I think that, while the boys experience immense bad luck due tothe author, the story still proves its point.
It is still possiblethough, that the bad luck of the boys could have been experiencedin real life. I think that without this bad luck, the point of thestory wouldn’t be as great, because without the restraint’sGolding placed on the boys, life on the island would have been tooeasy for the boys. The major constraint that Golding puts on the boys is thepersonality clash between Jack and Ralph. From the beginning, whenRalph is elected leader, Jack hates Ralph, and towards the end ofthe book, the feeling becomes mutual. Without Jack and Ralph’sproblems, life would have been easy, and the `darkness of man’sheart’ would not have been conveyed to the reader. Jack shows `thedarkness’ and if he and Ralph had just been friends, there wouldnever have been an opportunity for Jack to show this darknesswhich lurked beneath the surface.
Golding also uses the dead pilot conveniently against the boys -the way in which he is caught in the trees just in the rightposition to be caught by the wind and look like the beast and theway the wind picks up after Simon has let him down from the treesand carries him out to sea, so that the other boys cannot see thatit wasn’t a beast. The author uses the boy’s fear against them,and although this could possibly happen in the situation, Goldinguses it as a weapon against them, their morale and theircompanionship. I think that the boys split up and go to Jackbecause of the fear – he can kill the beast, he can get them meat,and if they ever get upset, he can start a dance and all will befine. The whole message of the story is about the `darkness of man’sheart’, which exists in everyone.
To emphasise this side of humannature, the author had to make a situation where it was possibleto display these characteristics. It would have been impossiblefor Golding to get his point across without these constraints, andeven if it is thought that the story comes out too neatly, I thinkthat the story was written to make a point, and Golding hasachieved that.
