The paper focuses on William Golding’s "Rites of Passage" and its possible allusions to a number of texts by Joseph Conrad. Although Golding was rather reluctant to acknowledge any influence of Conrad on his own work, it would seem that certain themes, motifs and descriptions do echo the words of the Polish-English writer. Apart from the much commented-upon links of Golding’s 1980 novel with "Heart of Darkness", I will also attempt to demonstrate other striking affinities, among them: the idea of the ship as a metaphor of society or the world; the dangers of alienation, day-dreaming and self-delusion; the penetrating sense of the strangeness of life and its hollowness; the inadequacies of human mind; the dream-like quality of experience; and the insignificance of man in the face of the dark forces of nature.