CH. 12: Cry of the Hunters (by Tommy)

Lord of the Flies: Chapter 12 Analysis

 Jack’s new tribe is established at the Castle Rock. The Castle Rock has a warlike connotation; the word castle makes us think of war and fortresses, and the word rock brings the ideas of cold and hard to the reader. The spot was also chosen by Jack to be a fortress as the name might suggest. This tells us that Jack and his new society have returned to civilization in a sense, but a lower form of it. Instead of being a society based upon debate and knowledge, Jack has established a militaristic state. Jack’s new tribe can be compared to ancient Sparta. In Sparta young boys were trained to be warriors. Knowledge was not valued in Sparta, only war. In Jack’s tribe the boys are trained to be hunters, and this makes them very similar to warriors. Jack’s tribe also does not value knowledge, only hunting and killing. Sparta was a very hard and strict place to live and therefore the new tribe would probably be under the same circumstances. These hard conditions are symbolized by the “Rock” part of the name “Castle Rock”. This is a polar opposite of Ralph and Piggy’s society where survival and being rescued were the top priorities. After Samneric is captured Ralph is the only one left who is arguably civilized. When he tries to talk to Samneric they initially tell him to go away out of fear of Jack and Roger. They tell him that Jack was going to hunt him down the following day. In Jacks efforts to kill Ralph, he sets the entire island on fire. In an ironic twist this fire is seen by a naval captain who comes to the island and saves Ralph. The ending of the book is ironic because The fire that Ralph set up to get them rescued in the beginning of the book represented a civil society with rules and a base of a government, but the fire that saved the children was one that was created by an internal bloodlust and evil intent that Jack and Roger represented.

Chapter 11: Castle Rock

In Castle Rock, the 11th chapter in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a few key events take place that help lead the reader toward the end of the story. In the opening scene of the chapter, we see that Piggy, Ralph, and Samneric (Sam and Eric) are the only people remaining on the island who are not either dead or savages. In the previous chapter, the four boys had been attacked by Jack and the savages. Unfortunately, the larger group pounded the four boys into next week and also managed to steal Piggy's broken glasses. The only glimmer of hope left for them at this point is the conch, which Piggy holds on to dearly. But, without the glasses, there can be no fire- nothing to signal any nearby boats. Piggy, feeling as defeated as Ralph (who still remained unable to get a fire started), says, "Course it's not use, Ralph. Now we got no fire."
(169) After some discussion on the matter, Piggy, Ralph, and Samneric choose to go to Jack and the savages to tell them off for the bad deeds they'd committed, and to ask for Piggy's stolen glasses back. On their journey there, they manage to spot something in the distance. "Sam touched [Ralph]'s arm. 'Smoke.' There was a tiny smudge of smoke wavering into the air on the other side of the rock."(174) Soon after, Ralph and his friends are spotted by one of the savages. He then blows the conch and brings all of the savages together for what he called "an assembly". After this, we are informed of the presence of Roger- "High above, Roger took his hands off the lever and leaned out to see what was going on."(175) Next, Roger throws a stone down between the twins to get their attention. We can see a sort of unusual change within Roger.. "Some source of power began to pulse in Roger's body."(175) After Ralph questions the savages as to the whereabouts of Jack, Jack comes out of the forest flanked by two hunters. After yelling at each other for a while regarding Jack's thievery, Jack and Ralph clash weapons, but soon give up the ordeal. Suddenly, Samneric are taken and tied up by the savages. After more yelling, the "climax of the chapter" occurs. Roger, high above, prepares to push a massive boulder down on to the unknowing group. Roger, "with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all of his weight on the lever." Unfortunately, Piggy happened to be right under the falling stone- "the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist... Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea." Ralph's only choice at this point is to run away- leaving Samneric to be tortured by Roger. This climactic occurence near the end of the chapter can be connected to a real-life experiment which went on only forty or so years ago- The Milgram Experiment. In this experiment, an innocent person would be taken in to a mysterious room by a scientist. The scientist would then claim that the panel in front of the innocent person from the street (we'll call him bob) delivered shocks to somebody in a different room (we'll call them 'the actor' because this person in the different room was actually an actor and was not really recieving these shocks). Bob would ask the actor a question, and if the actor answered incorrectly, Bob would shock the actor, starting with 15 volts and going all of the way up to 400 volts. The apparent idea of the experiment was to prove whether or not pain helped people to learn better. But, in reality, it was to see how far people would go delivering shocks to a person they could not see before they stopped and walked away. Unfortunately, statistics showed more than half of the people who were experimented on went to 400 volts on the panel, just because a scientist told them to. Other variations on the experiment showed that much fewer people went all of the way to 400 volts when they saw the effect of the electric shocks on the person they were shocking. To connect the book with this experiment, we can see that Roger was able to "go all the way"- kill Piggy- by pushing the boulder down on to him. Since Roger was very high above Piggy and could not see the person he was about to kill, it was very likely this was what allowed him to do it. So, chapter 11's book-changing event is the death of Piggy- whose real name we never really found out!

