Lord of the Flies Book Notes

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

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Author/Context

William Golding (1911-1993)

Golding was born in St. Columb Minor in Cornall, England on September 19, 1911, to Alec A. and Mildred Golding. After being educated at Marlborough Grammar School where his father was a teacher, he studied the sciences for two years at Brasenose College, Oxford until abandoning science in favor of English language and literature, particularly that of the Anglo-Saxon period. After graduating Oxford in 1935 he worked in a London settlement house and devoted his spare time to writing and acting in "very, very far-off-Broadway theater." In 1939 he began teaching philosophy and English at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury. At the onset of World War II he joined the Royal Navy at the age of 29 and was involved in several major conflicts including the sinking of the German battleship Bismark and, during the invasion of France in 1944, commanded a rocket-launching craft. At the close of the war he resumed teaching in Salisbury until 1961.

In the post-war period following his return to civilian life, the focus of his writing turned to mimic the current popular style . However, after three such books were rejected for publication, he decided simply to write for himself, for pleasure, rather than with an intent to please the public. Thus in 1954, surprisingly, the release of Lord of the Flies was met with great success in Britain. However, his true rise to popularity came in 1959 when the first editions were published in the United States. Quickly becoming a campus favorite, rivaling even J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies soon earned Golding enough money to retire from teaching in 1961 to write full-time. Other writings include The Inheritors (1955), Pincher Martin (1956), Free Fall (1959), The Spire (1964), The Pyramid (1967), Darkness Visible (1979), a trilogy consisting of Rites of Passage (1980), The Paper Men (1984), Close Quarters (1987), and Fire Down Below (1989), as well as several plays and various essays.

However, with the presentation of each novel after Lord of the Flies, his works met with increasing controversy among British and American audiences alike. As he continued with his plan of "writing for himself," each new literary piece generated misunderstanding and evoked greater and greater confusion amongst his readers. Described as an "allegorist," his consistent theme throughout his later, unsuccessful works seemed to be the same as in Lord of the Flies: man's capacity for evil and his ultimate isolation and loneliness. Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1983 and was knighted in 1988. Until his death on June 19, 1993 in Perranarworthal, Cornwall, he resided in Wiltshire, England with his wife who bore him two children. His interests included: sailing, archaeology, playing the piano, cello and oboe. In naming his mentors for writing, he shouts "thunderous great names like Euripides, Sophocles, and perhaps even Herodotus" because "his favorite reading is still Greek literature and history, in the original [language]." Indeed, his philosophy of human existence is one much closer rooted to the ancient Greeks than to any contemporary view. Until his death, it would seem, he continued this idea of "writing for himself"--the purpose for writing, Golding once said, is to help people "to understand their humanity."

Bibliography

Contemporary Authors, "Golding, William." Vol 5-8 (condensed), 1969 edition, pp. 449-451.

Donoghue, Denis. "Golding, William Gerald," in Colier's Encyclopedia, 1992 edition, pg. 202.

Encyclopedia Britannica. "Golding, Sir William." Vol 5, 1998 edition, pg. 344.

Galloway, David. "Golding, William Gerald," in Encyclopedia Americana, 1997 edition, pg. 34.

Plot Summary

Set during World War II, the story describes the plight of a group of British schoolboys stranded on a Pacific island after their plane was shot down en route to England. Two of the boys, Ralph and Piggy, discover a conch in the lagoon near the beach and use it to call all the other survivors, setting up a mock democratic government with Ralph as leader. Piggy continues to advise and give logic and reason to Ralph's rule. A signal fire, kindled with the lens of Piggy's glasses, is established on the mountain to call passing ships to their rescue while shelters are constructed.

However, the school's choir leader, Jack, soon becomes obsessed with hunting the pigs of the island and loses sight of Ralph's democratic vision. Further discord results with an increasing fear of a supposed "beast" on the island, stemming particularly from the younger boys dubbed the "littluns." Jack eventually abandons any thought of being rescued, content instead with hunting and killing pigs with his choir boys turned into hunters. Jack later speaks out of turn during their assembly meetings and eventually leaves the group to start a "tribe." Other children gradually defect to his side except for Ralph, Piggy, Simon and the twins Samneric (Sam and Eric). One by one these children are eliminated from the opposition.

Upon discovering the beast the boys had all feared on the mountain is only the rotting corpse of a pilot whose plane had been shot down near the island, Simon runs down from the mountain to share this happy news. However the boys (including Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric) are all, following Jack's example, caught up in a primal ritual celebrating the murder of a pig they have just eaten and Simon runs into the midst of this. Mistaken to be the beast, Simon is killed by the boys' spears.

Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric remain resistant to joining Jack's tribe. They attempt to cling to the democracy they had set up, still using the conch to call an assembly and struggling to keep a signal fire burning on the beach. Then Jack and his hunters attack the four and steal Piggy's glasses to kindle the fire he needs for pig-roasting fires. Angry and blinded, Piggy decides to go to the place on the island called Castle Rock where the hunters have set up a base. Reluctantly, Ralph and Samneric agree and upon arriving Roger stops them at the gate. Jack emerges from the forest and begins to fight with Ralph while Piggy stands nearby shrieking in fear, wanting only for his sight be restored by retrieving his glasses. Samneric are seized at Jack's command by the hunters and Roger, Jack's second-in-command, drops a large boulder on the head of Piggy, killing him and shattering the conch which he holds in his hands. Ralph alone is left to flee, with no friends left to aid him. Samneric have become hunters as well and betray the secret of his hiding place in the forest to Jack. The island is set ablaze and hunters fan out to kill Ralph with their spears, the sole remaining opposition to their tribe, as even now he tries to cling to his old democratic ideas.

Running wildly and suddenly becoming savage himself, Ralph stabs with his spear at the hunters pursuing him, chased by all until he at last comes to the beach. The shelters he had built with such labor are in flames and, falling at last upon the sand with the sea before him and nowhere left to run, Ralph looks up to see a naval officer. Rescue comes at last to the boys' aid, seeing the smoke from the mighty blaze set by Jack's hunters after Ralph's signal fire had earlier failed to alert anyone of their presence. When the officer expresses disapproval for the savage state and chaos to which the boys have reverted, Ralph breaks down in tears. Soon, all the hunters begin crying at the sight of grown-ups on the beach. Ralph weeps for "the end of innocence" and "the darkness of man's heart."

Major Characters

Jack Merridew: Even at the onset, Jack appears to be an ominous figure; the lead singer in the school choir, he holds a certain power over the other choirboys as they walk towards the beach to follow the first sound of the conch. He does allow them to rest despite the heat and fatigue of wearing full black uniform gowns and caps while they walk in two parallel lines toward the conch. Only when Simon faints does he show sympathy. Described as 'tall, thin, and bony...his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was...freckled, and ugly without silliness' (Chapter 1 pg. 19). It is Jack who leads the boys' turn to savagery, or at least gives it a certain order. He is Ralph's chief nemesis; it is he who has brought with him a knife and who gradually becomes obsessed with hunting and killing the pigs on the island. It is these behaviors which later lead to the murders of Simon, Piggy and nearly that of Ralph had grown-ups not come to the boys' rescue at the very last moment.

Piggy: Considered to be the intellectual of the group, he is grossly overweight (leading to the nickname 'Piggy') and he wears coke-bottle glasses, without which he cannot see. He initially discovers the conch sitting at the bottom of the lagoon and suggests that Ralph use it to call everyone. He is always left to babysit the littluns when the boys go off on adventures, told by Ralph that he "isn't good for this sort of thing." Obviously made fun of in school, he often feels left out and isolated early on in the story although increasingly as Jack and Ralph drift apart, Piggy's voice of reason and insight come to fill the gap, and he and Ralph become good friends. Even though he is ridiculed, his glasses are still crucial to the boys' survival: both for keeping the signal fire lit (for Ralph) and for roasting the meat they have hunted (for Jack). As a result, he becomes an object stuck between these two forces. Later, blinded when his glasses are stolen, he is slain when Roger drops a rock on him from above. After landing on the beach below, Piggy's dead body, true to his name, "twitched a bit, like a pig's after it has been killed." (Chapter 11 pg. 165).

Ralph: His body described as 'golden', it is Ralph who establishes a mock-democratic government for the group in order for them to be rescued, and to maintain peace and order. But due to the opposition of Jack, Ralph's chief goals of maintaining a signal fire to alert passing ships of their presence, building the shelters and holding assemblies end up in the dust as nearly all of the boys, over time, join Jack's 'tribe', whose chief focus is to hunt, kill and eat the wild pigs of the island. Ralph is the one boy at the close of the novel who is not a hunter. Having been pursued ruthlessly by Jack and his tribe, Ralph begins weeping on the beach before his grown-up rescuers. The naval officer shows disapproval at the destructive state of things on the island, which Ralph laments that he had done everything he could do to be a good leader.

Roger: He is a sullen figure, one of the original members of Jack's choir. It is he who begins throwing rocks at the littluns as they build sand castles on the beach, watching their reactions intently. Later he drops the boulder at Castle Rock, killing Piggy. Roger accompanies Ralph and Jack when climbing up to the mountain where the beast lives. He rams a stick 'right up [the] ass' of a sow, killing her in a vulgar manner then pretends to be the beast in their hunting ritual the night that Simon is killed. In the tribe, he has become the center of much wickedness, becoming the torturer of Samneric. He is assigned the duty of making 'a stick sharpened at both ends', on which, it is assumed, they'll put Ralph's head.

Sam and Eric (Samneric): These two twins are described as one entity, one brother often finishing the other's sentence. They are frightened off of the mountain when attending to the signal fire, mistaking a dead pilot to be the beast. Later, Ralph has an odd dream that they are fighting one another, wrestling. Having resisted joining Jack's tribe, they are finally seized, tied up and tortured, forced to serve Jack. Samneric betray Ralph's trust and tell Jack where his hiding place is, which the hunters soon run to attack.

Simon: A curious figure and originally a member of the choir, the only one who resists becoming a hunter. The other boys think that he is 'batty'. Simon always comes to the boys' aid whenever someone needs his help, such as when he picks up Piggy's glasses for him, offers meat to Piggy when Jack refuses to give him any, gives the hungry littluns fruit to eat which they could not reach and gives words of comfort to the worried Ralph. Simon is martyr-like in his selflessness. As he goes to notify the others that there is no beast on the mountain, he is killed, as the others mistake him for the beast. Very much a Jesus figure, he is murdered by the very ones he had wanted to help.

Lord of the Flies: This is the name given to the inner beast, to which only Simon ever actually speaks. As Simon's waits for the beast's arrival near the bloody sow's head on the stake (buzzing with flies), The Lord of the Flies speaks to him, warning him not to get in its way or else he shall be killed by the boys. The Lord of the Flies name comes from the sow's head and the countless flies buzzing about it, which soon move from the sow's head to swarm around the head of Simon as the Lord of the Flies tells him, "I'm a part of you." In biblical texts, the Lord of the Flies is the title of Beelzebub (a direct translation of his name), a demon of Hell and cohort of Satan.

Auntie: Though never appearing in person, Piggy refers to her constantly in conversation, especially early on. Auntie is a prominent adult figure in his life and Piggy recalls and clings to things she had told him such as not running on account of his asthma. She kept a candy store and gave Piggy as many sweets as he wanted to eat. However, as the children's link to the world of grown-ups is increasingly severed, her name is mentioned less and less.

Bill: One of the choirboys. Bill is a follower of Jack who later becomes a hunter.

Henry: A littlun who, with Percival and Johnny, is attacked with rocks by Roger and Maurice while they are building sand castles near the beach. He is the oldest of the three littluns.

Johnny: He is the first of the boys to reach the beach on the first day, answering the conch's call. He is a 'littlun' aged about six years, Johnny is subject to torment by Roger and Maurice later on in the book while building sand castles.

