Name: Trần Diệu Khánh

Student ID: 46.01.701.058

A COMMENTARY
TEXT 17: THINKING AS A HOPPY

British author, playwright, and poet William Golding was born on 19th September 1911, in
Cornwall, United Kingdom and passed away on 19th June 1993. William studied in the
natural sciences at the University of Oxford, nevertheless, in order to focus on English
Literature. When William Golding was a child, he made the decision to become a writer and
it took him till the age of 43 to see the publication of his very first book, "Lord of the Flies".
This book gained international recognition and has continued to influence popular culture in
a variety of ways. William Golding was awarded the Booker Prize in 1980 and the Nobel
Prize in Literature in 1983.1

“Thinking as a hobby” is another essay by William Golding which was published in The
Holiday Magazine, in 1961. It is not only organized logically and persuasively in chronical
form but also serves as a prime example when discussing how to categorize thinkers. The
main focus of the essay is William Golding's growing understanding of thought. In his essay,
Golding portrays himself as a keen observer who values diversity in individuals and as
having a deep understanding of how and to what extent people think. Golding takes
pleasure in observing and examining how individuals react to situations and express
themselves to others. In fact, he considers what he does to be his own "passion" because he
finds it so fascinating. For instance, at a young age, Golding reveals that his problem is with
his inability to form his own conclusions based on what he observes around him, he recalls “I
remember how incomprehensible they appeared to me at first, but not, of course, how I
appeared to them.”(Golding, 1961, para 2). However, “I have dealt with my teachers
because this was my introduction to the nature of what is commonly called thought."
(Golding, 1961, para. 28). This convert illustrates how his capacity for thought has grown.

In "Thinking as a Hobby”, William Golding writes about his discovery of three "grades" of
critical thinking: The Thinker, The Venus de Milo and The Leopard as the central idea of the
whole test. By highlighting the foolishness and fallacies of the wooly thinkers' grade-three
and grade-two thinking, Golding mocks them as a humorist. He defines the third and lowest
as “feeling, rather than thought” (Golding, 1961, para 28), exemplified most memorably by
the alcoholic, moralizing and bigoted Mr. Houghton, ogling girls as they passed by his
classroom, “thought with his neck” (Golding, 1961, para 26). “Grade two thinking is the
1
Retrieved from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1983/golding/facts/
detection of contradiction” (Golding, 1961, para 30). William Golding particularly interacts
with Ruth, his classmate and heartthrob at the age of fourteen, who runs away from his
romantic attempts while being made to question her religious beliefs. And finally, Albert
Einstein, whom William Golding meets at Oxford years later, represents the greatest grade
of thought—Grade One—which pursues truth. William Golding makes it plain that he wants
to understand the three levels of thinking throughout the essay. With recognizable figures,
the author introduces each of the three stages that run through the entire narrative. William
Golding's extensive observations of human behavior are what elicit the many interpretations
of those figures. Realizing that different groups of individuals have distinct points of view is
crucial.

To begin with, grade three thinkers are described by Golding as "feeling rather than
thoughts" (Golding, 1961, para 28) which incorporates more feelings than thoughts overall.
He understands that thinking in third grade is somehow nonexistent and is instead "full of
unconscious ignorance, prejudice, and hypocrisy."(Golding, 1961, para 28). Thinking in
grade three is typically dominated by insensate bias, hypocrisy, and stupidity. It will provide
information about its fair-minded wholesomeness even if its roll neck is strongly wicked
toward a skirt. It is technically on par with business men's golf, as simple as a politician's
campaign pledges. These are the reasons why this stage-three is considered to be
perceived as involving more emotion than thought. In order to illustrate his point, Golding
provides a sort of tale about the teacher Mr. Houghton, saying that "Mr. Houghton thought
with his neck." (Golding, 1961, para 26) This serves as an illustration of how his teacher lost
himself entirely in thinking. This demonstrates how the professor reacted out of emotion
rather than logical deduction, which is why his bulged roll neck was visible. Next, the Venus
de Milo symbolizes "grade-two" thinking, which is the recognition of problems and
contradictions without having the creativity or skill to suggest solutions or advancements. It is
stated that second graders withdraw, yet they do so with ears and eyes open. It has the
potential to develop into a hobby and, on the other side, deliver contentment and time alone.
People in this group frequently follow the crowd and carry out the actions of others.
According to Golding, "For grade-two thinking destroys without having the power to create."
(Golding, 1961, para 28). In addition, the author expresses his respect for the Thinker, who
is pensively gazing off into the horizon, is a representation of "grade-one" thinking: a period
of in-depth reflection during which one seeks to identify what is right rather than simply
criticize what is wrong. “I aspired to them, partly because I was ambitious and partly because
I now saw my hobby as an unsatisfactory thing if it went no further.”, he said. (Golding, 1961,
para 36). Finally, William Golding addresses the audience with his own message and offers
his own assessment of the work: “"Now you are expecting me to describe how I saw the folly
of my ways and came back to the warm nest, where prejudices are called loyalties, pointless
actions are turned into customs by repetition, and we are content to say we think when all
we do is feel But you would be wrong. I dropped my hobby and turned
professional."(Golding, 1961, para 46,47)