Chapter 11: Castle Rock

In the beginning of this chapter, Samneric (Sam and Eric), Ralph, and Piggy are attempting to start a fire, but are unable to because of the loss of Piggy's glasses. Ralph then calls a meeting, with the intention to force Jack to give back Piggy's glasses.

When the boys arrived, Ralph blew the conch, which ordered a meeting. They discovered that there were guards protecting the tribe, who threw rocks at them and told them to leave. When Jack and his hunters appeared, they were holding a dead pig and told the boys to leave. The pig represented the devil from within that Simon discovered earlier. Jack holding the pig represents that Jack completely converted to the devil's side. Ralph did not listen and demanded Piggy's glasses from him, trying to advocate the importance of building a fire and trying to get rescued. In response, Jack attacked Ralph which led to a fight between the two of them. Jack showed a complete lack of rationale during this situation, because he became too wrapped up in the reality of the island to see the outside world as a reality. While they were fighting, Piggy attempted to help them remember reason with words, but failed to get them to listen.

Jack then ordered the hunters to tie up Samneric, who were two of the few boys who did not fall under the authority of evil.

While the two were fighting, Roger pushed a large rock over the mountain, similarly to how he threw pebbles at a small boy closer to the beginning of the book. When Roger threw the stones at the small boy, this was probably foreshadowing to this instance. Ralph fortunately heard the large rock rolling and managed to avoid it, but Piggy was hit by the rock and was killed. Along with the death of Piggy was the shattering of the conch shell.

Ralph took off into the woods, while Samneric were tortured into the submission of Jack's tribe.

This chapter is the finalized the defeat of society on the island. Piggy represented logic and the conch represented society, both of which were destroyed.

The book tries to convey that evil defeats good. Logic (Piggy) and Society (the conch) were destroyed, and good intentions (Ralph) were isolated. Meanwhile evil (Jack) had power and control.