Littluns: This is the general term used to describe the smaller boys, who far outnumber the 'biguns'. Though an ever-present element of the boys' society, due to their young ages they are hardly mentioned as taking part in the events of the island. It is for them Ralph shows concern for building the shelters, because at night the littluns 'talk and scream.' Concern for them gradually is forgotten as later, Jack jokingly says instead of hunting a pig, ''Use a littlun,'...' (Chapter 7 pg. 104). When the group has split up, in hearing Piggy's words that 'a few littluns' were left with them, Ralph replies, ''They don't count.'' By the close of the book their existence is hardly acknowledged at all.

Maurice: Similar to the hostile Roger but less cruel, Maurice is very much a follower. Originally a choirboy as well, he takes part with Roger in throwing rocks at the littluns while building their sand castles. He remains loyal to Jack, going with him when the split occurs from Ralph's 'society'. Only at one point does he invoke the name of his parents, when, fearing the beast during the assembly, he recalls that his ''Daddy said they haven't found all the animals in the sea yet.'' (Chapter 5 pg. 79)

Mulberry Birthmark Boy: A littlun, he is the first to invoke the name of the "beast" and spread fear among the boys. After the first signal fire on the mountain is not contained and burns wildly across the island, he is not seen again. Though it is never actually stated, it is assumed that he has died in the fire.

Percival Wemys Madison: This littlun would always give a full introduction of himself: 'Percival Wemys Madison. The Vicarage. Harcourt St. Anthony, Hants, telephone....' complete with address. He is one of the three attacked by rocks thrown by Roger and Maurice when building sand castles. By the end, when finally rescued by the grown-ups all he can say is 'I'm-- I'm--' before realizing he has forgotten his civilized identity.

Phil: A littlun who speaks about fears of the beast at night. It is discovered that he, sleep-walking in the forest, mistook Simon to be the beast, which calms the boys' for a short while.

Ralph's Dad: Ralph speaks of him much in the beginning, mirroring Piggy's talk of 'Auntie.' As his father is a Navy man, Ralph believes his dad will come to the rescue when he 'gets leave' from the service. In the end, Naval officers do finally come to the boys' rescue (though it is not said if Ralph's father is among them).

Robert: He is another choirboy and another follower to Jack. It is he who is set to guard the entrance to Castle Rock when Jack begins to establish his tribe. He is later replaced by Roger when Ralph, Piggy and Samneric come to Castle Rock.

Objects/Places

Assembly: The name given for the democratic meeting sessions held for the group when led by Ralph. It is the opposite of Jack's tribe, which develops later.

Conch: The shell used to call the boys together. When this object is held, it gives the holder the right to speak during assembly; it is later smashed to pieces by the boulder that kills Piggy.

Candlebuds: A certain white flower on the island to which Simon gives a name.

Caps: The uniform hats worn by Jack's choir. Later, as hunters, the boys still wear these on their heads.

Castle Rock: The fort Jack adopts as the base for his tribe. Roger drops a boulder onto Piggy here, killing him instantly. The conch is also shattered here.

Creepers: The long vine-like plants which encompass the island.

Fire: Created with Piggy's glasses, it is first used as a rescue beacon for Ralph and later to cook the pigs slain by Jack.

Fruit: The original food source for the boys; Jack however, insists that they need meat instead. Simon hands out fruit to littluns when they cannot reach the higher branches of the fruit trees.

Granite Platform: The meeting center for Ralph's democratic assembly.

Knife: Jack's weapon used to stab into trees and later to cut pig's throats.

Mountain: Site of the original signal fire. As the myth of the beast grows, this is the location where it is thought to inhabit.

Piggy's Glasses (spectacles): Used to start all of the fires on the island. One lens is smashed by Jack in a fight and later the glasses are stolen to make cooking fires to roast pigs for Jack's tribe.

Pilot: A pilot whose plane crashed on the island after being shot down in an air battle. His body is mistaken as the beast on the mountain by Samneric. After Simon's death, the pilot's body is carried by the wind out to sea, never giving the boys a chance to discover Samneric's mistake.

Pig-run: Path made by the pigs on the island and later used by boys as a trail up the mountainside to investigate the presence of the beast.

Shelters: Built at Ralph's insistence as a 'home' for the littluns, these structures are consumed by flames as the island burns in the end.

Sand Castles: Built by littluns Percival, Henry and Johnny, these sand castles are destroyed when Roger and Maurice who throw rocks at them.

Sow: A mother pig whose head is severed by Jack's knife, becoming a 'gift' for the beast. The head is left in the forest on a wooden stake driven into the ground. Simon visits the head, waiting for the beast, and 'speaks' with this head, the Lord of the Flies.

Stick sharpened at both ends: Used to support the sow's head and later taken by Ralph to be used as a weapon after he shatters the head with his fist. Samneric warn him that in preparing to hunt him, Jack's hunters have 'sharpened a stick at both ends', implying that he will be decapitated like the sow and his head is also to be left as a gift for the beast.

Quotes

Quote 1: "'I don't care what [you] call me so long as...[it's not] what they used to call me in school...They used to call me Piggy!'" Chapter 1, pg. 11

Quote 2: "[There was] something dark...fumbling along....The creature was a party of boys, marching approximately in...two parallel lines...." Chapter 1, pg. 18

Quote 3: "[Jack was] tall, thin, and bony...his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was...freckled, and ugly without silliness." Chapter 1, pg. 19

Quote 4: "'You're no good on a job like this.'" Chapter 1, pg. 22

Quote 5: "Ralph sat on a fallen trunk, his left side to the sun. On his right were most of the choir; on his left the larger boys who had not known each other before...before him small children squatted in the grass." Chapter 2, pg. 30

Quote 6: "'Have you got any matches?'" Chapter 2, pg. 38

Quote 7: "'We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.'" Chapter 2, pg. 40

Quote 8: "'You got your small fire all right.'" Chapter 2, pg. 41

Quote 9: "[Jack] tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up." Chapter 3, pg. 47

Quote 10: "Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight, Simon found for [the littluns] the fruit they could not reach...[and] passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands." Chapter 3, pg. 51

Quote 11: "The candle-buds opened their wide white flowers....Their scent spilled out into the air and took possession of the island." Chapter 3, pg. 52

Quote 12: "[T]here was a space round Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he [Roger] dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life." Chapter 4, pg. 56

Quote 13: "He [Jack] began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling." Chapter 4, pg. 58

Quote 14: "[The hunters' thoughts were] crowded with memories...of the knowledge... that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink." Chapter 4, pp. 63-4

Quote 15: "'I painted my face--I stole up. Now you eat--all of you--and I--'" Chapter 4, pg. 67

Quote 16: "Piggy, for all his ludicrous body, had brains. Ralph was a specialist in thought now, and could recognize thought in another." Chapter 5, pg. 71

Quote 17: "'Life...is scientific....I know there isn't no beast...but I know there isn't no fear, either....Unless we get frightened of people.'" Chapter 5, pg. 76

Quote 18: "'[F]ear can't hurt you any more than a dream. There aren't any beasts to be afraid of on this island....Serve you right if something did get you, you useless lot of cry-babies!" Chapter 5, pg. 75

Quote 19: "'Daddy said they haven't found all the animals in the sea yet.'" Chapter 5, pg. 79

Quote 20: "'Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us.'" Chapter 5, pg. 80

Quote 21: "The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away." Chapter 5, pg. 82

Quote 22: "Even the sounds of nightmare from the other shelters no longer reached him, for he was back to where came from, feeding the ponies with sugar over the garden wall." Chapter 6, pg. 89

Quote 23: "[Simon saw] the picture of a human at once heroic and sick....Other people could stand up and speak to an assembly...without...the pressure of personality; could say what they would as though they were speaking to only one person." Chapter 6, pg. 93

Quote 24: "'Shove a palm trunk under that and if an enemy came....'" Chapter 6, pg. 96

Quote 25: "'I'm chief. We've got to make certain [that there is no beast]....There's no signal showing [on the mountain]. There may be a ship out there.'" Chapter 6, pg 98

Quote 26: "'You'll get back to where you came from.'" Chapter 7, pg. 100

Quote 27: "'Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!'" Chapter 7, pg. 104

Quote 28: "'Use a littlun...'" Chapter 7, pg. 104

Quote 29: "Ralph...was fighting to get near....The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering." Chapter 7, pg. 104

Quote 30: "'We musn't let anything happen to Piggy, must we?'" Chapter 7, pg. 106

Quote 31: "Ralph...would treat the day's decisions as though he were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player." Chapter 7, pg. 106

Quote 32: "'[Ralph is] like Piggy....He says things like Piggy. He isn't a proper chief.'" Chapter 8, pg. 115

Quote 33: "Piggy was...so full of pride in his contribution to the good of society, that he helped to fetch wood." Chapter 8, pg. 118

Quote 34: "'Right up her ass!'" Chapter 8, pg.123

Quote 35: "'This head is for the beast. It's a gift.'" Chapter 8, pg. 124

Quote 36: "[Simon's] eyes were half-closed as though he were imitating the obscene thing on the stick." Chapter 8, pg. 130

Quote 37: "'You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are what they are?'" Chapter 8, pg. 130

Quote 38: "'You're not wanted....on this island!...So don't try [to take] it on...or else....we shall do you. See? Jack and Roger and Maurice and Robert and Bill and Piggy and Ralph.'" Chapter 8, pg. 131

Quote 39: "'Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!'" Chapter 9, pg. 138

Quote 40: "[The boys] found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror [of the makeshift beast] and made it governable." Chapter 9, pg. 138

Quote 41: "There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws." Chapter 9, pg. 139

Quote 42: "The water rose farther and dressed Simon's coarse hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble." Chapter 9, pg. 140

Quote 43: "[S]urrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea." Chapter 9, pg. 140

Quote 44: "'We was on the outside. We never done nothing, we never seen nothing.'" Chapter 10, pg. 143

Quote 45: "'We'd better keep on the right side of [the beast]....You can't tell what he might do.'" Chapter 10, pg. 146

Quote 46: "What could be safer than the bus center with its lamps and wheels?" Chapter 10, pg. 150

Quote 47: "'It's come...It's real!'" Chapter 10, pg. 151

Quote 48: "'This is 'jus talk....I want my glasses.'" Chapter 11, pg. 155

Quote 49: "'[We should be] looking like we used to, washed and hair brushed -- after all we aren't savages really....'" Chapter 11, pg. 155

Quote 50: "A single drop of water that had escaped Piggy's fingers now flashed on the delicate curve [of the shell] like a star." Chapter 11, pg. 156.

Quote 51: "[Jack and the two hunters] weremasked in black and green." Chapter 11, pg. 160

Quote 52: "Behind them on the grass the headless and paunched body of a sow lay where they had dropped it." Chapter 11, pg. 160

Quote 53: "'Ralph -- remember what we came for. The fire. My specs.'" Chapter 11, pg. 161

Quote 54: "Samneric protested out of the heart of civilization, 'Oh, I say!' '-honestly!'" Chapter 11, pg. 163

Quote 55: "'You're a beast and a swine and a bloody, bloody thief!'" Chapter 11, pg. 163

Quote 56: "'Which is better -- to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is....Which is better -- to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?'" Chapter 11, pg. 164

Quote 57: "The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist." Chapter 11, pg. 164

Quote 58: "Piggy's arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig's after it has been killed." Chapter 11, pg. 165

Quote 59: "Roger advanced...as one wielding a nameless authority." Chapter 11, pg. 166

Quote 60: "'They're not as bad as that. It was an accident.'" Chapter 12, pg. 168

Quote 61: "Then there was that indefinable connection between himself and Jack; who therefore would never let him alone...." Chapter 12, pg. 168

Quote 62: "A star appeared...and was momentarily eclipsed by some movement." Chapter 12, pg. 170

Quote 63: "[Samneric had] 'to be careful and throw...spears like at a pig.'" Chapter 12, pg. 172

Quote 64: "[The boulder was] half as big as a cottage, big as a car, a tank." Chapter 12, pg. 176

Quote 65: "[Ralph] showed his teeth at the wall of branches....snarled a little, and waited." Chapter 12, pg. 177

Quote 66: "Ralph launched himself like a cat; stabbed, snarling, with the spear, and the savage doubled up." Chapter 12, pp. 177-8

Quote 67: "What was the sensible thing to do? There was no Piggy to talk sense." Chapter 12, pg. 179

Quote 68: "Couldn't a fire outrun a galloping horse?" Chapter 12, pg. 180

Quote 69: "You'll get back." Chapter 12, pg. 181

Quote 70: "He [Ralph] saw a shelter burst into flames and the fire flapped at his right shoulder...." Chapter 12, pg. 182

Quote 71: "her bows [were] hauled up and held by two ratings. In the stern-sheets another rating held a sub-machine gun." Chapter 12, pg. 182

Quote 72: "[They were] a semi-circle of little boys, their bodies streaked with colored clay, sharp sticks in their hands...." Chapter 12, pg. 182-3

Quote 73: "'I should have thought that a pack of British boys...would have been able to put up a better show than that....'" Chapter 12, pg. 184

Quote 74: "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." Chapter 12, pg. 184

Topic Tracking: Beast

Chapter 1 "The Sound of the Shell" & 2 "Fire on the Mountain"

Beast 1: Fear of a "beastie" on the island is first stemmed from a littlun with a distinctive marking, a "mulberry-colored birthmark" on his face, who says the beast comes out at night. Both Ralph and Jack, thinking these to be simply childish nightmares, comfort everyone that there is no beast. It is this same mulberry birthmarked boy, who disappears after the boys' first fire burns out of control across the island.