On the other hand, “Thinking as a hobby” focuses primarily on the characteristics of critical
thinking. However, it is written in a straightforward style that is easily understandable by all
classes of readers. First person narrative and occasionally second person narrative are used
in the essay. William Golding opts to use the pronoun "I" when writing in the first person
narrative in his essay. The writer is speaking as "I." He might have made that decision
because he likes to make his stories more intimate. The readers will have the impression
that they are accompanying him and truly experiencing everything that happens. On the
other hand, the second-person narrative works well for giving explanations. Instead of
informing or persuading his readers, the writer might connect with them by using the
pronoun "you." It is composed in the genre of humorous prose. The essay's mood is mostly
maintained by the comedic tone, which is occasionally sarcastic or amusing. The author
discusses how he established his study into people's thinking and later converted it into a
hobby throughout the essay with many anecdotes being told periodically.

Additionally, the author's unique method of categorizing supports his argument that an ideal
thinker should use all three styles of thinking. When categorization is used well, it illustrates
how seemingly identical items can actually be very different from one viewpoint to another.
These levels of thought complement one another. This suggests that they are not really
categories at all, but rather stages in the thinking process: stage-three for the sample stage,
stage-two for the hypothesis, and stage-one for issue solving. Without experiencing grade
two and grade three thinking, we cannot develop grade one thinking. The young Golding
starts third grade, as do we all. He explains his initial encounter with the statuettes, which his
headmaster had likely placed on the closet at random, only in terms of how each one affects
him on its own, not in relation to the others; he expresses his immediate feelings about them
rather than his thoughts.

Moreover, literary devices are essential to the humor theme that runs throughout the entire
text. Particularly, there is an abundance of irony in the prose. Golding, for instance, writes
"Technically, it is about as proficient as most businessmen’ golf, or as coherent as most
books that get written". (Golding, 1961, para 28). Evidently, there is no proficiency in
businessmen golf, and neither are politicians, nor are most written books coherent.
Nevertheless, they choose to rely on our predisposition instead. This paragraph describes
what the author refers to as "feeling rather than thought" (Golding, 1961, para 28) or grade-
three thinking. Next, the monologues of Mr. Houghton should also rank among the text's
most sarcastic sections since they are “Mr. Houghton was given high- minded monologues
about the good life, sexless and full of duty” (Golding, 1961, para 24). Sex may be
considered to be the original sin, and Mr. Houghton's monologues should have been
regarded as high-minded; however, in the following sentences, everything is suddenly
completely dismantled: "if a girl passed the window, tapping along on her neat little feet, he
would interrupt his discourse," (Golding, 1961, para 24). In addition, William Golding makes
great use of hyperbole. He mentions: “You could hear the wind, trapped in his chest and
struggling with all the unnatural impediments. His body would reel with shock and his face go
white at the unaccustomed visitation. He would stagger back to his desk and collapse there,
useless for the rest of the morning." (Golding, 1961, para 23). The essay's sarcastic tone is
enhanced by the exaggeration of sensations, such as "the wind stuck in his chest" or "his
body reeled with shock and his face went white," but it also shows that Mr. Houghton's
activities to Golding are foolish and pointless.

In essence, "Thinking as a Hobby" is an intriguing essay that establishes a fresh attitude in

pushing readers to explore various modes of thought and to create their own concepts,
which is believed to be one of the fundamental mental processes. William distinguishes and
divides the nature of critical thinking into three stages: Grade-three, Grade-two and Grade-
one. In this instance, people in grades one and two struggle to comprehend the perspectives
of those in grades three because they are unable to comprehend what they are thinking.
After all, our personalities would only function correctly with all three grades present,
regardless of the type of thinkers we aspire to become. The leopard represents the
willingness to call out the contradiction in any circumstance, while the goddess feels without
intellect. The thinker stands for clear thinking and comprehension. Godling respects thinking
from grade one, though. He still has a subtle understanding that the interaction of the three
categories of thinking is what makes a genuine thinker.

In my opinion, the tale "Thinking as a Hobby" intrigues me because it offers a fresh

perspective on how to approach one of the most fundamental brain functions—thinking. The
reader can follow the vividly described instances provided by William Golding. Moreover, he
emphasizes his unique goal to turn it into a pastime because he has provoked the intricacy
of ideas. The essay inspires individuals to explore new methods of thinking and the growth
of the most fundamental cognitive process—thoughts—in addition to engaging readers in yet
another facet of thinking.