Chapter 10: The Shell and the Glasses

As the tenth chapter of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies begins, it is the morning after Simon’s death during the savage dance. Simon had been mistaken for the beast and, in a frenzied excitement, many of the children on the island participate in stabbing him to death. Both Simon and the other physical manifestation of the beast (the dead pilot) are washed away from the island during a terrible storm, leaving no trace of the beast and opening the island up to complete anarchy at the hands of Jack and his tribe. The first lines of The Shell and the Glasses find Piggy reuniting with Ralph the morning after the death of Simon. Both are visibly battered; Piggy’s glasses have one lens shattered and it is hard for him to see anything clearly, and Ralph seems to be even worse off: “One eye was a slit in his puffy cheek and a great scab had formed on his right knee” (155). The first thing that Ralph asks Piggy is whether they are the only two people on the island not part of Jack’s tribe. It is obvious by his question that Ralph no longer maintains any pretense of authority on the island, and Jack is completely in control. The depressing idea here is that chaos and tyranny have triumphed over democracy and civilization. Golding is stating that he believes that, when a conflict arises between good and evil (in simplest terms), evil will emerge victorious. Only Samneric and a few littluns remain with Ralph. Ralph quietly brings up the subject of Simon, and the two of them sit in gloomy silence for a while. Ralph asks Piggy what to do and Piggy suggests calling an assembly. Ralph’s response to this is a bitter laugh- the idea that he can still control the rest of the kids is ludicrous to him. When Ralph says that Simon was murdered, Piggy is angry: “‘You stop it!’ said Piggy, shrilly” (156). Piggy refuses to accept that he had a hand in Simon’s death and says that the death was just a misunderstanding. He blames anything that he can think of for what happened. “It was dark. There was that -- that bloody dance. There was lightning and thunder and rain. We was scared!” This describes how the boys have gone beyond the point of fun and games. They are no longer boys playing on the island but a bunch of savages. Piggy is the most intelligent person on the island, but he is also the one who is least willing (next to the deceased Simon) to accept the “Lord of the Flies” (symbolic of the devil within each and every man) as a part of himself. Ralph is shocked by the death but unwilling to say that the death was just an accident. He knows that it was murder, though the heightened environment of the island makes it hard to attribute the death to one cause. Piggy is desperate to pin Ralph back up as a poster boy for order, so he convinces Ralph to not reveal to Samneric the true scale of their involvement. Samneric seem to have reached a similar agreement and both pairs say that they left before the dance. However, everyone knows that they were all participants in the death: “The air was heavy with unspoken knowledge… Memory of the dance that none of them had attended shook all four boys convulsively” (158). Golding wants readers to worry about the remainder of Ralph and his group, because they cannot even admit that the darkness (‘the beast’) exists within them, let alone fight against it and defeat it. With this failed deception, the scene switches to the sadistic Roger (who seems less upset about the events of the previous evening) reaching Jack’s new lair on Castle Rock. Jack has now completely become a tyrant, defending his territory with potentially deadly traps and ruling through fear. He has recently tied up and beaten a young boy named Wilfred for seemingly no reason. Roger is fascinated by this and considers what other abuses of authority might be in store for the group. Jack has chalked the events of the night before up to a successful fight against the beast. Jack is careful to point out that the beast is still alive, so he can continue to use fear of the beast as a tool with which he can manipulate the children into following his orders. Jack is flustered when someone asks him a practical question about lighting a fire but quickly recovers himself and schemes to steal fire from Ralph’s group during the night. This thievery shows just how far into darkness Jack and his followers have fallen. They do not even consider asking for fire. Stealing is the only option. The irony of the group’s fear of the beast is that they murdered the only person who could have successfully explained the intangibility of the beast to them in a dance to ward off the beast. Also, the beast has already infiltrated their camp and no number of dances can repel it. They are being led towards utter savagery by the beast that has corrupted Jack. The scene switches to Ralph’s group making a fire with Piggy’s specs. They admit that the fire is as much as for the group’s overall benefit as for their own personal comfort. As they wearily tend to the fire, they realize just how terrified they are of the other group. Samneric remark that it would be better to be captured by enemies of England than by Jack. They are all depressed and losing faith in the signal fire. Even Ralph has been on the island so long that he has nearly forgotten the purpose of the signal fire. It has become a mechanical duty instead of something he personally feels is vital. Piggy, the one least accepting of man’s savage nature, reminds them of rescue and life outside the prison of the island. As night falls, Ralph feels as if he is losing a battle that he must not lose. He is beginning to understand just how pointless his quest to maintain order is. They fall asleep but no one sleeps soundly and all of them have bad dreams. In the middle of the night, Piggy shakes Ralph awake because Jack and two of his tribe are outside are howling for Piggy. Ralph tries to stop Piggy from responding, but his asthma attack forces him out into the open where he is jumped. Jack and his group savagely beat Ralph, Piggy and Samneric. Jack, who has convinced his followers that they are right to kill those who are not part of Jack’s group, has brought about this descent into complete mayhem. In the madness, Ralph is attacked and hysterically punches a nameless savage. He lets go of civilization for a moment and nearly kills the kid. This is a shocking reminder of how close everyone is to becoming as evil as Jack. As Jack’s savages depart, they wonder why they were attacked. From things that Ralph and Eric say, it is evident that they were actually fighting each other while the savages were attacking Piggy. Sam was “mixed up with [himself] in a corner” (167). In darkness, nothing is certain, nothing is clear. This is the lesson that the group learns: darkness clouds logic and reduces man to his most basic primal instincts out of fear of what lurks in the unknown. They realize that the conch was left untouched: the reason why the shell is part of the title is because it is one symbol of society that has been cast aside. The power of the shell is severely diminished. The glasses, the other symbol of society, have been taken by Jack to make fire. At this point in the book, there is no going back and no hope for rescue. The group is left in darkness, irrevocably stranded on an island, doomed to the savage instinct. It seems evident that nothing can happen now that can save the group from themselves. Lord of the Flies is very similar to The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger because in both books, the protagonist is experiencing the end of innocence and is confronted with the evil and corruption of the outside world. Ralph misses his old life at home in civilization and is fighting a losing battle against Jack and evil. Holden Caulfield misses the innocence of childhood and doesn’t want his younger sister to grow up, while he is trying not to “become a prostitute” (sell out) to society like his older brother did in his eyes. In modern media, there also examples of the blurred line between good and evil. In The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent is a good man determined to eliminate crime from Gotham City (“The night is always darkest right before the dawn”). He is corrupted by the evil on the street and becomes just as evil and twisted as what he was fighting against originally. This is just like what Golding is saying will happen to Ralph if he stays on the island with Jack and the savages too long. The Shell and the Glasses overall symbolizes man’s fall into darkness and, during the chapter, the characters pass the point of no return. There is nowhere to go from here but down.

Lord of Flies Chapter 10 by Sam Forman

Chapter Ten begins in the morning after the murdering of Simon. The people are confused and many are in denial of the previous night unreal, crazy dance. During the event of the dance the tribe had mistaken Simon as the Beast and in all of the excitement, almost all of the people helped in stabbing Simon to death. At the beginning of the chapter Ralph and Piggy are discussing the past night and what had happened. The continued on denying what had happened the night before and said they left early where in fact both of them intervene in the dance event and the killing of Simon. Through the discussion between them as Ralph brings up the death of Simon Piggy can't bring himself up to accepting it and Ralph knew it had happened and justified it as a crazy event. Later, Piggy finds himself talking about the frenzied dance with SamnEric and what had happened, with oblivious action they said they left early, and Piggy said the same thing. In Chapter 10, Jack is becoming a crueler ruler and could be almost classified as a dictator, for no apparent reason Jack tied up a littun' named Wilfred and beaten him. Ralph used deception (not inception) with his tribe and told his confused and unsure followers that they had beaten but not killed the beast the night before. He stated that the "beast" had come in secretly and killed one of the tribe members the night before. Ralph's tribe was making a decision to let the fire continue, but decided to let it go out in the night and collect wood instead. Meanwhile, Jack is definitely showing more signs of evil, and creates a plan to steal Piggy's glasses, the power of fire and the slight disablement of Piggy. Jack was not always an evil person, and at the beginning of the story he was the choir boy who could sing High C and now he is a savage, and has been transformed under the influence of the situation and environment. Similar to earlier in the story, once Maurice stomps on Henry's sandcastle, Roger go as does he same. This is an important idea in the story, and as Phillip Zimbaro said, "It is not the bad apples in the good barrel, it the good apples in the bad barrel." The situation is causing them to act like that, and they were not bad kids to start.