Chapter 3 "Huts on the Beach" & 4 "Painted Faces and Long Hair"

Beast 2: Fear of the beast has not diminished--quite the contrary, the fear has intensified in strength amongst the littluns. Shelters are built to provide a "home" for them so that they will not be afraid of the island. Simon calls attention to this when he comments that the children are afraid of the beast as if it were a real creature.

Chapter 5 "Beast from the Water" & 6 "Beast from the Air"

Beast 3: The beast has become a topic of discussion during assembly and Simon has been mistaken for the beast by one of the littluns out sleep-walking. Piggy gives his scientific opinion that there is nothing to be afraid of on the island unless they are afraid of people. Simon tries to add to this by ambiguously stating this about the beast: "Maybe it's only us."

Beast 4: From the world of grown-ups comes an object mistaken to be the beast, the body of a deceased pilot having come to rest on the island. Samneric see this body swaying in the wind and, terrified, flee back to the beach where the others are sleeping. The boys' imaginations run wild and, seeing scratches on one of the twin's bodies(caused by braches as they ran down the mountain), the boys are sure that the beast had attacked Samneric.

Chapter 7 "Shadows and Tall Trees" & 8 "Gift for the Darkness"

Beast 5: A sow's head is cut off and left by the hunters as "a gift for the beast." Whereas previously the beast had incited fear and worry amongst the boys, now Jack attempts to befriend it by offering the head of a nursing mother pig which his hunters had killed, as a peace offering.

Beast 6: Curious as always, Simon waits by the bloodied sow's head, buzzing with flies, to see if a beast would, indeed, come to claim its gift. There is an odd occurrence as the beast now given a name, The Lord of the Flies, speaks to Simon with a voice appearing from nowhere declaring "I'm a part of you"--in fact, a part of all the boys. The Lord of the Flies threatens Simon by saying that if he attempts to explain this understanding of the nature of the beast to the others, they shall all kill him, including Ralph and Piggy.

Chapter 9 "A View to a Death" & 10 "The Shell and the Glasses"

Beast 7: Simon goes to climb the mountain in the dark to see what exactly was the beast Samneric had supposedly seen. Upon arriving, the beast is discovered to be a "pitiful" thing, the body of a decaying pilot and nothing more. Unafraid and very casual about the whole thing, he descends to the beach to warn the boys that there is in truth no beast at all.

Beast 8: Simon is mistaken for the beast as he enters the boys' tribal dance, trying to warn the group that there is no such thing as the beast. As the boys attempt to slay the beast during their ritual, they are described as beasts themselves, with no sound "but the tearing of teeth and claws" as they surround and attack Simon. This is the second time Simon is thought to be the beast, the first when the littlun Phil was sleep-walking and saw him in the woods.

Beast 9: In response to thoughts about the murder of Simon, Jack assures his hunters that the thing they had attacked was indeed the beast who came to them disguised in the form of Simon. The beast no longer is a concrete thing to be pictured but takes on the role of an abstract, supernatural force: "You can't tell what he might do," Jack warns them all. He proclaims that it is a thing which they can't kill.

Beast 10: Piggy is attacked at night while sleeping by Jack and his hunters with the intent to steal his glasses. Piggy too, who had been so steadfast in objecting to the presence of a beast, now cries loudly "It's come...It's real!" during the attack. Jack and his hunters now are mistaken for the beast.

Chapter 11 "Castle Rock" & 12 "Cry of the Hunters"

Beast 11: Jack's name is invoked by Ralph in anger when he calls Jack "a beast and a swine." Jack himself has become a beast now in Ralph's eyes, even as Jack saw Simon as the beast in disguise. Hunting and the ritualistic behaviors of the Jack's tribe all are consider bestial after Ralph's comment. Being like a pig (a "swine") is also equated with the beast.

Beast 12: After earlier dubbing Jack to be a beast, now Ralph behaves as such. He wildly attacks the hunters as they chase him, "foaming" madly. His movements are compared to those of an animal wondering, "Couldn't a fire outrun a galloping horse?" as he runs, screams and attacks to defend himself in order to not be killed. Unlike Simon who put up little defense or counterattack after being surrounded by the boys' spears, Ralph actually tries to escape and fight back and, by doing this, shows his own beast-like nature.

Topic Tracking: Government

Topic Tracking: Government

Chapter 1 "The Sound of the Shell" & 2 "Fire on the Mountain"

Government 1: Ralph is the democratically elected political leader of the group and Jack, "marching" in with his choir is akin to a military leader, assigned to lead the choir as if it were an army. In the beginning, these two elements--the democratic republic and the dictator--appear to be close friends, agreeing to cooperate with one another. The dictator, Jack, agrees to support Ralph as he makes political decisions for the group during the "assembly," going so far as to offer his choir, the army, to watch over the signal fire on the mountain.

Government 2: Ralph continues to establish a democratic political foundation, and the description of the children sitting in organized sections during assembly is reflective of a government meeting. Jack continues to support him offering his choir to protect them against any beast; abiding by Ralph's rules, he addresses the group only when he holds the conch in his hands.

Chapter 3 "Huts on the Beach" & 4 "Painted Faces and Long Hair"

Government 3: The first signs of discord appear between Ralph and Jack, the political heads of their miniaturized society. While Ralph struggles to build shelters to live in until they are rescued, Jack has been off hunting pigs, showing very little concern or planning for their rescue. He yearns to kill the pigs, insisting that they "need meat."

Government 4: Jack assembles his choirboys, his "hunters," as he likes to call them. He has painted himself and becomes more and more obsessed with killing pigs, even as Ralph struggles to worry about what is best for the group. Their relationship continues to disintegrate and, rather than keeping his hunters on the mountain to guard the signal fire, they go off to hunt in the forest.

Government 5: The bond between Ralph and Jack is severed, as unforgivable damage has been done. A ship which could have come to their rescue has passed them by since the signal fire went out while Jack's hunters were out helping him to kill the sow. They become almost tribal in nature, chanting, proud that they had killed something. The democratic Ralph sees this activity as a threat to the group's dynamics, while the primal Jack sees this as a way to build the war hunger of his choir and cement his role as the warrior-leader.

Chapter 5 "Beast from the Water" & 6 "Beast from the Air"

Government 6: The ability of governing well is linked with acting like a grown-up, with Ralph yearning for something of the adult world to help them reassert order. Jack continues to become more and more an adversary to Ralph, no longer following the assembly's rules and talking without holding the conch, an item which gives the privilege of speaking to its possessor--this rule is also now disregarded. Jack's dictatorship becomes an adversary to Ralph's republic.

Government 7: When investigating the presence of a beast on the island, Ralph increasingly appears weak and yields to Jack by permitting a pig hunt. This delays the possibility of rekindling the signal fire on the mountain. Even the civilized Ralph starts to follow some of the same primal impulses that drive Jack, the desire to kill. However, Ralph reasserts his authority and insists that this activity be abandoned--much to the disdain of Jack, who reluctantly obeys.

Chapter 7 "Shadows and Tall Trees" & 8 "Gift for the Darkness"

Government 8: Yet again Ralph sways in his leadership, allowing a ritual of slaying a pig. Jack talks more and more of how to improve the ritual. After taking part in this himself, Ralph suddenly turns on them and insists that they must continue on to the mountain.

Government 9: Jack shows envy over Piggy's logic and foresight. Ralph has also begun to think logically like Piggy, rather than becoming tribal and following Jack. However, to lead his tribe, Jack does not need logic or foresight--he simply listens to the primal instincts to kill and transforms these into action.

Government 10: The fatal split between the republic and the tribe occurs here as Jack goes off to establish his tribe, taking most of the boys with him. Ralph still clings to his old democratic ideas blindly, still using the conch in assembly and speaking about matters of saving the "group", even though most of the group is no longer under his control. His democracy has proven to be less effective than Jack's more basic and instinctive government.

Chapter 9 "A View to a Death" & 10 "The Shell and the Glasses"

Government 11: Ralph's role as political leader is weakened further. He willingly goes to the pig roast after Jack has openly mocked and rejected his democratic government. Ralph had tried to restore his democracy with use of the conch to call an assembly, but failed--he considers joining Jack's new tribe. Ralph participates in the ritual and chants along with the hunters.

Government 12: Having become the minority by clinging to his democracy, Ralph is now attacked and beaten up by Jack and his hunters. Thinking his society and system of governance still to be important, he assumes that they have come to steal the conch, though it is Piggy's fire-starting glasses they take. Jack has, piece by piece, eliminated Ralph's power and control. Though Ralph still wants reason and logic to govern, the other boys find Jack's army of hunters to be more appealing, with its simple philosophy of hunting when they are hungry.

Chapter 11 "Castle Rock" & 12 "Cry of the Hunters"

Government 13: Ralph, still holding onto his democratic ideals, becomes an equal to Jack and his primal society, mirroring Jack's language in addressing him as they fight. Once again he becomes one of them; he becomes a hunter and his old politics and leadership are forgotten. Jack was the primal leader since early on in the story. Now stripped of his democracy, Ralph behaves similarly.

Government 14: Piggy has died and Samneric have become hunters. These having been the final three boys to support him, Ralph has no one left to lead, and as such is lost, literally, running through the forest with no signal fire and no goal except to survive. He has become primal in the manner of Jack and the other boys, but is still not one of the hunters--therefore, Ralph becomes the hunted. Democratic ideals have been forgotten.

Government 15: After all the boys, including Ralph, have become primal in their behavior, they are saved by the one thing Ralph had always wished for to restore his democracy: grown-ups. However, just as these boys had all resorted to killing as a way of life, they are ironically rescued by grown-up soldiers whose purpose is much the same: to hunt and kill the enemy.

Topic Tracking: Intellectual

Chapter 1 "The Sound of the Shell" & 2 "Fire on the Mountain"

Intellectual 1: Early on, Piggy serves as the intellectual on the island. He discovers the conch in the lagoon, pointing it out and explaining to Ralph how he can use it to call the other survivors to the beach. Throughout the book this role of giving ideas to Ralph, who transfers them into action, is repeated many times.

Intellectual 2: After the boys allow a fire to burn uncontrolled across the island, Piggy reprimands them with his voice of reason, pointing out the need for having the area of the fire to be cleared of debris so that it can be controlled. He recalls that one of them, the "mulberry birthmark boy" is nowhere to be seen, suggesting that he has perhaps died in the fire. Also it is a piece of Piggy, his glasses, which give them this power of fire, a symbolic trait often equated with the attainment of knowledge (i.e. the story of Prometheus, fire bearer, in Greek mythology).

