The Inheritors



The Inheritors is the second novel by British author William Golding, best known for Lord of the Flies, published 1955. It concerns the extinction of one of the last remaining tribes of Neanderthalss at the hands of the more sophisticated Homo sapiens.

Plot
This novel is an imaginative reconstruction of the life of a band of Neanderthals. It is written in such a way that the reader might assume the group to be modern Homo sapiens as they gesture and speak simply among themselves, and bury their dead with heartfelt, solemn rituals. They also have powerful sense impressions and feelings, and appear sometimes to share thoughts in a near-telepathic way. As the novel progresses it becomes more and more apparent that they live very simply, using their considerable mental abilities to connect to one another without extensive vocabulary or the kinds of memories that create culture. They have wide knowledge of food sources, mostly roots and vegetables. They chase hyenas from a larger beast's kill and eat meat, but they don't kill mammals themselves. They have a spiritual system centring on a female principle of bringing forth, but their lives are lived so much in the present that the reader realizes they are very different from us, living in something like an eternal present, or at most a present broken and shaped by seasons.

One of the band, Lok, is a point of view character. He is the one we follow as one by one the adults of the band die or are killed, then the young are stolen by the "new people," a group of early modern humans. Lok and Fa, the remaining adults, are fascinated and repelled by the new people. They observe their actions and rituals with amazement, only slowly understanding that harm is meant by the sticks of the new people.

The humans are portrayed as strange, godlike beings as the neanderthals witness their mastery of fire, Upper Palaeolithic weaponry and sailing.

All save the last chapters of the novel are written from the Neanderthals' stark, simple stylistic perspective. Their observations of early human behaviour serve as a filter for Golding's exercise in paleoanthropology, in which modern readers will recognize precursors of later human societal constructs, e.g., religion, culture, sacrifice and war.

The penultimate chapter employs an omniscient viewpoint, observing Lok. For the first time, the novel describes the people the reader has been inhabiting through the first-person perspective. Lok, totally alone, gives up in despair.

In the final chapter, we move to the point of view of the new race, more or less modern humans fleeing in their boats, revealing that they are terribly afraid of the Neanderthals (whom they believe to be devils of the forest) and of pretty much everything around. This last chapter, the only one written from the humans' point of view, reinforces the inheritance of the world by the new species.

The fleeing humans carry with them an infant Neanderthal, of whom they are simultaneously afraid and enamoured, hinting at the later hypothesis of inter-breeding between Neanderthals and modern humans.

Neanderthals

 * Lok is the viewpoint character for all but the final two chapters. The young man of the group of Neanderthals, Lok is the father of the "new one" with Nil. Even considering the lower intelligence of the Neanderthals, Lok is the least intelligent of all of them. He is often confused by the new things that he says, and does not understand the implications of what the humans are doing until it is far too late to do anything. Even so, he does manage a mental breakthrough in comprehending the concept that something can be "like" something else. Despite this deficiency, by the traditions of his people, Lok is selected as the new leader after Mal's death. By the end of the novel, it appears that he has achieved a full understanding of the depth of the tragedy that befell him and the other Neanderthals.
 * Fa is the young woman of the group. Much more intelligent than Lok, she often expresses frustration at his incomprehension. It is implied that she is infertile, as the new one was born to Nil rather than Fa. She is the last to die.
 * Liku is a rambunctious young girl born to Nil and beloved by Lok. She is captured by the humans and initially befriends a young girl, but is killed and eaten out of fear.
 * Mal is the old man and leader at the beginning of the novel. Very old, Mal is physically frail and barely makes the journey to the group's summer home. Despite this, he is a storehouse of memories and knowledge, and the Neanderthals are much grieved by his passing
 * The old woman, never named, holds a mysterious place in the Neanderthal society depicted. While not holding the leadership and authority of Mal, the old woman commands a certain fear and respect from the other Neanderthals, due to the closeness she is believed to have to Oa, the mother goddess of the Neanderthals. Even Lok is fearful and distant from her, even though he is her son.
 * Ha is a middle aged man, and the first to be killed by the humans.
 * Nil the mother of Liku and the new one, Nil is the second to be killed.
 * The new one is an infant born to Lok and Nil. The infant is taken by the humans and survives the novel. The possibility of hybridization with humanity is left open.

Humans

 * Marlan is the aged tyrannical leader and shaman of the humans. He fears and despises the Neanderthals, believing them to be evil spirits.
 * Vivani is Marlan's woman, noted for her obesity and showered with luxuries by Marlan. She adopts the Neanderthal baby.
 * Tuami is the viewpoint character of the final chapter. A shaman, he despises Marlan and plans to kill him, hoping to make Vivani his own. Inspired by the care Vivani shows the Neanderthal baby, he carves a design into the handle of a knife, the duality of the killing tool and the artwork inspired by peaceful coexistence being emblematic of the themes of the novel.
 * Tanakil is a young girl who plays with the captive Liku, but is reprimanded by her mother.
 * Chestnut, Bush, Tuft, Pine-tree are men of the group, so nicknamed by Lok for the appearance of their hair. Pine-tree's finger is severed by Tuami in a magic ritual meant to bring them good hunting. This is a reference to the missing fingers found in cave painting hand prints.