What Is The Irony In Lord Of The Flies

In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Golding provides an insight to the ironic nature of the Naval Officer “saving” the boys. In the beginning of the novel, Ralph idolizes his father with child like naiveté to the point where he does not understand the situation he is in. In the beginning of the novel while Piggy and Ralph discuss each other’s lives, Ralph makes a remark about their rescue, “I could swim when I was five. Daddy taught me. He’s a commander in the Navy. When he gets leave he’ll come and rescue us”(Golding 13). Ralph’s perception on the situation as the novel starts out is irrational as he does not understand the full situation in which they are in and that his father cannot know where he is. As the end of the novel approaches, Ralph gains an assimilation of the world around him and a rational understanding of humanity and civilization. …show more content…
While Ralph’s main focus was rescue from his father back to a civilized world, the Naval Officer functions as an ironic character as he is taking part in a war. In chapter 12, the boys encounter the Naval Officer who “saves” the boys, “He turned away to give them time to pull themselves together; and waited, allowing his eyes to rest on the trim cruiser in the distance”(202). The transition in tone from the first chapter to the last is contrasting as the Naval Officer ignores the boy’s crying and stares at a warship in the distance. The quote illustrates how while the Naval Officer can be seen as Ralph’s great hero, it is not the case as the passage paints a message of the surrounding world engaged in a bloody, barbaric war which Ralph truly begins to understand in this last scene of the