Chapter 3 "Huts on the Beach" & 4 "Painted Faces and Long Hair"

Intellectual 3: Continuing in his manner of always thinking ahead and pondering, Piggy suggests creating a sundial to tell the time for the boys, though this is of no interest to Ralph. Following this suggestion, Piggy is attacked by Jack, and his glasses--both a source of fire and also representative of Piggy's capacity for reason and knowledge--have one lens broken after they smash to the ground by the paint-faced Jack, who has grown more and more savage.

Chapter 5 "Beast from the Water" & 6 "Beast from the Air"

Intellectual 4: Now Ralph has begun to act like an intellectual after learning from Piggy. Ralph thinks and speaks with a certain logic as he points out the problems afflicting the group, reporting concerns which had already been raised earlier by Piggy, as he appeals to the boys to behave with reason in mind at all times. Already chaos and disorganization have grown more and more frequent--the boys are no longer heeding even common sense rules, suchas no defecating near the fruit trees from which they eat.

Intellectual 5: In discussing the beast, Piggy assures them the beast doesn't exist, using logic. He says, "Life is scientific." According to science and rational thought, a beast such as they had all described could not possibly exist on the island without anyone having really seen it. In contrast, Jack resorts to irrational name-calling, dubbing them all of the littluns "cry-babies" for their fears; unlike Piggy, his words lack substance and facts, they merely express his opinions. Piggy's mode of thinking is rational and leads to an actual understand of situations so that a resolution can be found. This is what Ralph has begun to learn to do.

Chapter 7 "Shadows and Tall Trees" & 8 "Gift for the Darkness"

Intellectual 6: Ralph is again compared to Piggy in his manner of thinking. He increasingly attempts to employ reason and logic to his decisions, which upsets Jack. Jack's approach to leadership is the the opposite of Ralph's, he uses fear of the beast and primal hungers to gain support.

Intellectual 7: Because Ralph acts and thinks more like Piggy now, Jack decides to leave and start his own society elsewhere on the island. Piggy, despite Ralph, Jack and Roger's stories,refuses to believe that a beast lives on the mountain, since it defies all logic.

Intellectual 8: Yet again Piggy's insight comes to the rescue. He suggests moving the fire down to the beach as the mountain has scared away everyone, since they are all fearful of the beast. Pleased, Ralph adopts this plan and considers their signal fire problem solved.

Chapter 9 "A View to a Death" & 10 "The Shell and the Glasses"

Intellectual 9: Here, despite Piggy's constant clinging to logic with his great intellect, even he loses himself to the same savagery which has consumed Jack. Due to his hypocritical behavior, questions are raised about the reliability of adhering to logic and reason alone as Piggy has done up to this point.

Intellectual 10: After taking part in the murder of Simon, Piggy copes with this hypocrisy and his own illogical behaviors by simply erasing them from his mind. He employs his intellect yet again, this time not to help "the general good" but rather to account for his own actions. He urges Ralph to insist, when Samneric approach, that they had left the feast early and as such could not have possibly known about let alone take part in the murder of Simon. Thus Piggy's hypocrisy can remain a secret. As he always does when listening to Piggy's advice, Ralph obeys.

Intellectual 11: Jack had already smashed half of Piggy's glasses and now what remains is taken. Previously a symbol of Piggy's belief in intellect, the glasses are now only known as the source of fire (and perhaps of knowledge) to the tribe. With the loss of this item, Piggy is helpless. When attacked, Piggy who had refused to believe in the beast, mistakes Jack and his hunters for it, exclaiming "It's the beast, it's real!" As they go to sleep that night, they behave illogically and decide not to keep a watch to prevent the signal fire from burning out.

Chapter 11 "Castle Rock" & 12 "Cry of the Hunters"

Intellectual 12: As Ralph talks on and on as Piggy did in the beginning, Piggy cuts him off calling it: "Jus' talk; I want my glasses back." He then suggests the illogical thing: climbing to the mountain, just the four of them, expecting Jack to return the glasses if Piggy asks him, because, "[h]e has to."

Intellectual 13: In one final attempt cling to logic and reason, Piggy asks everyone what is better, to kill and be like Indians or to have order and be rescued. His answer is a silent one, for he is killed in response. To go to Castle Rock in the first place was irrational, yet Piggy had insisted he could restore order and his sight by reasoning with the tribe. He fails.

Intellectual 14: Ralph continues to cling to Piggy as a source of guidance even though he is dead, trying to thinkand act as Piggy would. He laments to himself, however, "There was no Piggy to think for him." Piggy could not save himself, but Ralph still believes he would save him if he were there.

Intellectual 15: The name of Piggy with all his logic and guidance is invoked a final time as being a counterbalance to the "darkness of man's heart." However, Piggy himself had showed hints of this darkness at times as well, particularly when he had participated in the murder of Simon.

Topic Tracking: Pig

Chapter 1 "The Sound of the Shell" & 2 "Fire on the Mountain"

Pig 1: Jack attempts to kill a piglet here and fails, shirking at the thought of spilling blood on himself. However he does go so far as to withdraw his knife and tries to cut its throat, though something stops him. Also there is a boy on the island left behind to watch the littluns whose name calls reference to this topic as well: Piggy.

Chapter 3 "Huts on the Beach" & 4 "Painted Faces and Long Hair"

Pig 2: Jack follows his obsession to kill a pig and fails yet again after the pigs run off in a stampede, sensing his presence. He insists to Ralph that before they are rescued, he needs to kill a pig, insisting that fruit alone cannot sustain them--they need meat.

Pig 3: Jack finally succeeds in his goal, leading the other boys on a pig hunt and carrying a pig's lifeless body dangling upside-down from a stick. As they walk they chant "Kill the pig, Cut her throat, Spill her blood." However, the attainment of the pig also means a lost opportunity to be rescued since, with the boys all off hunting, no one was on the mountain to tend to the signal fire and a ship passed them by.

Pig 4: Having killed a pig, a ritual is made from the hunting process as Maurice pretends to be the pig surrounded by a ring of hunters and they repeat again their earlier chant of "Kill the pig..." excitedly reliving the hunting episode. They relish the thought of killing it with glee. The pig is roasted and devoured hungrily by the boys, including Ralph.

Chapter 7 "Shadows and Tall Trees" & 8 "Gift for the Darkness"

Pig 5: In searching for the beast, the boys are turned astray with thoughts of hunting a pig again, and examine pig droppings on the ground. The ritual song from earlier is repeated with even Ralph taking part, except instead of "she" the pig is now "he," with Robert mimicking the pig. "Kill the pig, Cut his throat...Bash him in." Their desire for a hunt is turned aside by Ralph who finally urges them onwards in their search for the beast.

Pig 6: After separating from Ralph's democracy, Jack and his hunters succeed again in murdering another pig, this time a nursing sow. Her piglets flee as the hunters draw near and she is slain in an obscene manner, with a stick jammed "up her ass," violated by Roger's spear. Happily, Jack now smears her blood on his face like war paint, and they cut the sow's head off, leaving it on a stake in the woods as an offering to the beast. They plan to celebrate again that night with another feast.

Chapter 9 "A View to a Death" & 10 "The Shell and the Glasses"

Pig 7: After feasting on the dead sow, Ralph and all the boys take part again in another ritual dance to relive the thrill of the hunt, the thrill of murdering a living thing. Now however the word of "pig" from their earlier chant has become replaced by "beast": "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" Roger now represents the pig/beast in the dance. Simultaneously, the decapitated sow's head left in the forest, buzzing with flies, has become a physical embodiment of the beast to which Simon speaks.

Chapter 11 "Castle Rock" & 12 "Cry of the Hunters"

Pig 8: Jack emerges from the forest after yet another hunt, dropping a headless sow on the ground as he prepares to confront Piggy and Ralph. It was a headless sow that was devoured the night Simon was murdered. Upon seeing Jack and the pig's carcass, Piggy also begins to yell and cry out to Ralph for help.

Pig 9: Piggy is murdered and his after-death is also compared to the dying twitches of a pig. Not a direct victim of spears as the pigs killed by the hunters, Piggy dies instead by a boulder dropped on his head from Roger.

Pig 10: Ralph learns that Samneric must throw their spears at him the next day "as if at a pig" when speaking to them under the secrecy of night. Even though a boy like the others, Ralph suddenly has become reduced to the primal level of a pig at Jack's command--simply a thing to be hunted.

Pig 11: Ralph runs from the hunters and begins to display behaviors similar to those of a pig, attempting to think and rationalize yet this attempt fails with no Piggy there to advise and give him reason. He settles instead on comparing his own thoughts to those of a pig, wondering "if a pig would agree."

Topic Tracking: Religion

Chapter 1 "The Sound of the Shell" & 2 "Fire on the Mountain"

Religion 1: The presence of the school's choir with its black gowns, caps, and "crosses" points out the boys who are, supposedly, the most angelic and holiest of all. However, the choirmaster Jack later becomes chief of the hunters (who were once choirboys), responsible for the murders to follow. Only Simon, a member of the choir who faints on the beach due to exhaustion, resists the primal urges that consume the rest of the choir.

Chapter 3 "Huts on the Beach" & 4 "Painted Faces and Long Hair"

Religion 2: Simon alone reflects the angelic qualities of the choir, as he gives food to the hungry littluns from his outstretched hands while Ralph and Jack - the leaders - never do such a small though significant deed. As Simon walks, nature flourishes around him as flowers open wide; these flowers he dubs "candle-buds"--candles are often used in Christian churches.

Religion 3: As when he comes to the aid of the hungry littluns, Simon always appears to help in times of crisis. Piggy's glasses have been knocked off by an angry Jack and Simon appears without warning to pick them up and hand them back to Piggy, expecting nothing in return. His behavior is always selfless, only helping the needy.

Religion 4: When feasting on the first pig Jack has succeeded in killing, Piggy is yet again in distress. Without thinking of his own needs or hunger at seeing Jack's refusal to give any meat to Piggy, Simon immediately passes his own large piece of meat for him to eat. Furious that his wishes for Piggy to not eat have been opposed, Jack hurls another piece to Simon, commanding him to eat it. Simon again appears here to aid the helpless.

Chapter 5 "Beast from the Water" & 6 "Beast from the Air"

Religion 5: Simon comments from his innocent viewpoint about the beast, trying to help them understand what exactly the beast is. "Maybe it's only us," he suggests. None of the children understand exactly what he means though his insight and perceptions seem to hit far closer to the truth than all the others. He proposes that it is some element in each of them that is the thing they call the beast.

Religion 6: Simon laments his inability to speak about the beast and envies the rhetorical skills of the other boys. His picture of what exactly the beast is comes into focus increasingly as "the picture of a human at once heroic and sick," suggesting the beast would be the sickly part. It is not some external devil with a pitchfork and horns but rather an element of each of their personalities.

Chapter 7 "Shadows and Tall Trees" & 8 "Gift for the Darkness"

Religion 7: Simon comes to the aid of Ralph who is worrying about the boys' condition and if rescue shall ever come to save them from the island. Abruptly Simon speaks to him with words of comfort, "You'll get back to where you came from" as if he knows something that Ralph doesn't. Ralph looks at him and Simon smiles, repeating the statement again. Odd as it is, the comment does cheer Ralph somewhat.

Religion 8: The Lord of the Flies (the title of Beelzebub, a demon from Hell) speaks to Simon inside of his mind and warns him that he is a threat and "is not wanted on this island." The threat stems perhaps from his goodness and inability to be transformed into a hunter as the other choirboys had been. For his resistance, Simon must die, The Lord of the Flies tells him. Presumably, this is the voice of the beast within him that speaks; it is that very same "sickly part" of the human he had envisioned earlier. Being the most religiously good of the boys, he is understandably an obstacle in order for the primal, wicked aspects of the boys to come into full control.

Chapter 9 "A View to a Death" & 10 "The Shell and the Glasses"

Religion 9: Still wishing to aid the children regardless of the consequences just as he had given meat to Piggy despite Jack's anger, Simon now attempts to warn the boys that there is no beast on the mountain. He carries within him a full understanding of the beast as a thing within after having conversed with The Lord of the Flies who had already warned him against trying to interfere. All Simon wants to do is to help, however.