Chapter 9: A View to a Death (by Joelle)

Simon, slightly discombobulated, wakes up and heads toward the hill. On his way up he sees the dead pilot with his waving parachute. Simon comes to the realization that everyone had misinterpreted this as the vicious beast. Seeing this he becomes nauseous and begins to vomit. After gathering himself, he takes the parachute out of the tree. Being so excited that he discovered the beast was fake he goes straight towards Jack’s feast. Ralph and Piggy go to the feast in the hopes that they will be able to control over some of the events. Everyone is laughing and enjoying the pig. Jack sits as of a king on a throne, his face painted like a savage, and being waited on by other boys as if his servants. Again Jack invites people from Ralph’s side to join his tribe, most of them accept. As it starts to rain, Ralph notices Jack has no shelter, and informs Jack. Now aware, Jack orders his tribe to perform its wild hunting dance. Piggy, Ralph and the rest of the boys get caught up in this frenzy. The boys again reenact the hunting of the pig and reach a high pitched of frenzied energy as they chant and dance. Simon starts creeping out of the forest, but the boys being in a different state of mind mistake him for the beast. All the boys descend upon Simon and begin to tear him apart with their bare hands and teeth. Simon tries desperately to explain what has happened and to remind them of who he is, but he trips and plunges over the rocks onto the beach. The boys fall on him violently and kill him. With the storm going on, his body drifts away into the ocean while the dead pilots corpse lands on the beach, sending the boys screaming into the darkness.

Chapter 9: A View to a Death

In chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, "A View to a Death", a tragedy occurs at the end. However, there were many events leading up to it.
The chapter starts with Simon who has just waken up from passing out (after seeing the Lord of the Flies in a hallucination in the previous chapter). He gets up and decides to go up the mountain to prove to the others that the beast is not real. When he arrives at the top of the mountain, he sees the dead pilot attached to the parachute, rising and falling in the wind. Simon realizes that all along, the others have thought that the dead pilot had been the beast, so he frees the parachute and runs down toward the fire where the others are having a feast.
Meanwhile, Ralph and Piggy head toward Jack's tribe where he has invited everyone to his feast. Most people accept his invitation, and they all laugh and enjoy the cooked pig. Ralph and Piggy hope that they can persuade the others that they all have to keep order.
Soon after the dinner, it starts to rain. Ralph challenges Jack, asking him how he will keep the fire going and how his tribe will be able to build shelters against a storm. In response, Jack tells everyone to start dancing and chanting.
As the energy of the dance builds up, the boys get more excited. Even Ralph and Piggy get caught up in the chant, and they both participate in it. The island gets darker and stormier, and suddenly, the boys see a dark, shadowy figure. Little do they know that it is Simon.
Unfortunately, the boys think that Simon is the beast. As a result, all of them, including Ralph and Piggy, dance and chant around him. Simon desperately tries to tell the boys that the beast is not real and that it is just him, but his attempt fails. Ultimately, the boys descend upon him and violently kill him.
In the end, the boys, thinking that they just finished killing the beast, run for shelter from the storm. Simon's corpse drifts out into the sea.
This chapter displays that social order and civilization on the island no longer exists, now that Simon has been brutally killed by the boys. The fact that even Ralph and Piggy participated in Simon's murder shows this more clearly. Now that Jack's tribe is full of savages, Ralph and Piggy's hopes of control and order are gone, only having very few people on their side, some considering joining Jack.
In conclusion, the significance of this chapter is made clear- Simon's death symbolizes the last straw of civilization on the island. And everything following his tragic death just foreshadows even further barbaric, uncivilized behavior to come.

