9. Lord of the Flies- for TSPSC JL/DL
Biography of William Golding
Sir William Gerald Golding was born in 1911 in Saint Columb Minor in Cornwall, England, to Alec Golding, a socialist teacher who supported scientific rationalism, and Mildred Golding (née Curnroe), a supporter of female suffrage. As a child, William Golding was educated at the Marlborough Grammar School, where his father worked, and later at Brasenose College, Oxford. Although educated to be a scientist at the request of his father, the young Golding developed an interest in literature, becoming devoted first to Anglo-Saxon texts and then to poetry, which he wrote avidly. At Oxford he studied natural science for two years and then transfered to a program for English literature and philosophy. Following a short period of time in which he worked in various positions at a settlement house and in small theater companies as both an actor and a writer, Golding became a schoolmaster at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy and was involved in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck, after which he returned to Bishop Wordsworth's School, where he taught until the early 1960s.
In 1954, Golding published his first novel, Lord of the Flies, which details the adventures of British schoolboys stranded on an island in the Pacific who descend into barbaric behavior. Although at first rejected by twenty-one different publishing houses, Golding's first novel became a surprise success. E.M. Forster declared Lord of the Flies the outstanding novel of its year, while Time and Tide called it "not only a first-rate adventure story but a parable of our times." Golding continued to develop similar themes concerning the inherent violence in human nature in his next novel, IThe Inheritors], published the following year. This novel deals with the last days of Neanderthal man. The Inheritors posits that the Cro-Magnon "fire-builders" triumphed over Neanderthal man as much by violence and deceit as by any natural superiority. His subsequent works include Pincher Martin (1956), the story of a guilt-ridden naval officer who faces an agonizing death, Free Fall (1959), and The Spire (1964), each of which deals with the depravity of human nature. The Spire is an allegory concerning the protagonist's obsessive determination to build a cathedral spire regardless of the consequences.
In addition to his novels and his early collection of poems, Golding published a play entitled The Brass Butterfly in 1958 and two collections of essays, The Hot Gates (1965) and A Moving Target (1982).
Golding's final works include Darkness Visible (1979), the story of a boy horribly injured during the London blitz of World War II, and Rites of Passage (1980). This novel won the Booker McConnell Prize, the most prestigious award for English literature, and inspired two sequels, Close Quarters (1987) and Fire Down Below (1989). These three novels portray life aboard a ship during the Napoleonic Wars.
In 1983, Golding received the Nobel Prize for literature for his novels which, according to the Nobel committee, "with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today." In 1988 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. Sir William died in 1993 in Perranarworthal, Cornwall. At the time of his death he was working on an unfinished manuscript entitled "The Double Tongue," which focused on the fall of Hellenic culture and the rise of Roman civilization. This work was published posthumously in 1995.
Introduction (gradesaver):
Sir William Golding composed Lord of the Flies shortly after the end of WWII. At the time of the novel's
composition, Golding, who had published an anthology of poetry nearly two
decades earlier, had been working for a number of years as a teacher and
training as a scientist. Golding drew extensively on his scientific background
for his first narrative work. The novel's plot, in which a group of English
boys stranded on a deserted island struggle to develop their own society, is a
social and political thought-experiment using fiction. The story of their
attempts at civilization and devolution into savagery and violence puts the
relationship between human nature and society under a literary microscope.
Golding's allusions to human evolution also reflect his scientific training.
The characters discover fire, craft tools, and form political and social
systems in a process that recalls theories of the development of early man, a
topic of much interest among many peoples including the mid-century Western
public. The culmination of the plot in war and murder suggests that Golding's
overarching hypothesis about humanity is pessimistic, that is, there are
anarchic and brutal instincts in human nature. Ordered democracy or some other
regime is necessary to contain these instincts.
As an allegory about human
nature and society, Lord of the Flies draws upon Judeo-Christian mythology to
elaborate on the novel's sociological and political hypothesis. The title has
two meanings, both charged with religious significance. The first is a
reference to a line from King Lear, "As flies to wanton boys,
are we to gods." The second is a reference to the Hebrew name Ba'alzevuv,
or in its Greek form Beelzebub, which translates to "God of the
Flies" and is synonymous with Satan. For Golding however, the satanic
forces that compel the shocking events on the island come from within the human
psyche rather than from an external, supernatural realm as they do in Judeo-Christian
mythology. Golding thus employs a religious reference to illustrate a Freudian
concept: the Id, the amoral instinct that governs the individual's sense of
sheer survival, is by nature evil in its amoral pursuit of its own goals. The
Lord of the Flies, that is, the pig's head on a stick, directly challenges the
most spiritually motivated character on the island, Simon, who functions as a
prophet-martyr for the other boys.