Religion 10: In attempting to warn the boys that there is no beast on the mountain, Simon is savagely murdered by all of the boys as they take part in a primal ritual. After he dies there is an unnatural brightness around his body in the water and his skin bears an unusual description, as becoming like "sculptured marble" and his cheek glimmers like silver. These odd descriptions show that Simon with his goodness had something special about him which has been removed from the island.

Chapter 11 "Castle Rock" & 12 "Cry of the Hunters"

Religion 11: Even though he is long dead, Simon's old words of comfort return to Ralph as he fights against becoming a beast and a savage to save himself. He ends up again on the beach, chased by all of Jack's hunters. In the midst of his flight, thoughts racing in these final moments, he hears again the words "You'll get back to where you came from," spoken by Simon much earlier. Upon falling into the sand, Ralph raises his arms to his eyes to defend against a barrage of spear thrusts, preparing to die as Simon did upon on beach.

Chapter 1 "The Sound of the Shell"

A plane carrying a British school group has crashed into a tropical island, presumably shot down as World War II wages on in the outside world. Ralph, one of the survivors, climbs with Piggy through the debris and undergrowth onto the open beach. After a brief introduction, the two engage in a discussion to determine what to do next. Ralph is, at first impression, mild in responding to Piggy, who is overweight and bears a large set of spectacles on his face. His personality appears to be paranoid and wimpy. He was raised by his aunt (whose name he regularly invokes, "My auntie says that..." etc) and regularly speaks of how he was the subject of ridicule in school where he earned his nickname, saying with fear: "'I don't care what [you] call me so long as...[it's not] what they used to call me in school....They used to call me Piggy!'"Chapter 1, pg. 11. He talks incessantly to the point of annoyance, explaining some of his social problems. In contrast, Ralph has a "golden body" and is in fact quite handsome. His father is a commander in the navy and Ralph believes he will come to their rescue when he gets leave.

The two walk a bit and come upon a lagoon in which Piggy sees a conch; Ralph retrieves it with use of a broken palm sapling and Piggy suddenly proclaims that they can use it to call the other survivors by blowing through it. Ralph blows through one end under Piggy's direction and, sure enough, one by one, other children soon appear on the beach.

Topic Tracking: Intellectual 1

First to come is Johnny, one of the group of smaller children, which come to be known as the "littluns,". Next are the twins, Sam and Eric (Samneric) who speak almost in unison. Last to appear along the beach: "[There was] something dark...fumbling along....The creature was a party of boys, marching approximately in...two parallel lines...." Chapter 1, pg. 18. This is the school's choir group with Jack Merridew, the choirmaster, in lead. They appear in full uniform complete with black robes, crosses and caps. One of the choir, Simon, is faint and passes out. Jack relents only at the last moment to allow them all to rest and break formation. Among this choir are the boys, Roger and Maurice. With the assemblage of the boys complete, Ralph and Jack discuss their situation. Rules are established and a "chief," is democratically elected by all the boys, with a show of hands choosing Ralph. Jack however is assigned the duty of leading the choir which serves the function of "an army...or hunters." His cold, unwavering demeanor and talent for giving orders suit him well for such a responsibility.

Topic Tracking: Government 1
Topic Tracking: Religion 1

Ralph decides that it is necessary to venture out and explore the island with a small group, choosing himself, Jack and Simon. Piggy protests loudly but Ralph dismisses him saying, "'You're no good on a job like this.'" Chapter 1, pg. 22 while Jacks tries to act menacing, driving his knife into a tree trunk. Walking past the lagoon where the conch was found, they begin to climb the large mountain, which juts out from one side of the island near the coast. Rising through the undergrowth and creepers which wind their way all around the island, the three boys finally reach a section partway up which is quite rocky with pink granite. Here they stop to shove off a large boulder down the slope, which lands crashing far below with a sound "like a bomb." Continuing upwards in ascent they reach the mount's summit. They see the whole of their island and a coral reef partly circling them out in the sea; also visible is the crash site of their plane and the lagoon from where the had started walking. Jack and Ralph engage in most of the dialogue while Simon stares on smiling until he mentions that he is hungry. On this note they start back down. Along the way, Jack attempts to catch a piglet they come upon tangled in the creepers. The piglet manages to escape from Jack's hands after he hesitates to thrust the knife into its throat. Afterwards he makes excuses and proclaims he will not fail again, even though the three, as they head back to the others, shirk at the thought of the pig's blood spilling out over his hands, preferring instead to eat fruit from the trees lining their path.

Topic Tracking: Pig 1

Chapter 2 "Fire on the Mountain"

The following day, Ralph again uses the conch to call an "assembly" on the beach. He and Jack report their findings from the previous day's exploration. Jack reports the presence of pigs on the island and how he and his hunters shall kill one next time for food without hesitating--he drives his knife once more into the side of a tree to show his conviction.

Concrete rules are established for the children by Ralph: no one speaks to the assembly unless they are holding the conch which gives them the floor. Even the arrangement of the boys on the beach reflects something of a government meeting, carefully partitioned off into groups as "Ralph sat on a fallen trunk, his left side to the sun. On his right were most of the choir; on his left the larger boys who had not known each other before...before him small children squatted in the grass." Chapter 2, pg. 30. Piggy and Jack speak in succession (each in turn holding the conch), concerning their ability to survive on the island until they are rescued. A small boy with a "mulberry-colored birthmark" on his face is urged forward and proclaims his fear of a "beastie" or "snake-thing" on the island which "came after dark." Ralph assures everyone that there is no beastie and Jack proclaims that if there were such a creature, he and his hunters would kill it.

Topic Tracking: Beast 1
Topic Tracking: Government 2

Ralph returns to the issue of how to accelerate their rescue when the grown-ups come looking for them. He suggests they all build a signal fire on top of the mountain he had climbed the day before. In a crowd, the children all rush to the mountaintop and build a large pile of wood, before realizing they have no means to light the fire. Only when he needs something does Ralph actually bother to pay attention to Piggy: "'Have you got any matches?'" Chapter 2, pg. 38. Jack has the idea of using Piggy's glasses to light the fire, readily snatching them off his face without asking permission. Ralph bends to light the fire using the sun's light magnified by the glasses. After this succeeds, Ralph hands back the glasses to Piggy and decides that it is necessary to modify his plan, saying that they must make the smoke darker and people must be assigned to keep the fire always burning so that it will never go out.

Showing respect for democracy and the conch, Jack says, "'We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.'" Chapter 2, pg. 40. He volunteers his hunters as being in charge of tending the fire and keeping a lookout for ships. Piggy cuts into the discussion with an odd laughter--looking down, the signal fire has spread to a large section of the island, burning down everything in its path. Piggy says, "'You got your small fire all right.'" Chapter 2, pg. 41

Shelters, not fire, Piggy says, are the most important things to create first. He reprimands them all for their impulsive behavior; he reprimands them for taking his glasses and starting a fire without clearing the area beforehand. Lastly, he notes missing from the group, as parts of the island below them burns, the boy with the birthmark who worried about the "beastie." This boy is never seen again throughout the rest of the story and it is assumed he dies in this fire. All the boys, including Ralph, are at last silent for a moment, their childish impulses put to rest.

Topic Tracking: Intellectual 2

Chapter 3 "Huts on the Beach"

Jack is in the forest tracking a pig; a spear is clutched in his hands and he is clothed only in a tattered pair of underwear held on by his knife belt. Suddenly the trampling of pigs' hooves is heard and he realizes once again that he has lost his chance at catching one. Returning to the beach, he and Ralph begin to talk after drinking from a coconut half-filled with water. While Jack has been out hunting, Ralph and Simon were the only two still working to construct the shelters after working for a few days. Ralph complains to Jack about the importance of finishing the shelters before anything else is undertaken, including hunting. "'We need meat,'" Jack insists simply as he "tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up." Chapter 3, pg. 47

An important difference begins to show between these Ralph and Jack, a distinct contrast of their personalities. Ralph speaks more of the need to create shelters as a "sort of home" for the boys, especially the littluns, in order to maintain and recreate some link to the civilized existence they once knew. Jack, however, shows a certain disinterest for recreating civilization--he says he would like to catch a pig and kill it before they are rescued, despite Ralph's continued insistence on having a fire on the mountain always burning as a beacon to draw any ships to them.

Topic Tracking: Government 3
Topic Tracking: Pig 2

Simon, usually a silent objective observer to these discussions, interjects that the littluns are all afraid as if "the beastie or snake-thing was real." He then disappears suddenly before Jack and Ralph themselves go off to the water hole to bathe, assuming that Simon has gone there as well. But he has not. Simon walks off mysteriously, alone. Around him is a certain glow and radiance where he walks--he gives of himself without greed or desire for power, unlike both Ralph and Jack: "Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight, Simon found for [the littluns] the fruit they could not reach...[and] passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands." Chapter 3, pg. 51. This aura of comfort and security continues to spread wherever Simon walks and nature seems to flourish everywhere around him. This is in sharp contrast to the depictions of Jack, Ralph and Piggy, who vie for control of the group's lifestyle on the island.

Simon is described as almost supernatural in force; even as dusk and night approach, where he walks the plants he named candle-buds "opened their wide white flowers....Their scent spilled out into the air and took possession of the island." Chapter 3, pg. 52. Simon is never afraid, and, though quiet and private, he is shown for the first time to have a certain power and wisdom of his own.

Topic Tracking: Beast 2
Topic Tracking: Religion 2

Chapter 4 "Painted Faces and Long Hair"

Things continue to change and fragment amongst the boys, especially between the two contrasting personalities of Jack and Ralph. The littluns' nightmares continue to worsen. One day, three littluns, Percival, Johnny and Henry are building sand castles and digging. Nearby in the trees, Roger and Maurice linger, watching them. Roger and Maurice, just relieved from tending to the fire, emerge and kick aside the smaller boys' castles, laughing with pleasure. Maurice wanders away while Roger remains to observe Percival crying. The crying only gets worse when Johnny also, following the older boys' destructive behavior, scatters sand into the air, and Percival leaves, crying, as does Henry. Johnny is left with the castles all to himself after scaring them off. Roger then follows Henry to the beach and proceeds to toss stones at him although "[T]here was a space round Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life." Chapter 4, pg. 56. Despite the lack of an adult authority, the old ways into which he had been brought up still stayed with him, and with Jack also (Roger is somewhat of Jack's second-in-command). These boundaries of their old lives continue to deteriorate as the boys continue to remain on the island.

Jack appears suddenly, having smeared clay on his face like war paint or a tribal mask and, joined by Samneric and Bill, proceeds to take them all on a pig hunt. With the addition of the mask, Jack transforms from within as well, already completing the move towards his primal impulses. "He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling." Chapter 4, pg. 58.

Topic Tracking: Government 4

At this time, Ralph and Piggy are swimming in the water hole, when Piggy suggests the idea of creating a sundial to keep track of time--like the shelters, Piggy strives to maintain a hold on the old world they came from. Suddenly, Ralph sees a ship out in the water, though it passes the island without pause. The signal fire on the mountain has gone dead, which Ralph realizes after climbing to the mountain's summit.

Jack had called all of his hunters, whose duty it was to tend to the fire, in order to hunt down and kill a pig at last. This time they succeeded, returning shortly thereafter to dangle the gutted carcass from a stake and chant "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood." Jack doesn't seem bothered that the fire was left untended and that the ship had passed by--he sees the slaying of the pig as more important, their minds "crowded with memories...of the knowledge...that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink." Chapter 4, pp. 63-4. Arguing, Piggy supports Ralph in reprimanding Jack for his negligence; in turn Jack smacks Piggy in the face, breaking one of the lenses of his glasses as they tumble to the ground. Simon appears from nowhere to retrieve them for him, acting kindly and selflessly as always.

Topic Tracking: Religion 3
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 3
Topic Tracking: Pig 3

Following this incident, the mountain's fire is lit this time not as a signal, but rather to roast the pig, which the children devour hungrily despite Ralph's lingering anger. The friendship between Ralph and Jack has officially "snapped and fastened elsewhere"--the "elsewhere" referring to Piggy.

