Thinking as a Hobby

In William Golding's essay "Thinking as a Hobby," he relates the three levels of thinking to different statuettes including the Venus of Milo, the Leopard, and Rodin's Thinker. At the beginning of the essay, Golding shares with his audience of the first time he laid eyes on these statuettes in his headmaster's office. Throughout his early childhood he believed that the beautiful Venus of Milo was eternally panicked, the Leopard was crouching low so he could be ready to pounce on a filing cabinet, and that Rodin's Thinker was wallowing in extreme misery. It is later in his life that he realizes these statuettes mean something entirely different. Throughout his essay, he reveals that the Leopard, who is nature, represents grade three thinkers. This group of people, embodying the majority of the world, tends to have "natural instincts," where they act and use their feelings instead of thinking for themselves. Just as a pack of leopards travel together and mimic each others moves, so do grade three thinkers. According to Golding, these kind of thinkers have thoughts that are full of unconscious prejudice, ignorance, and hypocrisy. After describing grade three thinkers, William Golding moves on to discuss grade-two thinkers. He indirectly compares it to the statuette Venus of Milo. Venus of Milo, though beautiful and aware that her bath towel is falling, fails to do anything about her situation. She is the epitome of contradictions, just as grade-two thinkers are. 

This group of people, as Golding explains, begins to think for themselves, but fails to act on their own thoughts, contradicting themselves. In the same way, the author shares his stories of Mr. Houghton, who taught his boys to live a clean life and be virtuous, but craned his neck every time he saw a girl pass by his window. Lastly, Golding changes his original thought that Rodin's Thinker was about a man in great misery to a man to believing that the statuette represented pure thought. In this same way, William Golding reveals that grade-three thinkers are people of pure thought. Not only do they think for themselves, but they also act on their own actions. Rodin's Thinker represents a group of people who are few and far between, people who are thoughtful thinkers. The statuettes Golding represents the different levels of thought that he describes. He uses these objects as symbols to better connect to the reader.

In the first section of his essay, William Golding describes how he perceived the statuettes to be in relation to one another. His original belief as a child was that these statuettes were either frozen in pain or misery or ready to pounce over filing cabinets filled with student information. In his conclusion, Golding states that he would rearrange the statuettes by putting Venus of Milo aside, because he had come to love her, just as he had with grade two thinkers, Rodin's Thinker where shadows lay before him, and the leopard crouched and ready to spring behind the man sunk in his desperate thought. The second image is more consistent with how I would believe the statuettes to be positioned. Based on my perception of these statuettes and the meaning behind them, I would first place the leopard in the absolute center of everything because this animal represents the majority of the population, those who don't think, but act on their obnoxious, prejudiced, and ignorant feelings.The leopard, like Golding stated in his revised positioning of these statuettes, would be glaring at his prey, Rodin's Thinker, ready to pounce. Rodin's Thinker would be off to the leopard's side, hidden beneath the shadows that loomed over him as he struggled in the world that would only skim the surface in their thoughts. Finally, the Venus of Milo would be pushed to the background, gazing upon the other statuettes. Though her beauty would be shown, the hesitation of putting her thoughts into actions is what was keeping her from being in the limelight.