Satire in Lord of the Flies

William Golding’s use of satire in Lord of the Flies

Since Golding’s purpose in writing his novel “Lord Of The Flies” is to, ‘trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature’, his aim is really to comment upon the civilized world. Golding’s boys are merely the metaphor by means of which he makes his comments upon the real world. His metaphor is itself satirical since it makes fun of adults. Briefly put, Lord of the Flies says that civilized man, in his civilized society is no better than a pack of children running wild without adult supervision. This comparison seems absurd at first, so there is humour in it, but Golding does a pretty good job of making his argument stick. The naval officer at the end of the story is too close to the reality of the war like world we all like to ignore. He looks and talks like a gentleman polished and sophisticated, but in the line of his duty, he will find the enemy and give the order to commence firing, killing indiscriminately whatever men his shells explode upon. Thus despite appearances to the contrary, the officer is really a killer and so by a strange twist when Golding show us that the hated Jack is really the Chief; and that Jack and not Ralph symbolises the leadership of the civilised world. This is a satirical comparison because it mocks at the adults of the world. None of them would be likely to admit that they are like Jack. They would certainly identify with Ralph who is not a leader, as leaders are in the world, but rather as we want to believe how leader should be. And there is a world of difference between what is (reality) and what should be (our dreams, ideals)

A great many instances of satire occur in the novel. Some are only funny in a bitter way. They employ what has come to be known as, ‘black humour’, a kind of humour that is only funny because it reveals a terrible truth we do not like to face. Consider Roger’s narrow escape in Chapter 4 as the heavy coconuts rained down all around him. Roger should be very glad – he was lucky enough not to have had his head broken, but this thought never occurs to him, instead he thinks that he might try throwing stones at Henry so as to just miss hitting him, the way coconuts had just missed hitting Roger’s head. Here the satire is obvious. Roger has had instructions offered to him on the subject of chance, luck and good fortune, but he misses the point completely. This incident suggests that man typically turns the potential lessons of nature into channels of destruction instead of learning to preserve and cherish.

Satire of a more obviously humorous thought appears when Ralph and Piggy talk with Samneric about the ‘dance’ at which Simon was killed. None of the boys admits having been there even though they are all scared and shaken by the terrible experience. This incident contains humour – or it builds upon the game of pretending, of trying to hide what is apparent. It is satirical because the author makes us see how obvious their lies are. The author is making fun of his characters as a means of suggesting a remedy – that it would be far better for the boys to undertake an honest facing of facts and shouldering their own responsibility and hear of Simon’s death. That way they might hope to forestall future calamities

A major part of the satire in Lord of the Flies is aimed at very large targets. Golding is not much interested in the smaller human traits; rather he aims for the social animal, man being his chief target. By showing the boys as essentially mindless ‘followers’ of whoever is leading them, the author satirises the civilized voters of democracies and the citizens of vote less dictatorships as being ‘followers’ to who, sheep-like accept whatever they are told. They have no more conviction than Samneric who takes the easiest way out of each situation. The corrective of the fault of the fault is clearly implied. The masses should not be masses. Everyone should do his own thinking. Good leaders should be given active and thoughtful help with their programs. Bad leaders should be instantly stripped of power. Above all, every man should refuse to do anything which he knows to be wrong