Sensing this divide, Jack's resentment for Piggy increases as well, refusing to give him any meat until Simon gives up his own piece for him, much to Jack's frustration. He tosses a huge piece to Simon again to replace the one he had given up declaring, "'Eat! Damn you!'" His language continues to become more frantic: "'I painted my face--I stole up. Now you eat--all of you--and I---'" Chapter 4, pg. 67. As the chapter closes, the hunters retell the story of killing the pig with pleasure, going to the extreme of reenacting it in a strange ritual: Maurice taking on the part of the pig, surrounded by the other hunters who chant again: "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in." Ralph, gazing upon all of this, is greatly worried. Abruptly he announces, "I'm calling an assembly" and proceeds down to the platform to blow the conch with nothing else said. The rift between these two very different leaders becomes more defined than ever at this point. Only trouble and disagreement follow.

Topic Tracking: Government 5
Topic Tracking: Religion 4
Topic Tracking: Pig 4

Chapter 5

Ralph has called an emergency assembly by blowing the conch in order to discuss the current crisis he sees afflicting the group. This is the latest a meeting has been held so far--it is already after nightfall. At last, Ralph recognizes and adopts Piggy's pattern of thinking, respecting him now as an equal or even as a superior, contrary to his previous impressions. "Piggy, for all his ludicrous body, had brains. Ralph was a specialist in thought now, and could recognize thought in another." Chapter 5, pg. 71. Ralph lapses into a long serious monologue intended to convey his intense worries and fears about what was happening to the group's dynamics. The coconut shells laid out to be drunk from are no longer filled; the shelters were finished by himself and Simon alone; the assigned place for lavatory use near a certain area of rocks is no longer used and the children defecate just about anywhere including near the fruit trees they eat from. He says again that the signal fire must stay lit and that fire shall burn only on the mountain, recalling Piggy's earlier reprimand when part of the island had been burnt due to their carelessness. The signal fire takes priority over the hunting and killing pigs, he says. Many of the children laugh, hardly taking his words to heart.

Topic Tracking: Intellectual 4

However, the boys quickly become solemn when talk of the beast is brought up again. One littlun, Phil, speaks of nightmares he has of "something big and horrid" in the trees. As it turns out, he had been walking in his sleep in the woods and the creature moving was actually Simon, mistaken to be the beast. Percival Wemys Madison speaks next declaring that the beast comes out of the sea, quickly followed by more assurance not to worry from Ralph and Jack as well. Piggy even chimes in, "'Life...is scientific....I know there isn't no beast...but I know there isn't no fear, either....Unless we get frightened of people.'" Chapter 5, pg. 76. Here is the first suggestion that the presence of the beast as is derived from fear within their own minds. Once more Piggy's insight gives a certain clarity to the group's thoughts. Jack gives his bit next saying, "'[F]ear can't hurt you any more than a dream. There aren't any beasts to be afraid of on this island....Serve you right if something did get you, you useless lot of cry-babies!'" Chapter 5, pg. 75. His coldness and insensitivity have become even more intense after donning his painted tribal mask.

Simon ends the beast discussion in an attempt to offer what he felt was an explanation: "'Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us.'" Chapter 5, pg. 80. This again hits closer to home than even Piggy's comment, about the fear and paranoia they boys have for each other. Taking it one step further, instead of each other person becoming a beast and an object to be potentially feared, Simon suggests that they are themselves the beast rather than it being everyone else. It is not without but a thing from within. Regretfully, no one understands him and his attempt at explaining this is a failure.

Topic Tracking: Intellectual 5
Topic Tracking: Beast 3
Topic Tracking: Religion 5

Focused discussion within the assembly at this point breaks down and Ralph is at a loss as the boys talk about the beast of the island. Jack talks out of turn, declaring now that if there is a beast he and his hunters shall track it down and kill it. Ralph realizes at last how much "[t]he world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away." Chapter 5, pg. 82. With all the boys dispersing without warning, he is unable to act. Anarchy and chaos have come to dominate the assembly and the democracy he had tried so hard to establish. Only Simon and Piggy remain to comfort him. He wishes to resign his post as chief and give up but Piggy fears that without Ralph in power as his protector, Jack will harm him. Simon too blurts out another random comment as is his nature, simply: "Go on being chief." The three then try to imagine what grown-ups would do in their position, knowing that they would conduct themselves according to good standards and what is proper. Ralph laments on how "something grown-up" should be sent to them as a sign, to give them hope.

Topic Tracking: Government 6

Chapter 6 "Beast from Air"

Little does Ralph know that his wish for "something grown-up" is granted that same night, though not exactly in the way he intended. As the boys sleep that night a battle between two planes wages on in the air above the island--one of the planes is destroyed. Drifting down to the island after the explosion is the lifeless body of its pilot, bound tightly in a pilot suit and parachute cables. The chute carries the body to rest at the summit of the mountain where their signal fire burns. The twins Sam and Eric, are tending to the fire as the pilot's body slowly shifts around as the wind courses through the parachute, moving the lifeless body like a puppet with strings, lifting its head to rise and fall. The twins speak as one person, the one finishing the other's sentence, "Sam - give us --" one begins, "--tinder wood," the other finishes. As they go off to find wood, they see the dead pilot and, mistaking the corpse for the beast, they flee back down to the beach to awaken Ralph. Ralph is in the midst of a comfortable dream, as "Even the sounds of nightmare from the other shelters no longer reached him, for he was back to where came from, feeding the ponies with sugar over the garden wall." Chapter 6, pg. 89. He dreams of his own home. However, Ralph is jarred awake to hear the beast story from the twins. Eric's face, cut by creepers as he had fled down the mountain, is thought to be further evidence of an attack by the "beast."

Topic Tracking: Beast 4

Another assembly is called by Ralph as day breaks and again there is discussion and arguing among all the boys and escalating tension between Jack and Ralph. At last a group is sent off, led by Jack and Ralph, in order to track the beast, each with his own reason: Jack, to kill and hunt the beast, and Ralp,h to rekindle the signal fire to preserve hope for a rescue. They decide to explore a section of island they had not been to yet, leaving Piggy behind as before to watch over the littluns. In setting out, Simon thinks to himself of the beast as only "the picture of a human at once heroic and sick....Other people could stand up and speak to an assembly...without...the pressure of personality; could say what they would as though they were speaking to only one person." Chapter 6, pg. 93. He recalls his earlier inability to express what he knew about the nature of the beast as he perceived it. In attempting to warn the other children earlier he stuttered and was met only with ridicule, though he seems perhaps to be the most insightful of them all.

Topic Tracking: Religion 6

Jack sees a pink rock cliff he describes as a "castle", and they decide to try this as a possible location for the beast's hideout. He cries excitedly, forgetting their mission, "'What a place for a fort!'" as Ralph urges them to move on for the sake of rekindling the signal fire on the mountain. The others pay Ralph little mind, including Jack. As if in another world, they roll rocks down the cliff face in glee; one large boulder Jack even fantasizes about using as a catapault-type weapon, "'Shove a palm trunk under that and if an enemy came....'"Chapter 6, pg. 96. Finally Ralph, becomes extremely agitated, punches a rock and orders them harshly, "'I'm chief. We've got to make certain [that there is no beast]....There's no signal showing [on the mountain]. There may be a ship out there.'" Chapter 6, pg. 98.

Increasingly, Ralph and Jack pursue their own desires: Jack wishing to destroy and hunt; Ralph wishing to be rescued, carried back to his home and father and the ponies of which he dreams. Despite their opposite ideals and patterns of behavior, they are similar in personality and motive. Both are dreamers and seem to be distant from the true needs of those they govern; when the littluns have nightmares, Ralph does not care for them but rather is quite selfish, dreaming happy thoughts of home. Jack hardly bothers with the littuns either, referring to them frequently as "crybabies." In any case, once more Jack relents and the group continues on their way, leaving their new-found fortress behind, but surely not forgotten.

Topic Tracking: Government 7

Chapter 7 "Shadows and Tall Trees"

The boys, led by Jack and Ralph, continue their search for the beast sighted by Samneric on the mountain, walking along the pig-run. Ralph reminisces again for his old life, when he was clean and had a proper haircut; where there were ponies back home and books; where he ate cornflakes with sugar, not pig and fruit. He escapes to his thoughts, into the reflection of all the luxuries he is now forced to live without. Comfort comes from Simon who assures him simply, as if reading his thoughts, "'You'll get back to where you came from.'" Chapter 7, pg. 100.

After Roger traces out fresh pig droppings on the ground, Jack convinces Ralph to allow them to hunt as they continue along; he agrees. A boar is soon pursued by all of the boys, including Ralph, who has sticks it with a spear as it makes its escape. In the chase, Jack's arm has been cut by the pig's tusks. Even though the prey has gotten away, the boys relive the thrill of hunting by encircling Robert as if he were the pig, grabbing and pulling at him in a circle, chanting yet again: "'Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!'" Chapter 7, pg. 104 to one another. Even Ralph is compelled to join them, "fighting to get near....The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering." Chapter 7, pg. 104.

Just as earlier rules were established to create Ralph's society with the assembly and conch, so now does this ritual cause the hunters to visualize a new type of society, with this ritual improved by "a fire [and]...a drum...to keep time." Jack adds that someone could dress up like the pig and the others would reenact the battle to slay it. The focus of the group drifts further from that envisioned by Ralph, partly due to his own participation in the hunter's activities. Even he is beginning to lose sight of his purpose by hunting the pig. Finally he remembers his purpose, as if emerging from a trance, and urges them to rekindle the signal fire, after all of their talk of pig rituals and dancing.

Topic Tracking: Pig 5
Topic Tracking: Religion 7
Topic Tracking: Government 8

Simon volunteers to go back to the camp to check up on Piggy and the littluns. Without warning, he disappears into the forest. The rest go on along the pig-run following at last to the mountain where Samneric saw the "beast." Night has fallen and as they climb ash blows through their eyes and hair, remnants of the blaze which was burnt across the island their first night there. Jack continues to cajole Ralph for being so concerned about Piggy, whom Jack has resented from the beginning, perhaps viewing Ralph's concern as betrayal to him. Sarcastically he says, "'We musn't let anything happen to Piggy, mustn't we?'" Chapter 7, pg. 106. Ralph's talent as a leader is also called into question here with the narrator's comment: "Ralph...would treat the day's decisions as though he were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player." Chapter 7, pg. 106. Rather than an ideal leader, Ralph is shown here to be quite the opposite. This is evidenced in his inconsistent behavior, such as that seen earlier when he loses sight of his own mission and allows Jack to take control of the group.

At last, only three go on to reach the summit of the mountain: Roger, Ralph and Jack; the others have stayed behind because of fear. There they see the same bowed figure of the lifeless pilot, swaying in the wind before them. Without warning they cast down their spears and all three run madly back to the security of the beach where the other children are waiting.

Topic Tracking: Government 9
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 6

Chapter 8 "Gift for the Darkness"

Upon returning to the beach, Piggy listens in disbelief to Jack and Ralph, who both say they had seen the beast with their own eyes--Ralph declares that it "had teeth and big black eyes." With the sun rising, for the third day in a row an assembly is called with a blow of the conch. It is to be the last of its kind that includes the entire group. The tension between Jack and Ralph reaches a climax with Ralph insulting Jack's hunters by calling them "boys with sticks." Jack counters by stating that Ralph is a coward who is now "like Piggy....He says things like Piggy. He isn't a proper chief.'" Chapter 8, pg. 115.

At this, Jack requests a vote from the group to remove Ralph from power. No one raises their hands and so, lacking support for the motion, he abruptly declares his defection from Ralph's society. Here is the turning point as the group officially splits, although signs of rising tensions between the two have been evident throughout. Jack disappears, inviting all who want to be a hunter to join his new "society".

Topic Tracking: Government 10
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 7

Ralph, feeling his control slip away, turns increasingly to Piggy for support. Simon urges them all to climb the mountain, though his advice is not taken seriously. Instead, Piggy has the idea of building the signal fire on the beach near the shelters. He is in good spirits at the departure of Jack, whom he has always feared as a physical threat (for it was Jack who broke his glasses after slapping his face) and he was "so full of pride in his contribution to the good of society, that he helped to fetch wood." Chapter 8, pg. 118.

