In the novel Lord of the flies, William Golding employs numerous techniques to convey his ideas. These techniques include; irony, character representation and symbolism. There are countless other techniques as well which emphasise and develops Golding ideas. Together, these techniques aid the allegorical nature of the novel.
A powerful technique that Golding employs to convey his ideas is that of irony. The greatest irony is the regression of the orderly choir boys to a pack of savages. At the beginning of the novel Golding describes them as “a party of boys marching approximately in two parallel lines…but each boy wore a square black cap with a silver badge on it… their bodies, from throat to ankle, were hidden by black cloaks which bore a along silver cross.” This quote even demonstrates how the boys had a strong connection with religion, which is diametrically opposed to what they eventually transformed into. The technique of using irony is very powerful as it Golding shows to his readers, that this inherent evil can even manifest through those who are civilised i.e. the Choir have a certain degree of formality. One of the mist striking and dramatic ironies arrives close to the conclusion, where the naval officer says, “Fun and games,” to the boys. This remark is clearly ironic as the reader knows that the situation up to this event has been far from fun and games; it has been an exhibition of humans in their most primitive form, killing one another and acting in brutal ways. This dramatic ending is very powerful as it forces readers to contemplate whether the actions on this island are much different from what the naval officer and many others do as a vocation; killing.