CHapter : Gift for the Darkness

In Chapter 8 of Lord of the Flies, the core members of their civilization become disembodied as disputes lead to the groups division. The tension between Jack and Ralph comes to a boil as Jack desires for Ralph to lose his power and departs after the group votes for Ralph to maintain his leadership role. The belief of the beast plays a major role in determining who people choose to live with. Once Jack leaves, the other members of the group while helping to build a new signal fire ditch the group to join Jack. Inspired by this new civilization with Jack as their leader, the hunters began to go wild. In the ensuing hours of chaos the hunters manage to kill a sow and continue by stabbing the beast and putting the sow’s head on a stick in celebration. A few minutes before the hunters converge of the beach, Simon sneaks off into the island’s jungle. Here he is captivated by the sow’s head on a stick which begins to speak to him as the lord of the flies, or, the devil. The pigs head intimidates Simon telling him that he can not escape and that he will have fun tormenting him. As this celebration continues the hunters inhabit Ralph’s camp and ask them if they would like to join the feast of the sow. Fueled by their hunger, Ralph and Piggy clearly show a desire for some of the meat. At the very end of the chapter, Simon ends up fainting due to his Lord of the flies experience.

Ch. 8: Gift For The Darkness ~ Emily Fiske

The boys had just returned from their brief adventure to the mountain-top and were in a panic about the so-called “beast” that was hiding up there. Piggy seemed to be the most openly worried about their experience and he worries that the beast could be watching them from atop the mountain. I think this story puts a lot of tension on the group because even Ralph seems to be shaken up about it, snapping at Piggy, saying to go look for it and “good riddance”. A meeting is called to discuss what options there are about the “beast” and a little argument breaks out between Ralph and Jack, causing Jack to call a vote for chief. He held the conch to his chest and called for people to vote either for him or for Ralph to be the chief. No one raised their hands. Jack stormed off down the beach crying a bit and said he would hunt on his own, with sharpened sticks as weapons, same as the rest of the group. Then Ralph and Piggy, along with everyone else, decide to build a fire and discuss whether or not they should stay away from the beast or go looking for it to kill it. They realize they could never try to fight something as big as the “beast” was made out to be. Soon the groups realize that Simon has disappeared, that he has wandered off into the fruit trees being surrounded by butterflies. Jack’s group decides that they are going to hunt for pigs. This is one double-meaning. Hunting for pigs for food, pigs as in pink and brown, four-legged animals, hunting for A pig, as in a chubby little boy with glasses. I think this means that Piggy is not seen as a normal member or the group, but that he is seen as prey, someone to make fun of, and possibly someone to take their anger out on. I think the idea of there being an unknown creature on the island really caused things on the island to go downhill, and fast. This animal seems to have caused a lot of stress among the boys and some of them might have survived without some of the fighting and “re-enactments”. Even thought the “beast” was a mental problem, it caused a tremendous amount of emotional and physical harm by playing with the minds of young children.

Chapter 7: Shadows and Tall Trees (by Robert)

Chapter seven blog entry shadows and tall trees

     Chapter begins with Ralph, Jack, Simon, Samneric, Roger, and a 

group of biuns walking down a pig run that gos along some rocks that are 

part of the edge of one side of the island. and stopping to eat at some 

fruit trees. While this is happening Ralph is thinking about the 

cleanness of the life he and the other boys are having. After a while 

the group gets going and Roger discovers some pig droppings and gets the 

group on the trail of the pig because it gos the same direction that the 

group wants to go. Eventually they find the pig a boar, Ralph wounds it, 

and Jack gets wounded from it as well. After Ralph wounds it the pig 

proceeds to run through the woods and escape the pursuit of the boys. 

After a while they reach a clearing and talk about what to do for a 

while where it is decided that Ralph, Jack, and Roger are to climb the 

mountain and search for the beast while the rest of the group gos back 

to the platform to help piggy keep the litluns safe. Ralph and his group 

eventually get to the top of the mountain and find the “beast” get 

scared and run away.

Ch. 6: Beast from Air (by Al)

5/1/2011

Lord of the Flies Blog Entry

The sixth chapter of the book Lord of the Flies is called Beast from Air. This chapter starts off with Ralph and Simon bringing a little one back to the huts before going to sleep. As the kids sleep, a parachutist from above falls down. He was most likely fighting in a fighter jet or something similar and had ejected out of his plane. As he was floating down, his parachute got caught in the rocks or trees or something so that he was just in the air. Once Sam and Eric woke up, even though they weren’t supposed to be asleep, they made the fire bigger and brighter. As the wind blew, the parachutist rocked back and forth and made a shape of a beast. Frightened, Sam and Eric ran back to the Beach to tell Ralph what they had seen. Ralph calls a meeting and everyone but piggy and the little ones set out to see if the beast exists. Jack leads the group the whole time until they get to a new part of the island, then Ralph is the one that has to go and explore the rest alone. After, he is rejoined by Jack and they remember their unity again. Meanwhile, the rest of the boys forget why they were there in the first place and they start playing around and throwing rocks and enjoying themselves. Then Ralph reminds them that they are there to hunt the beast, and so everyone but the hunters and Ralph go back to continue their job.