It is important to note an almost parasitic relationship which forms between these two; as Ralph learns to think and intellectualize more and more, so too does Piggy learn increasingly to be more aggressive and active in deeds like Ralph. His language becomes less and less an annoyance. Piggy's aunt, whom he would talk endlessly about like a child at the opening of the book, is no longer mentioned at all. Indeed, the boys grow up by learning from one another. To continue to rely on nonexistent adults to guide them would be insensible, so now they rely on themselves for survival, and become responsible.

Among the boys who defect to Jack's society are Bill, Maurice, Roger and others. Even Simon disappears from Ralph's group, though for other reasons--presumably to climb the mountain alone. Samneric, Ralph and Piggy thus happily sit on the beach feasting for the moment on a mountain of fruit, trying to forget their worries.

Topic Tracking: Intellectual 8

Meanwhile, Jack and his hunters slay a female sow disturbed while nursing her piglets. The method in which she is slain is almost violently sexual in nature, as Roger impales her "'Right up her ass!'" Chapter 8, pg. 123 with a spear while Jack cuts her throat, wiping the blood from his hands onto Maurice's cheeks with laughter, as if it were only fingerpaint. In a way, the pig is raped by the boys and defiled, unlike the other pig slayings. Here a boundary has been crossed. It would seem that not only are Ralph and Piggy maturing, but Jack and his hunters are growing up as well, although in a darker way. Roger is ordered to "sharpen a stick at both ends". The sow's head is cut off entirely and left to drip blood and guts onto the ground. "'This head is for the beast. It's a gift.'" Chapter 8, pg. 124 Jack declares boldly, lodging one end of the stick into the ground and placing the sow's head on the other. Picking up the remaining carcass, the boys move onward from the scene.

Topic Tracking: Pig 6
Topic Tracking: Beast 5

The focus returns to Piggy and Ralph, tending the fire on the beach. Piggy blames Jack for the group's problems and Ralph agrees. No longer a steadfast leader with his decreased following, Ralph is biased and shows disdain for Jack, blaming him for everything that has gone wrong on the island. As Simon pointed out earlier, the beast which fills the boys with such fear is actually a figment in their minds, a piece within themselves. There is further discussion of Samneric doing everything together such as tending the fire, in one turn. Thinking as always in terms of logic, Piggy disagrees with this arrangement suggesting they take separate turns at the fire. Ralph leans ever-increasingly upon Piggy for support, needing to be reminded about the need for the signal fire, even after he was the one who insisted it be kept burning in the beginning.

Abruptly, Jack's hunters burst in upon them, grabbing half-burning branches to light their own pig-roasting fire. All are invited to attend Jack's little "party" to eat more meat. The littluns, Samneric and the rest sit in expectation, even as the sky begins to grow dark with clouds.

Simon sits down to rest near the decapitated sow's head in the forest. His curiousity gets the better of him and he decides to wait to see if a beast will actually come for its gift. Flies have begun to swarm around its blood and guts at the base of the stick and they begin to attack Simon as well, and "[Simon's] eyes were half-closed as though he were imitating the obscene thing on the stick." Chapter 8, pg. 130. Suddenly a voice designated only as The Lord of the Flies speaks from nowhere and mocks him, saying "'You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are what they are?'" Chapter 8, pg. 130. The pig's skull is unmoving; the voice comes from inside Simon. As he had stated earlier, the beast is a part of all of them, and so he confronts the beast within himself. The ugly beast externalized upon the stake, that pig's head buzzing with flies, suddenly mirrors Simon, eyes half closed and himself buzzing with flies as well. The outside and inside are at this moment one and the same. The beast then begins to threaten him saying, "'You're not wanted....on this island!... So don't try [to take] it on...or else....we shall do you. See? Jack and Roger and Maurice and Robert and Bill and Piggy and Ralph.'" Chapter 8, pg. 131. If Simon attempts again to explain to all of the children that there is really no beast but that which is in themselves, he is warned that he shall be thus killed not only by Jack but by Ralph and Piggy too, for the beast, the voice says, is in all of them. With these words spoken from within, Simon falls unconsciousness after being swallowed by "a vast mouth [with] blackness within." (pg. 131)

Topic Tracking: Religion 8
Topic Tracking: Beast 6

Chapter 9 "A View to a Death"

Simon awakens from his slumber after being confronted by the beast within, dubbed The Lord of the Flies. Although Simon's face is encrusted with dried blood from the many times they have stung him, the flies which were buzzing around him have returned to the stinking pig's head on the stake. Continuing up the mountain he alone has the will to actually stop at the sight of the bulging body all the others had feared and fled from--he sees "the beast" for what it really is, not a beast at all but simply a pitiful figure, a "poor broken thing," which, though the pilot's flesh rots, is still held together by a mass of rubber cords and cloth. Staggering now from his ordeal with the Lord of the Flies, he sees in the distance the pig-roasting fire on the beach. Assuming this is where he'll find the rest of the boys, he descends to warn them there is no beast on the mountain.

Topic Tracking: Religion 9
Topic Tracking: Beast 7

Meanwhile, Ralph leaves to go to Jack's pig roast at Piggy's insistence, who wishes to satisfy his own rumbling stomach. It is the sow whose head was cut off and given as a gift for the beast that will be devoured here. Even as Piggy fears and hates Jack he is compelled to go to him once again, bearing the first signs of inconsistency in his behavior as well. Even after Jack's hunters stole fire from them earlier to set the blaze for this feast, even as Jack has bluntly rejected Ralph's society and rules, the two still both agree to go. Upon arriving, there is a massive feast. Ralph and Piggy eat and then, after showing up for a free meal, Ralph attempts to call yet another assembly, for he has brought the sacred conch to the feast. He is laughed at and mocked by all of the boys. Without warning it begins to rain furiously and Ralph reprimands them for not having shelters to protect them from the storm.

However, Jack excitedly begins again the ritual dance enacted earlier, repeating the chant, "'Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!'" Chapter 9, pg. 138. The word "pig" sung in their earlier chant has been replaced with "beast" and it is this creature which Roger now mimics, surrounded by all the other boys who pretend to attack him. Ralph and even Piggy now take part as well. They "found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror [of the makeshift beast] and made it governable." Chapter 9, pg. 138. Yet again Ralph and Piggy have forgotten the signal fire, the shelters and all of the things to which they had clung and propelled them on thus far. Like Jack, they begin to forget their civilized roots and are consumed by this strange new power.

Topic Tracking: Government 11
Topic Tracking: Pig 7
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 9

As the pace grows more and more frantic and the thunderstorm above rises in fury, Simon suddenly appears from the forest and breaks through their circle, trying to warn and comfort them not to be afraid, that he has seen the beast and it is just a dead rotting body. Only he seems to remember what matters to them, trying as always to help in the midst of crisis. However, his voice is drowned out by their chanting and, knocked to the ground, Simon is stabbed by their spears, mistaken for the beast, as he was earlier by one of the sleepwalking littluns. The events are described almost as if the boys were animals or beasts themselves: "There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws." Chapter 9, pg. 139

At last they back off and see Simon's dead body in the sand, recognizing who he is. Simultaneously the wind breaks the pilot's body free from the mountaintop, dragging it down through the circle of boys on the beach and out to sea, scattering them in all directions, driven by fear. The wind carried it out over the reef and out to sea. Shortly after, with the rain stopped, the night stars reflect down into the sea, and "The water rose farther and dressed Simon's coarse hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble." Chapter 9, pg. 140. In all of the confusion, the one boy who knew and truly saw things as they were was killed, as he had been warned would happen by The Lord of the Flies if he dared to try to warn them and not conform to his inner, primitive instincts. Simon had resisted even as all the others were consumed, including Ralph and Piggy who danced and chanted with the others and had joined in killing him.

For the last time, as in past days when he would attempt to convey his wisdom to the assembly, Simon and his words were ignored. His body is swept out to the ocean after the dead pilot's: "[S]urrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea." Chapter 9, pg. 140.

Topic Tracking: Beast 8
Topic Tracking: Religion 10

Chapter 10 "The Shell and the Glasses"

Shortly thereafter, Ralph and Piggy converse on the beach. Only two and Samneric, aside from some littluns, remain from the original group. Even after what has happened to Simon, all but these four have defected to Jack's tribe. They express guilt about the murder of Simon, having all taken part in it. "'It was an accident,'" Piggy insists and he tells Ralph to hide the fact that they were involved. "'We was on the outside. We never done nothing, we never seen nothing.'" Chapter 10, pg. 143. Samneric share this sentiment as well and it remains a topic not discussed. They want to forget it happened though the deep regret and sadness lingers over them all.

Topic Tracking: Intellectual 10

In the society Jack has created, the tribe, Jack's hunters obey him with a strict obedience and reverence, the kind which was never paid to Ralph. Jack has inhabited the Castle Rock with all of those under his lead. Robert is placed at the entrance like a sentinel. Everyone admires Jack's talent, dubbing him a "proper chief" in contrast to their perceptions of Ralph, who is viewed as a failure for his dependence on Piggy. Jack's orders come from no one else but himself. The boys are all painted over now, carrying spears and looking tribal; their assimilation by Jack has been completed. At a meeting of his "tribe," Jack declares that they shall soon hunt again. The issue of Simon is raised by these boys and Jack declares that the beast came in the form of Simon "disguised." It takes on a supernatural presence over them, now dubbed as a thing which cannot be killed. Jack warns them all, "'We'd better keep on the right side of [the beast]....You can't tell what he might do.'" Chapter 10, pg. 146. Here one finds the source of the power he holds over the boys: where Ralph attempted to tap into their common sense and intuition; Jack, in contrast, taps into their fears. Ralph's assembly has morphed into Jack's tribe.

Jack plans to attack Ralph that night with Maurice and Roger to steal Piggy's glasses--the one item from the civilized world they need in order to start their cooking fires.

Topic Tracking: Beast 9

Ralph and Piggy continue to decline in function. They decide to let the signal fire stop burning for the night, afraid to go into the woods to gather wood. Ralph dreams now not of the sweet ponies at his home in Devon, England, deeming them to be too savage. Wishing to escape from the savagery, as "the attraction of wildness had gone" he thinks now of "What could be safer than the bus center with its lamps and wheels?" Chapter 10, pg. 150. The solution and elimination of the primitive, of the beast and wildness in Ralph's mind, is technology and civilization. Nearby, as Ralph thinks of escaping this wildness, Samneric, usually so collected and speaking as one, are fighting one another, "locked in an embrace." Broken into two pieces, it is almost as if they are reflecting the inner battle in Ralph's mind between the savage and the civilized worlds.

Suddenly, the sleeping boys are attacked by Jack, Maurice and Roger. Piggy thinks that the hunters are really the beast descending upon them and shouts: "'It's come...It's real!'" Chapter 10, pg. 151 In the ensuing scuffle, Piggy's glasses are stolen. Assuming naively that the tribe has come for the conch, Ralph notices that it hasn't even been touched--the conch and assembly were part of Ralph's old world and have no value or worth in the new world Jack has created for the boys at Castle Rock. It is only the fire which they need for their rituals and pig roasting.

Piggy is now completely helpless in his blindness. Ralph, who has been relying on Piggy for advice and guidance, now sees his friend struck down, as powerless as himself. With this final strike, Jack has won the war, leaving Ralph and Piggy with nothing of value.

Topic Tracking: Intellectual 11
Topic Tracking: Government 12
Topic Tracking: Beast 10

Chapter 11 "Castle Rock"

After deciding to go to sleep without tending to the fire, Ralph, nursing his swollen cheek from the previous night's attack in which Piggy's glasses were stolen, awakens at dawn and begins blowing into the cold embers, hoping that some spark is still burning. However the result is only to have ash blown into his eyes, mirroring the incident on the mountain earlier in which he, Jack and Roger investigated the presence of the beast.

