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Fiction

Notes The final chapter emphasizes the self-destructive quality of the boys’ actions. Throughout the
novel, Golding has indicated that the boys are destructive not only to their enemies, but to
themselves, a theme that culminates dramatically in this chapter. Images of decay permeate
the final scenes, particularly in the Lord of the Flies, which decayed until it became only a
hollow skull. Significantly, Ralph dismantles the Lord of the Flies by pushing the pig’s skull
off of the stick it was impaled on, an act that mirrors and completes Roger’s destruction of the
conch in the previous chapter. The destruction of both objects signals to the reader that the
boys have been plunged into a brutal civil war. Ralph takes apart the Lord of the Flies-a totem
for Jack’s tribe-to use the stick it is impaled on as a spear with which to attack Jack. Ralph’s
action thus indicates that he has accepted Jack’s savage terms of war, a conflict he had previously
approached with reason and nonviolence, but it is too late for that. Ralph’s decision to attack
Jack or at least to defend himself with a weapon indicates that he too has devolved into
savagery. All vestiges of democratic civilization on the island are gone, and it is unclear if
Jack’s monarchy retains any civilization at all.
Another ominous image in this chapter is Roger’s spear. As Samneric inform Ralph, Roger has
sharpened a spear at both ends, a tool that symbolizes the danger the boys have created for
themselves. The spear simultaneously points at the one who wields it and the one at whom
it is directed; it is capable of harming both equally. The significance of the double-edged spear
is demonstrated in the boys’ hunt for Ralph. That is, in order to find Ralph, the boys start a
fire that might overwhelm them and destroy the fruit that is essential for their survival.
Golding thus alerts the reader to the counterproductive consequences of vengeance: in the
world of the novel, the ultimate price of harming another is harming oneself.

Despite the seemingly hopeless situation on the island, however, the boys are finally rescued
by a naval officer whose ship noticed the fire on the island. This ending is not only unexpected
but deeply ironic. It was not the signal fire that attracted the navy cruiser. Instead it was the
forest fire that Jack’s tribe set in an extreme gesture of irresponsibility and self-destruction.
Ironically and even tragically, it is Jack and not Ralph who is ultimately responsible for the
boys’ rescue. The implications are grim: it was not careful planning and foresight that brought
the boys to safety, but a coincidence. The consequences of savagery, not civilization, are what
saved the children. With this abrupt narrative gesture, Golding overturns the logic he had
established throughout the novel. Of course, poetic justice is not required, but the issue is
vexing. Perhaps, he suggests, savagery and civilization are less unlike than we believe. By
casting Jack as the boys’ unintentional savior, Golding ends the novel before the action can
properly climax. The reader is denied a chance to see a final battle between Ralph and Jack,
although we can easily imagine that Ralph is doomed. Since the dehumanization is complete,
there is almost nothing more to be said.
The sudden appearance of the naval officer at the beach mitigates the effects of the boys’
aggression. The officer is a deus ex machina (an unexpected figure who shows up almost out
of nowhere and who appears only to wrap up the plot and bring it to a speedy conclusion).
His arrival on the island frees Golding from having to explore the final implications of the
hunters’ suicidal attack on Ralph and Ralph’s own descent into violent brutality.
In another unlikely gesture, the naval officer repeats to the boys the lessons that, throughout
the novel, Ralph and Piggy had attempted to impart to the other boys. He emphasizes the
importance of order just as Ralph and Piggy had, thus retroactively calling attention to the
maturity and sensibility of Ralph’s advice to the other boys. Nevertheless, the naval officer
cannot comprehend the full reach of the boys’ experience on the island. He interprets the
hunting and painted faces as a childish game, unaware that their dress carries more than
symbolic meaning. The boys have not been playing as savages; they have become them. The
officer’s mention of the nineteenth-century adventure novel The Coral Island underscores his

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