Just like the Coral Island

This image is from Rose and she felt that a strong idea in the novel The Lord of the Flies, is irony. The author, William Golding, uses this irony to help us see the dramatic change that occurs in the boys, from the beginning of the novel to the end. We watch the way they go from innocent little school boys, into savages.

Rose chose as her background picture an original cover picture from The Coral Island with the little boy grinning happily, to show the dramatic contrast between The Lord of the Flies and The Coral Island. Whereas in The Coral Island all the boys behaved nicely and are well behaved, the boys in The Lord of the Flies are anything but. William Golding plays on this irony when at the end of the novel, when the boys are about to murder Ralph, a Navel Officer appears to rescue them. The boys are dumb-founded, and when the Officer inquires whether any have died or been killed and Ralph begins to unveil a little of the many horrors of the Island, the Officer makes an odd comparison saying “Jolly good show. Like the Coral Island”. The shocking contrast and dramatic irony is brought to light. The reader knows that the savagery, murders and events that have taken place on this Island are nothing like the events of the Coral Island.

Rose chose to put her quote about the Coral Island in a formal sort of text, as the Navel Officer is a formal, uniform sort of a man, and he is the one who says “…just like the Coral Island.” The formal font, even, tidy and published-looking is also used to show the dramatic contrast between the anarchy of the island and the ‘law and order’ of the civilised society.

Another reason for the formal font and for the words “Coral Island” being bigger is that Rose wanted to give the appearance of a book cover, linking the quote in with her background image of The Coral Island book cover, as if her static image and The Lord of the Flies are a take off of The Coral Island book.

The fire, smouldering along the bottom of the image is to incorporate the idea of savagery, and the way the fire, hunting and primeval instincts grew to take over the boys’ sense of moral and conscience. The blood and large bruise on the little boy is there to show the sinister, murderous side that is exposed in man kind, this links in with the quote ‘we’ll have fun…’ because the murder of Simon and near murder of Ralph is anything but fun.

The little boat in the background of the image represents rescue. The idea of rescue is something of an eventual reality to the boys (at the beginning of the novel), but as savagery takes over their fears of the beast and the way they lose a grip on reality leads them to almost forget about the concept of rescue. The boat image also relates to the quote ‘we’ll have fun, get rescued…’ because this shows the innocence of the boys as they are naïve to what events will unfold and to the prospect that they may not be rescued. Rose chose to put this quote in a font that looks like handwriting, to give it a scruffy schoolboy look, that isn’t even or particularly attractive, but is simple and innocent, just like the quote itself.