Ch.6: Beast from Air (by Ben)

Chapter 6: Beast from Air

Chapter 6 begins with the two twins, Sam n' Eric, collecting wood in the forest very early in the morning when it is still dark. The boys spot a figure in the trees that they do not recognize. The figure that the boys see, the reader knows, is the dead body of a pilot whose plate was shot down and whose body happened to land right on their island. But these boys are not yet old enough to know that fear comes from ignorance, and since these boys refused to get close enough to the figure to find out that it was just a harmless dead body they immediately run and tell Ralph that they have just seen the beast. Ralph tells the boys to call the rest of the island to an assembly at which the twins let their imaginations run away with them while telling the other boys of their encounter. The other boys then naturally, believe every word said by the twins and decide to set out a hunt to kill the beast. The vague signs of control abuse start to show when Ralph, Jack, Bill, and the litluns have been hunting into the night and approach the time when only the most determined of the group are able to stay awake. Roger and some others say that they should stop for the time being and build a fire and get a little bit of sleep but Ralph wants to keep going. The abuse shows at the way end of the chapter on the last page when Bill and Ralph are disagreeing on whether to stop and continue in the morning, which Bill wants, or to keep on going, which Ralph wants. After a few quick word exchanges Ralph strikes his knuckles and decides to make everybody go with his idea of to keep going on without rest. This part, I feel, is the domino effect for the rest of the book because it shows the first refusal of the boys to work as a team and of one deciding, with no consent or mutuality, that he is the boss and that what he says goes.

Chapter 5 Beast from Air

Chapter 5- Beast from Air

This chapter is one of the fist signs to the reader that the once exciting and peaceful life on the island is crumbling. This is prevalent during the assembly Ralph calls to talk about the major issues the group is facing. This includes having water brought from the stream and left in the coconut shells, how everyone didn't help build all of the shelters and as a result the last one is unstable, going to the bathroom away from the fruit trees and keeping a fire going at all times. During this meeting Ralph has to constantly remind the group to listen to him because he is the Chief. He says things like "All this I meant to say. Now I've said it. You voted me for chief. Now you do what I say." (81) and “First of all I'm speaking." (80). Ralph and the conch do not have as much importance and Ralph is losing patience.
Then there is the issue of the beast, Ralph says "Things are breaking up. I don't know why. We began well; we were happy. And then... people started getting frightened." Fear is manifesting inside the boys and is already having negative consequences. Although logical Piggy feels that there is nothing to fear unless they fear people. He thinks that everyone is afraid of the fear inside of them because life on the island is so different from what they were used to and they channel that fear into the so called beast. Simon also seems to have a different picture as to what the beast is. He says it could be a person; he tries to explain the way he thinks by attempting to articulate mankind’s essential illness, fear. He believes that the dirtiest things inside of them bring out the ideas of the beast and how terrible it is. He is the only one we know of who might think that the beast isn’t a monster or a ghost but rather a person who lets their imagination and fear get out of hand.

Overall in chapter 5 we start to see society and order fall apart as the assemblies get more and more out of hand and the ideas of the beast start to become more and more serious.

Chapter 5: Beast from Water

Chapter five dawns, but not everything is as bright and shining as the dependable rising of the sun each morning on the boys' island. In fact, it is evening when chapter five commences, signifying mystery, gloom, uncertainty and fear. Ralph has just reprimanded Jack and his hunters for their lack of concern in getting rescued via a fire and smoke signal. Ralph has good cause for his anger and frustration; at the end of chapter four, Jack and his hunters have just returned from a successful hunt and are bragging about their catch. Their excitement is overshadowed when Ralph sternly says that while they were happily hunting and enjoying themselves, there was no one on fire duty and it had gone out. He tells them a ship happened to have gone by while they were hunting, so whoever was supposed to be tending the fire had not been there. He asks them how they can care about a pig, when they had a hope of being rescued. He decides that a meeting is in order after this unfortunate event to set their priorities straight. It is there, at the serious assembly that Ralph calls, that the reader gets the first sense of the breakdown in the society and order on the island and also the oncoming breakdown of the little government that ever existed there, that must inevitably come. In this chapter, it is made clear to the reader that the boys, especially Ralph as chief, are having a harder and harder time keeping order, laws and civilization present on their island.