Published in 1954 early in the
Cold War, Lord of the Flies is firmly rooted in the sociopolitical concerns of
its era. The novel alludes to the Cold War conflict between liberal democracy
and totalitarian communism. Ralph represents the liberal
tradition, while Jack, before he succumbs to total anarchy, represents the kind
of military dictatorship that, for mid-century America and Great Britain,
characterized the communist system. It is also notable that Golding sets the novel
in what appears to be a future human reality, one that is in crisis after
atomic war. Golding's novel capitalizes on public paranoia surrounding the atom
bomb which, due to the arms race of the Cold War, was at a high. Golding's
negative depiction of Jack, who represents an anti-democratic political system,
and his suggestion of the reality of atomic war, present the novel as a gesture
of support for the Western position in the Cold War.
Summary
During an unnamed
time of war, a plane carrying a group of British schoolboys is shot down over
the Pacific. The pilot of the plane is killed, but many of the boys survive the
crash and find themselves deserted on an uninhabited island, where they are
alone without adult supervision. The first two boys introduced are the main
protagonists of the story: Ralph is among the oldest of the
boys, handsome and confident, while Piggy, as he is derisively called, is
a pudgy asthmatic boy with glasses who nevertheless possesses a keen
intelligence. Ralph finds a conch shell, and when he blows it the other boys
gather together. Among these boys is Jack Merridew, an aggressive boy who marches
at the head of his choir. Ralph, whom the other boys choose as chief, leads
Jack and another boy, Simon, on an expedition to explore
the island. On their expedition they determine that they are, in fact, on a
deserted island and decide that they need to find food. The three boys find a
pig, which Jack prepares to kill but finally balks before he can actually stab
it.
When the boys return
from their expedition, Ralph calls a meeting and attempts to set rules of order
for the island. Jack agrees with Ralph, for the existence of rules means the
existence of punishment for those who break them, but Piggy reprimands Jack for
his lack of concern over long-term issues of survival. Ralph proposes that they
build a fire on the mountain which could signal their presence to any passing
ships. The boys start building the fire, but the younger boys lose interest
when the task proves too difficult for them. Piggy proves essential to the
process: the boys use his glasses to start the fire. After they start the fire,
Piggy loses his temper and criticizes the other boys for not building shelters
first. He worries that they still do not know how many boys there are, and he
believes that one of them is already missing.
While Jack tries to
hunt pigs, Ralph orchestrates the building of shelters for the boys. The
smallest boys have not helped at all, while the boys in Jack's choir, whose
duty is to hunt for food, have spent the day swimming. Jack tells Ralph that he
feels as if he is being hunted himself when he hunts for pigs. When Simon, the
only boy who has consistently helped Ralph, leaves presumably to take a bath,
Ralph and Jack go to find him at the bathing pool. But Simon instead is walking
around the jungle alone. He finds a serene open space with aromatic bushes and
flowers.
The boys soon settle
into a daily pattern on the island. The youngest of the boys, known generally
as the "littluns," spend most of the day searching for fruit to eat.
When the boys play, they still obey some sense of decency toward one another,
despite the lack of parental authority. Jack continues to hunt, while Piggy,
who is accepted as an outsider among the boys, considers building a sundial. A
ship passes by the island but does not stop, perhaps because the fire has
burned out. Piggy blames Jack for letting the fire die, for he and his hunters
have been preoccupied with killing a pig at the expense of their duty, and Jack
punches Piggy, breaking one lens of his glasses. Jack and the hunters chant,
"Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in" in celebration of the
kill, and they perform a dance in which Maurice pretends to be a pig and the
others pretend to attack him.
