When analyzing the last chapter Golding uses very descriptive language in the build up to the boys rescue. Ralph has now become an outcast because ‘he had some sense’ (p206). He is very isolated now that Piggy and Simon are dead and Sam’n’Eric have changed alliance. Ralph’s vulnerability, fear and pain are all described graphically. The atmosphere is tense and heightens to gradual climax. Golding uses a lot of irony in this chapter; For example, Ralph’s hiding place was a dent in the ground made by the boulder that killed Piggy. Another example of this use of irony is when the hunters used Piggy’s glasses to set the island on fire- to kill Ralph- an act, which in turn enabled the boys to be rescued. Originally the use of the fire was for a rescue, which did not materialize. Golding uses suspense well to build up to the boys rescue. He changes his presentation in the last chapter by writing in both third and first person (Ralph’s point of view), and past and present tense in keeping with an air of intense suspense. Golding describes Ralph as an animal, trying to get away from its predator, Jack, as he was doing what most prey would. He was very quick thinking, and did not realize that they wanted to kill him because if he had then he would have panicked and most likely got caught.
At the beginning of the novel Golding presents the boys as optimistic and naïve, believing adults could fix everything, however by the end of the novel the boys understand more about the world. Ralph shows this when he ‘wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of mans heart and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy’ (p225). The boys have made a world like the adults, killing pigs, creating wars, making a democracy and the dictatorship, yet the boys are ashamed for it when it is acceptable for adults. Golding uses language of the times when the naval officer says that the British boys should have ‘put up a better show’ (p224), and implies that they shouldn’t have ended up like savages. He also says ‘jolly good show. Like Coral Island’ (p224) which indicates that he thought everything would be fine, fun and games because the boys were ’British’ yet he had come to rescue them and take them back home in a destroyer battleship to an even bigger more dangerous war where the adults are in charge.
Goldings use of allegory is evident at the end when even though the boys had ample fruit to eat well and had no need to eat meat. Jack still wanted to kill and eat the pig. Just as in The Garden of Eden even though Adam and Eve had everything they ever needed they still wanted the forbidden fruit and ate it. He shows that the first ever sin made –the forbidden fruit-displays that everyone is capable of sinning, evil behaviour is innate within everyone and evil can be tempting to all.
There is a lot of use of symbolism and themes in this novel;
Rescue: The boys all wanted to be rescued off of the island and it was a part of them when stranded there.
Food: The boys were all obsessed with what they were going to eat and hunting pigs.
Survival: They all had to try to work together to survive, build the huts have meetings etc.
Leadership: There was a rivalry between Jack and Ralph for the leadership.
The Beast: Was innate evil being externalized into something real.
Conch: The fine line between a democracy and a dictatorship.
Piggy’s glasses: The ultimatum between rescue and death.
Hunting: The want to kill, have meat and let out anger.
This use of symbolism and themes makes the last chapter more interesting to read as we already know about their relevance to the story and we want to see how they might make a difference in the end.
The final chapter clearly displays William Golding’s message of evil being innate. This chapter is so effective because it is intense and the presentation changes to make it more interesting and gripping to read. This is a significant chapter because this is when the characters find out how evil is within them, and when they lose their childish innocence. In the middle of the book Golding uses the description of the hunters as ‘savages’, but when the adult appears at the end of the novel he calls them all little ‘boys’. This is clearly noticeable when an adult is placed in the picture with them, showing that children aren’t thought of as old enough to deal with the trauma of 3 people dying, survival, and how they were lucky to have survived for this long. At the end Ralph realizes that he knows too much about the world and what is happening around him he realizes that it is not the perfect world that he thought it was when he first landed on the island.