On his way down from the top of the mountain where he had been frantically trying to flag down the ship to no avail, and where he had reprimanded the hunters, Ralph plans out his serious speech. He vows that this meeting will be serious, not like other meetings. When all the boys are at the meeting spot, Ralph addresses them; he says that they need to take their duties of running the island and keeping it functional more seriously. He says that, above all, they need to keep the fire going to make smoke as their only chance of being rescued. He goes through a long list of all the things that need to happen, that have not been. He says,"We've all got to use the rocks [for going to the bathroom] again. This place is getting really dirty" (80). He also says, "The fire is the most important thing. How can we ever be rescued...if we don't keep a fire going?" (80). He also points out that their feeble shelters were built by only a few people, and as a result, are liable to fall down any minute. However, they are needed to keep them safe from the rains (80). He implores them to see that the shelters, along with the other items he mentioned, are far more important that hunting. As Ralph is reiterating the importance of the fire and smoke, imploring them to see his reasoning, voices start calling out to him that there are "too many things" being talked about and worried about, and other voices murmur their agreement (81). Ralph tries to shush them but, as he goes on to talk about the specific places the fire can be made so as not to start another forest fire, the underlying current of boys' voices murmuring their disagreement with him becomes shouting. They ask what they will do about cooking their meat. Ralph tells them to quiet down, saying, "I have the conch." The boys reluctantly quiet down, but not for long. As Ralph continues, Jack says to him, "But you've talked and talked!" (81). Ralph and Jack get into a brief argument over authority. The conch seems to be losing importance here. In this sequence, the breakdown in authority and rules become apparent when all the boys are unwilling to listen to Ralph being parent-like. Also, in this part of the chapter, the conch, which symbolizes authority, order, laws and rules, is insufficient to squelch the boys' protests of hunting being important too, and their anger at more boring matters being looked upon as top priorities by Ralph. They start to rebel against Ralph's authority, even though they elected him chief at the beginning. This part is significant in that it is almost a foreshadow of the disasters to come because of the breakdown in society and government.

Another significant event in chapter five is the last matter to be discussed on Ralph's itinerary: the matter of the "beast". Ralph says to the assembly that he's noticed people getting scared and fearful. He says, "We've got to talk about this fear and decide there's nothing in it...[this is] nonsense!" (82). However, as the beast discussion progresses, is becomes clear to Ralph that there are some amongst them that faintly believe in a beast-like figure. Jack says that he's been all over the island and hasn't discovered anything, but the littleuns, who first brought up the idea of a beast, and some of the biguns, thing there may be a beast that comes out of the water. Piggy then pipes up and says that life is scientific; there can't be a beast and there can't be fear either, unless, he says, "...we get frightened of people" (82). Piggy's statement meets with jeers, but it accurately represents that the beast is really just a figure of their imaginations, and also, that the beast is really their fear, yet they don't realize this. This message that Piggy brings up in the chapter, of the only fear being fear of each other and essentially their fear itself being the beast, is supported by Simon's thoughts which he shares at the assembly. Despite not liking to speak in public, Simon gets the conch and says that maybe there is a beast. This is met with a chorus of "shut ups" and "sod yous" (89). Even though he has the conch, because it is losing power, Simon is jumped upon by all the no-beast believers. The boys don't care about speaking in turn or letting others speak, they just shush everyone they don't agree with and get all boisterous. Also, as we find out later, Simon's idea of the beast is a human. When ever he pictures a beast, he sees a human being. That is the same message being conveyed through Piggy's words when he says that the only fear that exists is of each other...fellow humans. Simon, at that assembly, doesn't voice why he thinks there is a beast, but we find out why later on what is backing this belief, when we discover what he pictures as a beast.

Chapter five: where the break down in society and the fear are brought to the surface. The whole chapter foreshadows the events to come that will be on a much larger scale, the destruction that is possible, and the damage these boys are capable of physically and mentally. Chapter five is only a taste of what will happen and the chaos that will eventually ensue when order breaks down. It will only get worse on this island that was once so happy and care free. The freedom given to these boys has lost its glamor and its appeal from the first few days. Ralph realizes, at the end of the chapter, that what they really need are adults.

Chapter 4- Painted Faces and Long Hair

It is in chapter 4, when many of the boys on the island start to get used to life on the island. In the morning, they wake up, and many are able to play, and eat, and do as they please. By the afternoon, it is way to hot for any of the boys to play, and so many go and take naps, and by night its when many start to have nightmares of the "beast." The little boys spend all day playing with one another and eating fruits, but all they can talk about now is the "beast" that they saw in the jungle, and they now fear that it comes out during the night. The little boys and the older ones don't get along very well. There have actually been a few incidents, that have cause tension between them. For example, when Roger and Maurice went and stomped on the the little boys sand castle, and then also Roger threw rocks at one of the little boys, so obviously they didn't get along very well.

Jack being obsessed with hunting a pig, camouflages his face and goes off into the jungle with his hunters, to kill a pig. Back on the beach, Ralph and Piggy see a ship in the horizon, but when they look up the signal fire has gone out, they try to hurry to rekindle it, but by the time they do, its too late. Ralph, gets really upset at Jack since it was the hunter's job to keep the fire going.

When Jack gets back from hunting his pig, which he succeeded in too, Ralph is very upset with him, but since Jack, and the hunters are so excited about the pig they caught, they barely listen to what Ralph has to say. Piggy then complains about Jacks immaturity, and Jack slaps him breaking his glasses. Jack later admits that he was irresponsible for not paying attention to the fire, but never apologized to Piggy. They finally all sit down, and cook the pig and enjoy a nice dinner, even though they don't give piggy any, until Simon gives up his for Piggy.