Ralph becomes
concerned by the behavior of Jack and the hunters and begins to appreciate
Piggy's maturity. He calls an assembly in which he criticizes the boys for not
assisting with the fire or the building of the shelters. He insists that the
fire is the most important thing on the island, for it is their one chance for
rescue, and declares that the only place where they should have a fire is on
the mountaintop. Ralph admits that he is frightened but says that there is no
legitimate reason to be afraid. Jack then yells at the littluns for their fear
and for not helping with hunting or building shelters. He proclaims that there
is no beast on the island, as some of the boys believe, but then a littlun,
Phil, tells that he had a nightmare and when he awoke saw something moving
among the trees. Simon says that Phil probably saw Simon, for he was walking in
the jungle that night. But the littluns begin to worry about the beast, which
they conceive as a ghost or a squid. Piggy and Ralph fight once more, and when
Ralph attempts to assert the rules of order, Jack asks rhetorically whether
anyone cares about the rules. Ralph in turn insists that the rules are all that
they have. Jack then decides to lead an expedition to hunt the beast, leaving
only Ralph, Piggy and Simon behind. Piggy warns Ralph that if Jack becomes
chief, the boys will never be rescued.
That night, during
an aerial battle, a pilot parachutes down the island. The pilot dies, possibly
on impact. The next morning, as the twins Sam and Eric are adding kindling to the
fire, they spot the pilot and mistake him for the beast. They scramble down the
mountain and wake up Ralph. Jack calls for a hunt, but Piggy insists that they
should stay together, for the beast may not come near them. Jack claims that
the conch is now irrelevant. He takes a swing at Ralph when Ralph accuses Jack
of not wanting to be rescued. Ralph decides to join the hunters on their
expedition to find the beast, despite his wish to rekindle the fire on the
mountain. When they reach the other side of the island, Jack expresses his wish
to build a fort near the sea.
The hunters, while
searching for the beast, find a boar that attacks Jack, but Jack stabs it and
it runs away. The hunters go into a frenzy, lapsing into their "kill the
pig" chant once again. Ralph realizes that Piggy remains with the littluns
back on the other side of the island, and Simon offers to go back and tell
Piggy that the other boys will not be back that night. Ralph realizes that Jack
hates him and confronts him about that fact. Jack mocks Ralph for not wanting
to hunt, claiming that it stems from cowardice, but when the boys see what they
believe to be the beast they run away.
Ralph returns to the
shelters to find Piggy and tells him that they saw the beast, but Piggy remains
skeptical. Ralph dismisses the hunters as boys with sticks, but Jack accuses
him of calling his hunters cowards. Jack attempts to assert control over the
other boys, calling for Ralph's removal as chief, but when Ralph retains the
support of the other boys Jack runs away, crying. Piggy suggests that, if the
beast prevents them from getting to the mountaintop, they should build a fire
on the beach, and reassures them that they will survive if they behave with
common sense. Simon leaves to sit in the open space that he found earlier. Jack
claims that he will be the chief of the hunters and that they will go to the
castle rock where they plan to build a fort and have a feast. The hunters kill
a pig, and Jack smears the blood over Maurice's face. They then cut off the
head and leave it on a stake as an offering for the beast. Jack brings several
hunters back to the shelters, where he invites the other boys to join his tribe
and offers them meat and the opportunity to hunt and have fun. All of the boys,
except for Ralph and Piggy, join Jack.
Meanwhile, Simon
finds the pig's head that the hunters had left. He dubs it The Lord of the Flies because of the insects that swarm around it. He believes that
it speaks to him, telling him how foolish he is and that the other boys think
he is insane. The pig's head claims that it is the beast, and it mocks the idea
that the beast could be hunted and killed. Simon falls down and loses
consciousness. After he regains consciousness and wanders around, he sees the
dead pilot that the boys perceived to be the beast and realizes what it
actually is. He rushes down the mountain to alert the other boys about what he
has found.
Ralph and Piggy, who
are playing at the lagoon alone, decide to find the other boys to make sure
that nothing unfortunate happens while they are pretending to be hunters. When
they find Jack, Ralph and Jack argue over who will be chief. When Piggy claims
that he gets to speak because he has the conch, Jack tells him that the conch
does not count on his side of the island. The boys panic when Ralph warns them
that a storm is coming. As the storm begins, Simon rushes from the forest,
telling about the dead body on the mountain. Under the impression that he is
the beast, the boys descend on Simon and kill him.
Back on the other
side of the island, Ralph and Piggy discuss Simon's death. They both took part
in the murder, but they attempt to justify their behavior as motivated by fear
and instinct. The only four boys who are not part of Jack's tribe are Ralph and
Piggy and the twins, Sam and Eric, who help tend to the fire. At Castle Rock,
Jack rules over the boys with the trappings of an idol. He has kept one boy
tied up, and he instills fear in the other boys by warning them about the beast
and the intruders. When Bill asks Jack how they will start a fire, Jack claims
that they will steal the fire from the other boys. Meanwhile, Ralph, Piggy and
the twins work on keeping the fire going but find that it is too difficult to
do by themselves. They return to the shelters to sleep. During the night, the
hunters attack the four boys, who fight them off but suffer considerable
injuries. Piggy learns the purpose of the attack: they came to steal his
glasses.
