The Lord Of The Flies

Unseen Connections

John Brown

English 7

October 8, 2004

The novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is not only an allegory, but contains many ironic situations that cannot always be seen, but contradict or reveal the appealing situations of the characters. It seems all too common to find one or two ironic parts in a book, but Golding uses irony to a vast extent which keeps the minds of the readers constantly thinking and connecting related themes or topics. While some of the ironic situations that Golding uses are essential to the main idea of the story, others are merely present for an additional and remote search. Lord of the Flies shows certain ironic conditions including the fire, the two man-hunts, and the island's shape that illustrate or oppose what its characters want for the outcome of their epic adventure.

Ralph the protagonist of the novel took the role of the initial leader. While in charge, he declared that the first objective to be completed was to build a signal for rescue. His best idea was to create a signal fire, which in turn allowed passing ships to come and explore the island for castaways. "There's another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire." (Golding 38) After Ralph and the other boys built the first fire on the top of the island's main mountain, Jack, the novel's antagonist, volunteers himself and his chorus group to be in charge of maintaining the fire. "Ralph, I'll split up the choir-my hunters, that is-into groups, and we'll be responsible for keeping the fire going." (Golding 44) Ralph is excited to see that the rest of the boys want to continue with the rescue plan. Through the course of the story Jack takes power and forces many of the boys to follow him, but they do not continue to maintain the fire. Ralph is left alone by himself and constantly has to escape from Jack's group of followers who try to hunt him as if he was a pig. When Jack has Ralph cornered in the jungle, he sets it ablaze to try to smoke him out, or better yet, kill him. Ralph escapes to the beach, but is trailed by Jack's hunters. It looks as though it is over for Ralph, but then a captain of a naval ship is standing in front of them and rescues all of the remaining boys. Ralph always wanted a fire lit for their rescue, but the boys failed in doing so. Jack lit the entire island on fire with only the intention of killing Ralph, but in turn the fire caught the attention of a ship which rescued the boys.

One of the main plots of the story was a "war" between Ralph and his followers versus Jack and his followers. It seemed in every chapter that Ralph and Jack were arguing with each other or actual violence was taking part between the boys. Constant conflict about little issues strained the bitter relationship of Jack and Ralph. Ralph: "you're no good on a job like this." Jack "All the same-We don't want you, threes enough." (Golding 22) Their arguments became hostile to the point where Jack wanted Ralph gone completely. "Jack made a rush and stabbed at Ralph's chest with