![]() ![]() The reader has just endured a novel so deep and cataclysmic that Golding says ![]() He says "Could have put up a better show than that?" and not much else, which is perhaps an indication that things and people aren't always what they seem, once again subverting the misconception that men are naturally good. The next irony comes in when we find out that despite these qualities, he would rather sulk about the boys' failure to operate sportingly, than show concern or sympathy about two murdered children. The naval officer has god-like qualities such as a 'crown' and an ability to tell 'when people were telling the truth'. "man produces evil as a bee produces honey" (William Golding, The Hot Gates, 1965) Now they're dead, and the officer from the adult world is as flawed as than the savages who killed them. 'Goodies' like Simon and Piggy pined for civilization, their last hope. His arrogance echoes that of the boys, whose abominable underestimation of evil took a novel to explain. The naval officer represents man's woefully-misguided denial of evil. Social order in civilization is kept by the threat of violence, and it may be that we have to adapt to our primitive roots in order to survive. The irony in these comparisons serve to remind the reader just how thin the veneer of civilization really is: the major theme of the book. This angel of civilization is, in fact, a warlike killer himself. Furthermore, it then becomes clear that he is a serving naval officer. In spite of his supposed intelligence and culture, he is unable to tell that the children are not playing, but engaged in brutal savagery. ![]() There is then further irony in the "civilized" nature of the officer who comes to rescue them. And it is a fire set as a result of the boys' descent into barbarism that brings civilization back to the island. So: a fire which is supposed to doom Ralph actually brings him salvation. However it is not this fire which attracts attention but the raging forest fire set to kill Ralph. First, Ralph had created a signal fire in order to bring rescuers. ![]()
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