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The Ironic Savages
As human beings, we are all faced with the inner conflicts of good and bad. We each must choose our own path. No matter which road we take in life, we always face new decisions and new conflicts. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, we learn about characters who choose different paths: some good, some evil. Golding shows us situational and dramatic ironies that represent the inner conflicts that people have. By creating contrast through irony Golding shows the external conflicts of the characters in a way that allows the reader to compare them to the internal conflicts we all face.
Throughout the book, different characters experience ironic situations that not only keep the reader interested, but that uniquely demonstrate conflict. One example of situational irony Golding presents is that Jack says the boys are English and therefore they need to be orderly. Jack states, “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are the best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things” (42). Jack begins his stay on the island recognizing the need for rules and order. He states that he and the others are not savages. Later, however, it is Jack who is the very one who is anything but orderly. This example shows Jack’s conflict within himself. He arrives wanting to do the right thing. He arrives wanting order. Somewhere in the island experience Jack’s desire to survive, to rule, to take care of himself and the other capable boys on the island has him choose a path of an evil, selfish savage. Jack agrees with Ralph at first saying that they should stay civilized and do things with order. Ironically, after Jack claims that English are the best and the boys are not savages, he then becomes the boy who leads the English boys into savage behavior. Even worse, Jack leads the English turned savage boys to murder. Golding clearly shows Jack’s original desire to do the right thing, but after his own internal conflict, he ironically chooses not just an evil path but to lead others on that evil path as well. During Lord of the Flies, multiple characters go through ironic situations that uniquely demonstrate their inner conflicts such as this.
Similarly to the way Golding uses dramatic irony to express conflict he also uses it to create fear. The fear then leads to conflict. An example of this is Ralph asks for a sign from adults. That very night a dead parachute man lands on the island causing the twins to believe they have seen the beast. This is an example of Golding using dramatic irony because only the reader knows the beast the twins saw is actually a dead soldier, the parachute man. What Ralph asks for is a calming sign from adults, but what arrives on the island causes chaos. This is the complete opposite of what Ralph wants and expects from adults. He wants order. “If only they could get a message to us,” cried Ralph desperately. “If only they could send us something grown up…a sign or something” (94). Ralph asks for a message from the adult world. A dead pilot then falls onto the island from a real war. This causes more war inside the island by partially or completely convincing most of the boys there is a beast. Ralph seems to ask himself if this is all the adults could send. Ironically, of course, this is not a message adults sent, it is a tragic reality of war.  As readers, we realize there is a dead soldier on the island whose presence creates panic. That panic helps start a different kind of war among the boys.
Golding also connects the irony and inner conflicts to the fear the boys experience. The fear and panic are heightened because of the appearance of the beast from the air which causes different reactions among the boys. It brings out the savage in many of them. Some of them try to determine a way to address the panic, fear, and conflict with reason. Piggy and Simon each find their own way of trying to explain that the fear of the beast is really the fear of what may be inside of them and the others around them. Golding shows us more irony here because the inner beast in most of the boys takes over and becomes the real beast on the island. It seems to Piggy and Simon that they are each disagreeing with the other about the beast they should fear. As readers we know that what they are saying is the same, they are both describing the fear they should have. Piggy states, “I know there isn’t no beast – not with claws and all that, I mean – but I know there isn’t no fear, either. Unless we get frightened of people” (84).  Piggy is saying there is no beast on the island but that fear exists and perhaps it is fear of others. Simon says, “Maybe, maybe there is a beast. … What I mean is … maybe it’s only us” (89). In this scene Piggy and Simon start to figure out what the real beast is and they try to tell everyone, but most do not listen. Golding’s irony here is the boys who listen to Piggy and Simon stay humane, and the boys who don’t listen are responsible for Piggy and Simon’s deaths. It is ironic that both Piggy and Simon come up with what may seem like conflicting statements but they both somehow recognize what they are truly afraid of is the beast inside.
            Simon and Piggy did not know their fear would be realized. It is the inner beast in some of the boys that later kills both Piggy and Simon. Simon’s death is another example of Golding using irony by creating conflict. Simon is alone on the mountain when he realized the beast from the air is actually just a dead parachutist. Simon rushes to let the other boys know the truth about the beast, so they will not be afraid and to end the conflict. When Simon makes his way to the group of boys, they proclaim him the beast and chant, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!” (152). The boys are a tribe of savages killing a beast. The reader understands the boys are killing Simon, the person trying to tell them there is no beast. The boys have acted out of fear and killed the person who could have comforted their fear.
            Golding shows additional situational irony when Jack leads the boys to more savage behavior. They start a fire to catch and kill Ralph, the very person who always wanted to have a fire with smoke so the boys could be rescued. Ralph had stated earlier, “The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? (80). Ralph understands that smoke from a fire is their way to being rescued. That is what happens the fire creates a lot of smoke that a military ship sees and then rescues the boys. This is exactly what Ralph has always wanted.  Also, the ship will rescue the boys from the island but the situational irony Goldings uses here is the ship that rescues the boys is a military ship going to war. The reader does not know if the boys will ever get home. The reader does know the boys are leaving the chaos of the island to enter into the chaos of adult war.
Even at the end of the book Golding is still using irony as a tool to make the reader consider his own inner conflicts. This forces readers to think about war. The boys think they are saved and safe as they get on a warship. The narrator states, “In the stern-sheets another rating held a sub-machine gun” (200). This is situational irony because the boys are going from one kind of war to another. Just because adults are on the ship, they feel they will be safe, but readers know they are still facing war. The narrator states, “The officer …turned away… allowing his eyes to rest on the trim cruiser in the distance” (202). The boys are going from a boyhood war with real murder to an adult war with massive killing. They feel safe because they will have the order of a civilized adult run existence, but they will still have an enemy trying to kill them. They had order, and most of them rejected order and became savages. Now they will have adult order, but they will be in the middle of another war, an adult war.
            Golding shows us specific ironies that stand for the inner conflicts that happen in all human lives. He uses situational irony and dramatic irony to highlight those conflicts, and he often uses fear to show how the boys address that inner conflict outwardly. By creating various conflicts, internal and external, Golding keeps the reader interested and focused. Golding even makes the reader concerned for those characters who remain civilized because we as readers all want to believe we would remain civilized. This is how he has the reader explore their own inner fears and conflicts and compare them to the conflicts that happen to the characters in the book.


Works Cited
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Penguin, 1954


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