Lord of the Flies Reflection

The ending of Lord of the Flies is rather melancholy because first Piggy is killed then Jack and all the other boys end up hunting Ralph down with the intent to kill him. Yes they do get rescue and yes Ralph doesn't end up getting killed by Jack's tribe but the adults who rescued them don't have a clue what when on and how the boys reacted to it. The way you can tell this is because when the Navel Officer finds them he asks them if they were playing war and ask how many were dead, kidding. But of course the reader and the boys know that the war wasn't fake and that they killed two other boys not to mention the third dead which they fail to mention which is the boy with the birthmark on his face. Also in the beginning of the end of the book when Ralph and Piggy go to try and retrieve Piggy's glasses from Jack the author no longer refers to the boys of Jack's tribe by name instead they are all called savages. Which shows that the transition from boys to savages is complete and also that they are one collective beast instead of individual humans. At the very end of the book when the Navel Officer shows up the reader ends up seeing, for the first time, the boys through an adult's eyes. It is at that point that you remember that these boys are only 6 to 12 years old and they are killing each other and killing things in savage ways. The way the Navel Officer describes Jack is also really interesting because he asks who's in charge "A little boy, who wore the remains of an extraordinary black cap on his red hair and who carried the remains of a pair of spectacles at his waist, started forward then changed his mind and stood still." (Golding 207). This is a very interesting quote because throughout the whole book I at least viewed Jack as this intimidating guy who kills things for the fun of it but in fact he is a scared little boy with mud on his face and pointed stick. Also when the Officer learns that there are no adults he says "Fun and games," (Golding 206)  even though the boys savagely killed two boys, almost killed another and set a whole island on fire in the process. Yes it definitely sounds like fun. Also in what sick game would have that outcome...tag?! "However makes it to the tree last gets savagely beaten and thrown over a cliff into the sea! Now who wants to play this fun, completely normal game?". Then to add insult to injury when the boys start to cry because they have practically went to hell and back the officer turns away to let them pull themselves. These reasons are mostly likely why Ralph refers to the officer's heart as dark (Golding 208) because instead of the kids who were killing each other being the savages, the officer is because he is withholding comfort and understanding from those who needed it most. Overall the ending to Lord of the Flies was good, disturbing but definitely good.