Chapter 3: Huts on the Beach

In Chapter 3, Jack is approaching a Pig in the forest, as he is the head hunter. Jack can’t catch the pig so he returns to everyone else and finds Ralph and Simon building shelters for the boys. Ralph get’s somewhat annoyed out of many things. He is upset that no one besides Simon is helping build the shelters, also upset that Jack and his hunting group haven’t killed a single pig. Ralph also is a little nervous about all of the little kids and their nightmares. Jack and Ralph start to get uneasy because they are arguing over the actual work Jack and his hunting team is doing, instead of using it as an excuse like what Ralph is accusing him of. They both try to end their argument by playing in the water but it doesn’t quite do the job as both of their feelings of each other remain….awkward. On the other hand, Simon decides to take a walk through the thick jungle until he stumbles upon an open field of flowers and butterflies. Simon sits and embraces the beauty of what lies ahead of him. Nothing important occurs in Chapter 3, but the problems between Ralph and Jack start to spark up in this chapter, and shows foreshadowing for the future wars between the two leaders. As one of the first times Ralph and Jack actually get into a verbal argument, it shows the early breaking of civilization and organization on the island. Simon plays sort of a segregated role because he is never really involved in the conflicts between Jack and Ralph, as if he’s the “Angel Figure” that stays away from the Lord of the Flies!

Chapter 3: Huts on the Beach (by Emily H)

Chapter three of Lord of the Flies starts out with Jack out hunting a pig, meanwhile Ralph and Simon are working on building huts for the younger kids, without any other help. Ralph gets annoyed that no one in the group is helping build, they are all playing around in the water. He also brings up the fact that the hunters have yet to catch a pig, and other promblems going on on the island. He tries to tell Jack, but Jack did not listen because he was busy thinking about how to getr a pig. Ralph then goes on to complain that Jack and the hunters are using hunting as an excuse to get out of working, Jack says that this isn't true and the two burst into arguements. While the two are fighting, Simon wonders off alone into the woods. Simon walks into a beautiful part of the jungle, where he is all alone and sits down and enjoys the scene.

Chapter 2 (by Doug)

Chapter two of Lord of the Flies begins with Ralph blowing the conch shell that Piggy taught him how to use. He calls an assembly and teaches the boys the rules such as whoever has the conch gets to speak, and tells everyone about how him, Simon and Jack had climbed the mountain and found many useful things. Jack is very excited about being a hunter and being in control of his hunting group. Piggy realizes the seriousness of their situation more than any of the other boys when he says, "Nobody knows where we are." At this point nobody really wants to believe Piggy and Ralph still has the false hope that his dad, a naval officer is going to come and rescue everyone. A little boy changes the mood of this meeting when he tells everyone that their is a beast that comes in the night. Most of the bigger kids realize that it can't be true, but many of the younger kids become scared by this one boys vision of the beast. After reassuring everyone that there is no beast, Ralph gets everyone pumped up to make a fire on top of the mountain. All the kids run to the top of the mountain and build a massive signal fire. They end up setting the island on fire by accident, and people are angry at each other. People are starting to dislike Piggy because they find his ideas annoying and think that he talks to much. After this they realize that the little boy with the mark on his face was killed in the fire, but they don't want to admit it. Things are already getting worse and it is only chapter two. I can tell that there will be a struggle between Jack and Ralph for power, and I think more people will be killed.

Chapter One: The Sound of the Shell

“Didn’t you hear what the pilot said? About the atom bomb? They’re all dead. . . Nobody don’t know we’re here. Your dad don’t know, nobody don’t know” (14). 

To me Piggy and Ralph's interactions show a lot about their different natures and abilities. Ralph is a bit of a dim bulb compared to Piggy. He didn't seem to realize what had happened to land this plane on the island or to be thinking realistically about what was going on in the world. But Piggy, he gets it, and he gets the implications of their situation. Ralph stood on his head when he realized there were no adults, no parents, then he told Piggy his dad (the navy commander) would come and rescue all of them soon enough. Piggy knows that this isn't so likely after all. Just a taste of information in his line here, but so important:  There is a war on, a nuclear war. The world outside of this world has probably changed completely. Maybe this plane full of just kids was attempting to find a safe place in the aftermath of London being bombed, or all of England. Whatever is going on out there, it's not good. Ralph may be a dim bulb in some ways, but he is a natural leader in others. I noticed that Piggy was trying very hard to make a connection with Ralph, but Ralph didn't even ask his name. What is his real name anyway? Ralph is athletic (unlike Piggy), good looking (unlike Piggy), healthy (unlike Piggy), and, perhaps most importantly, he happens to have the conch shell. None of these are very good reasons to have Ralph be the leader and not, say, Piggy, but there you go. Observers might notice, though, that it was Piggy who knew how to make the sound with that shell! I see some symbolism going on here already -- bet you do too. That shell, the one that calls everybody to a meeting, to organization, one that gives some order and rules to the chaos of this island -- it's not just a shell. And those snakes that the littl'un saw in the jungle (imagined?), that the boys also saw writhing in the flames at the end of the chapter (or were theyburning vines), those seem pretty weighty too. Where else have we seen snakes in literature? What should they be associated with?