition this animal can only exist in a basic rather ancient world. next comes the Venus de Milo, or the woman with no arms. Her symbolic form is that of love and beauty, mostly external. She is the grade two thinker, in that these people form original thoughts, but still lack the ability to get beyond the skin of the matter, and really delve into thought. The Venus de Milo is a woman who is flaunting her beauty to all of the world, but like those grade two thinkers her intentions are as shallow as those of a statue. Lastly we land on Rodains "Thinker" here is the image of a physically superrior man. Strong in body, but we find him lost in thought. This led me to believe that Golding wanted us to see that this man, rather this "Thinker" has found a path past all of the nonsensical musings of the here and the now, and into a realm where man is much more. Into the world that Golding has describes to us as Grade one thinking.

I believe that there are two ways to do this. One a literal and physical arrangement, or two a symbolic arrangement. the first and simpler of the two is done so that each of the three grades of thinking are represented in order with the leopard first, followed by the Venus de Milo, and last the Thinker. Each statuette tailed by the next, as numbers do on a numberline. The second arrangement would be done so that we see the superriority of the Thinker. Personally i would accomplish this by placing him high above the others, and possibly looking down on the Venus de Milo, and then the leopard, studying them, understanding them. I believe this to be the best way to arrange the statuettes. In this we see the order of thinking, and the skills needed to achieve each. As a young student in the headmasters office children would not necessarily understand why they are this way, but you would notice the subtlety of the thinking man at the top looking down upon you and the two other lesser statuettes.