Lord of the Flies and I Only Came to Use the Phone

In Lord of the Flies and “I Only Came to Use the Phone”, the setting and actions of the characters work together. Both are used to show the many cases of irony in the stories. The irony in both stories reveals the true and basic nature in all humans.

First, the authors show readers irony through the customs that the isolated characters bring with them from their previous homes. Ideally, the setting that Maria and all the boys come from represents civilization and order. It is seen that in the beginning, the character’s actions still reflect their old home. This is ironic because in a few cases, these actions are far from civilized, they actually represent they inherent wrongness in all humans. In Lord of the Flies, the boys immediately create a hierarchy. The older boys are right away more important than the younger boys. They bully Piggy and look down on him because of his size. Prejudice occurs right away, not because that is what the island made them do, but because that is what goes on in society. Maria also brings her customs and ways of living with her to the asylum in “I Only Came to Use the Phone”. Maria’s life style is very inconsistent. She makes love to many different men and then leaves them like they are nothing. In a civilized and ideal world, women her age should have a husband and a nice respectful family. However we see in the story that “She had deserted three men… in the last five years.” (Marquez 78). Maria makes love with her doctor the first time she sees him even though she has a husband and a clear objective to get into contact with him. Evidently, in both situations this irony is used to show the wrong nature of humans in any setting, whether it is an isolated or regular society.

Also, the true and ba...

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... matron’s obscene offers. Maria realizes though that she must go with the matron because it is the only way she can talk to her husband. The story says “Maria realized there was nothing in the world she would not do to escape that hell.” (Marquez 86). She has to reduce her self to the least to gain anything. These ironic situations are both clearly used to show the basic nature of humans to do anything to survive, even if it means destroying themselves.

In conclusion, the irony in both Lord of the Flies and “I Only came to Use the Phone” is used to show readers that basic and true nature of all humans. The irony proves that the basic instincts and actions of humans can be present in any setting or environment.

Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962. Print.

Strange pilgrims: twelve stories. New York: Knopf, 1993. Print.