Piggy urges him to call yet another assembly even though nobody is left except for Samneric. Ralph, though doubtful as to the necessity of this, at last agrees and blows hard into the conch. The four of them talk about how all of the problems of the island are to be blamed on Jack. Ralph insists that he would have given Jack fire to use if he had only asked rather than stealing the glasses; their not getting rescued due to the lack of a signal fire is blamed on Jack, as is the murder of Simon, in which the four of them had taken part as well.

Piggy dismisses all of this, saying: "'This is 'jus talk....I want my glasses.'" Chapter 11, pg. 155. He, as always, propels Ralph (who is described earlier as comparable to "a chess player") into action. Ralph speaks about going up to the Castle Rock where Jack has established the base for his tribe: "'[We should be] looking like we used to, washed and hair brushed -- after all we aren't savages really....'" Chapter 11, pg. 155. Here he clings again to the old nostalgia of his dreams and his yearning for home and things civilized. Though this is a symbolic gesture for their adherence to civilized behaviors, Piggy dismisses it all, seizing up the conch in order to speak, saying he is going to go up the mountain, without a spear, and walk right up to Jack and demand that his glasses back. Piggy's old timidity has completely left, as he speaks without fear. As he talks, "[a] single drop of water that had escaped Piggy's fingers now flashed on the delicate curve [of the shell] like a star." Chapter 11, pg. 156. The mention of a star here recalls the description of stars earlier, when they reflected off the dead body of Simon as it was swept out into the ocean. The remaining four boys leave to visit Castle Rock, on a mission to retrieve Piggy's glasses.

Topic Tracking: Intellectual 12

As the boys approach, the thin line of a cooking fire is visible overhead and Roger stops them at the entrance. Ralph ignores his command to turn back and declares that once more he is calling an assembly, much in contrast to his earlier doubts on the beach about the futility of such action. Roger begins tossing rocks at Samneric, "aiming to miss" just as he had done with Percival, Johnny and Henry when they were building sand castles on the beach. Now at Castle Rock, this activity is repeated again. Jack is suddenly seen emerging from the forest with two other hunters, all three "masked in black and green." Chapter 11, pg. 160. Just returning from the hunt, "Behind them on the grass the headless and paunched body of a sow lay where they had dropped it." Chapter 11, pg. 160

Upon seeing this, Piggy begins to yell nervously. Jack and Ralph enter an argument about Piggy's glasses and the two begin to fight, swinging spears at one another, their language mirroring each anothers, the one saying, "Come on then" and the other saying, "Come on" and later, "You come on and see what you get" responded by, "You come on." They fight alike and act alike. Their struggle and scuffle is much akin to that small incident of the twins, Samneric, fighting earlier. Piggy attempts to maintain Ralph's focus and, fearing for his own safety, shouts out: "'Ralph -- remember what we came for. The fire. My specs.'" Chapter 11, pg. 161 and once more Ralph attempts to regain his senses. Caught between these two elements, Piggy and his logic versus Jack and his savagery, Ralph struggles to stop fighting and begins again with his old jargon, talking about the need for a signal fire in order to be rescued.

Topic Tracking: Government 13
Topic Tracking: Pig 8

Samneric are suddenly seized at Jack's command by his hunters and "Samneric protested out of the heart of civilization, 'Oh, I say!' '-honestly!'" Chapter 11, pg. 163. Here the two twins are both taken prisoner by the savages. Now Ralph screams out, calling out to Jack: "'You're a beast and a swine and a bloody, bloody thief!'" Chapter 11, pg. 163. As the two prepare to fight again, Piggy steps in suddenly in one last attempt to restore reason to the group, holding the conch aloft. "Let me speak...I got the conch," he says and even as he begins his monologue, Roger has already begun dropping stones upon him--this time not aiming to miss. "'Which is better--to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is....Which is better--to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?'" Chapter 11, pg. 164. Now, rather than speaking through Ralph as he has done thus far, Piggy himself speaks and attempts to lead. However, at this moment Roger presses down on a lever set in place beneath a large boulder and it falls slowly--"[t]he rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist." Chapter 11, pg. 164. "Piggy's arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig's after it has been killed." Chapter 11, pg. 165. After he falls far down to the beach his dead body, as with the body of Simon, is sucked out to sea by the waves.

Events following occur very quickly, as Ralph attempts to speak with no sound coming out. Jack hurls a spear which catches him in the ribs and bounces off. Boundaries have been crossed as now it is a boy not a pig which is attacked by spears. Ralph takes off running into the forest, bounding over the headless sow's body still lying on the ground. Jack orders everyone back to their fort, to Castle Rock, and he draws near to Samneric, still tied up, demanding to know why they had resisted joining his tribe. Silently, Roger approaches the twins edging past Jack, "as one wielding a nameless authority." Chapter 11, pg. 166. They are about to be tortured by Roger's hands, the very same hands which had only just murdered Piggy moments before.

Topic Tracking: Intellectual 13
Topic Tracking: Beast 11
Topic Tracking: Pig 9

Chapter 12 "Cry of the Hunters"

Ralph at last settles in an area of forest which he thinks he is safe, nursing the wounds and scratches from the trees which now cover his body. Intense description is now given to his senses, what he hears and sees. He attempts to rationalize, wondering what shall happen next, thinking for a fleeting moment that they would leave him alone. The old idealism continues to show through, going so far as allowing him to think about the murder of Piggy: "'They're not as bad as that. It was an accident.'" Chapter 12, pg. 168 He at last realizes this is an impossibility, for "[t]hen there was that indefinable connection between himself and Jack; who therefore would never let him alone...." Chapter 12, pg. 168 The two appear to be very much the same in character as described by their actions, having mirrored one another when engaged in battle.

Arriving at some fruit trees, Ralph feasts hungrily. Some littluns flee screaming when they see his unsightly appearance. He then comes across the same clearing where Simon had confronted The Lord of the Flies, where still stands the pig's head on the stick. Now only a hairless skull remains--all flesh has been consumed by the hundreds of flies which were surrounding it earlier. Punching the skull from fear, Ralph takes up the stick which had held it. The skull, now split into two pieces, continues to grin up at the sky. Continuing onwards in the dark of night, he nears Castle Rock again where Samneric are now described, like all the rest of the boys, as "savages." Behind the outline of these two, "A star appeared...and was momentarily eclipsed by some movement." Chapter 12, pg. 170. The presence of the star recalls again the scene of Simon's dead body and the description of the drop of water on the conch, shortly before the death of Piggy. Now a star is described, not only "covered" but undergoing an "eclipse," the covering of one heavenly body over another.

Ralph approaches and calls out to his two old friends, Samneric, but they usher him away out of fear, at first "gibbering" incoherently and then explaining that the hunters had hurt them. They warn Ralph that when the morning came, the hunters would all be hunting Ralph and how they had "'to be careful and throw...spears like at a pig.'" Chapter 12, pg. 172. The boy Ralph is viewed by the tribe the same as a pig--a thing to be hunted. The twins warn him that Roger had "sharpened a stick at both ends," implying that Ralph's head would also sit upon a stake as an offering to the beast. After giving Ralph a chunk of meat, Ralph leave and returns to hiding in order to sleep, reverting briefly to his old nostalgia, even now wishing for his home with its civilized things like "a bed and sheets." As he closes his eyes, cries of pain from Samneric are heard.

Topic Tracking: Pig 10

Ralph awakens at dawn to the sound of a noise nearby, stirring him. Rising, he enters the thicket in which the boulder which had been used to murder Piggy had passed through, observing the damage. Next there is the commotion of Jack speaking to one of the twins, saying "Are you sure?" implying that his hiding place had been disclosed by them. As he sits quietly listening and seeing everything around him, enormous boulders begin to roll past, tossed from Castle Rock; Ralph thinks of how one rock that remains there is "half as big as a cottage, big as a car, a tank." Chapter 12, pg. 176. Savages begin to fan out all around Ralph's hiding place and finally, with one directly adjacent he stabs his spear hard into its leg, twisting it. "A babble of voices" is heard and, still crouched in his hiding place, Ralph "showed his teeth at the wall of branches....snarled a little, and waited." Chapter 12, pg. 177. Ralph himself begins to act like a savage. Smoke begins to fill the area and he, realizing that they have set the entire island aflame to drive him out into the open, ponders what to do next. This brings up the fire of the first night, when they set the island aflame after lighting a signal fire for the first time--what was begun then is now nearing its end.

Viewing the scene, the savages are all masked in different colors. This is made quite clear in the description of one in "brown, black, and red" and another "striped red and white" at which "Ralph launched himself like a cat; stabbed, snarling, with the spear, and the savage doubled up." Chapter 12, pp. 177-8. Even as he thinks of these enemies as savages, he himself seems to have become consumed in the same aggression and desire to hurt others which they carry. Hiding again under a bush and still being hunted, he ponders what to do next, urging himself to think. "What was the sensible thing to do? There was no Piggy to talk sense." Chapter 12, pg. 179. Without Piggy who had urged him along thus far and maintained his focus, Ralph is lost. At last he compares his thoughts to those of a pig, wondering "if a pig would agree."

Topic Tracking: Government 14
Topic Tracking: Pig 11
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 13
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 14

Lamenting vainly that the fire has begun to burn the fruit trees, he worries still about "[w]hat would they eat tomorrow?" He compares his movement to an animal again, "[c]ouldn't a fire outrun a galloping horse?" Chapter 12, pg. 180. His thoughts begin to race with a mirage of painted faces around him, all "savages" and Simon's old words of comfort return, "You'll get back." Chapter 12, pg. 181. Now screaming again and "foaming" he attacks again and breaking into a full sprint he runs out, tailed by all of the hunters now screaming and shouting as all around him the fire burns, consuming everything. Finally nearing the beach, "[h]e saw a shelter burst into flames and the fire flapped at his right shoulder...." Chapter 12, pg. 182.

Stumbling out of the forest and into the sand, ending at last with no place left to run--stuck against the water, he falls down, covering his face with his arms in a last defensive cry for mercy, preparing for the approach of the savages. Rising to his feet, he looks up at the sight of a grown-up, a naval officer in full dress uniform. Behind him a cutter sits on the beach "her bow hauled up and held by two ratings. In the stern-sheets another rating held a sub-machine gun." Chapter 12, pg. 182. The officer asks Ralph if there are grown-ups with him; as if in a daze he shakes his head. Running up behind Ralph come all of the other "savages" now reduced to what they are: "a semi-circle of little boys, their bodies streaked with colored clay, sharp sticks in their hands...." Chapter 12, pg. 182-3. They no longer hunters but boys; they wear not elaborate paint but clay; they carry not spears but sticks. Behind them, the island continues to be consumed by flame, burning at last the coconut trees bordering the beach.

Topic Tracking: Beast 12
Topic Tracking: Religion 11

Claiming that the smoke from the huge blaze on the island, set by Jack's hunters, had drawn them there, the officer asks Ralph if they were having some sort of "war" to which he responds "yes" and states that two had already been killed. Percival walks up to introduce himself as he had before with full name and address, but now he stops only after "I'm--, I'm--" for he has forgotten his identity. After Ralph declares he is the boss there, the officer expresses disappointment at the state they had gotten themselves into saying, "'I should have thought that a pack of British boys...would have been able to put up a better show than that....'" Chapter 12, pg. 184. Ralph struggles for an answer and the officer, attempting to be helpful, replies that it must have been an adventure for them, "Like the Coral Island." This comparison was used at the book's onset in expressing the boys' original excitement of being stranded on a tropical island.

Thinking back to this, and recalling all that had happened with the murders and breakdown of the society he had tried so hard to maintain until their rescue, Ralph begins to cry; the others all join him and the sobs rise up, overwhelming the officer who turns his back to glance at the naval cruiser out in the water. No longer savages, the arrival of a grown-up and "civilization" turns them from savages back to what they were in the beginning--a group of lost boys. "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." Chapter 12, pg. 184 Piggy's name, the voice of reason, is invoked here one last time, counterbalanced by the mention of "the darkness of man's heart." Everything returns to what it was and, at last, the boys are rescued by naval officers who came across their ruined island in a British ship of war.

Topic Tracking: Government 15
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 15