After the attack,
the four boys decide to go to the castle rock to appeal to Jack as civilized
people. They groom themselves to appear presentable and dress themselves in
normal schoolboy clothes. When they reach Castle Rock, Ralph summons the other
boys with the conch. Jack arrives from hunting and tells Ralph and Piggy to
leave them alone. When Jack refuses to listen to Ralph's appeals to justice,
Ralph calls the boys painted fools. Jack takes Sam and Eric as prisoners and
orders them to be tied up. Piggy asks Jack and his hunters whether it is better
to be a pack of painted Indians or sensible like Ralph, but Roger tips a rock over on Piggy,
causing him to fall down the mountain to the beach. The impact kills him and,
to the delight of Jack, shatters the conch shell. Jack declares himself chief
and hurls his spear at Ralph, who runs away.
Ralph hides near
Castle Rock, where he can see the other boys, whom he no longer recognizes as
civilized English boys but as savages. He crawls to the entrance of Jack's
camp, where Sam and Eric are now stationed as guards, and they give him some
meat and urge him to leave. While Ralph hides, he realizes that the other boys
are rolling rocks down the mountain. Ralph evades the other boys who are
hunting for him, then realizes that they are setting the forest on fire in
order to smoke him out-and thus will destroy whatever fruit is left on the
island.
Running for his
life, Ralph finally collapses on the beach, where a naval officer has arrived
with his ship. He thinks that the boys have only been playing games, and he
scolds them for not behaving in a more organized and responsible manner as is
the British custom. As the boys prepare to leave the island for home, Ralph
weeps for the death of Piggy and for the end of the boys' innocence.
Character List
Ralph
The protagonist of the story, Ralph is one of the oldest boys on
the island. He quickly becomes the group's leader. Golding describes Ralph as
tall for his age and handsome, and he presides over the other boys with a
natural sense of authority. Although he lacks Piggy's overt intelligence, Ralph
is calm and rational, with sound judgment and a strong moral sensibility. But
he is susceptible to the same instinctive influences that affect the other
boys, as demonstrated by his contribution to Simon's death. Nevertheless, Ralph
remains the most civilized character throughout the novel. With his strong
commitment to justice and equality, Ralph represents the political tradition of
liberal democracy.
Piggy
Although pudgy, awkward, and averse to physical labor because he
suffers from asthma, Piggy--who dislikes his nickname--is the intellectual on
the island. Though he is an outsider among the other boys, Piggy is eventually
accepted by them, albeit grudgingly, when they discover that his glasses can be
used to ignite fires. Piggy's intellectual talent endears him to Ralph in
particular, who comes to admire and respect him for his clear focus on securing
their rescue from the island. Piggy is dedicated to the ideal of civilization
and consistently reprimands the other boys for behaving as savages. His
continual clashes with the group culminate when Roger murders Piggy by dropping
a rock on him, an act that signals the triumph of brute instinct over civilized
order. Intellectual, sensitive, and conscientious, Piggy represents culture
within the democratic system embodied by Ralph. Piggy's nickname symbolically
connects him to the pigs on the island, who quickly become the targets of
Jack's and his hunters' bloodlust--an association that foreshadows his murder.
Jack Merridew
The leader of a boys' choir, Jack exemplifies militarism as it
borders on authoritarianism. He is cruel and sadistic, preoccupied with hunting
and killing pigs. His sadism intensifies throughout the novel, and he
eventually turns cruelly on the other boys. Jack feigns an interest in the
rules of order established on the island, but only if they allow him to inflict
punishment. Jack represents anarchy. His rejection of Ralph's imposed
order--and the bloody results of this act--indicate the danger inherent in an
anarchic system based only on self-interest.
Simon
The most introspective character in the novel, Simon has a deep
affinity with nature and often walks alone in the jungle. While Piggy
represents the cultural and Ralph the political and moral facets of civilization,
Simon represents the spiritual side of human nature. Like Piggy, Simon is an
outcast: the other boys think of him as odd and perhaps insane. It is Simon who
finds the beast. When he attempts to tell the group that it is only a dead
pilot, the boys, under the impression that he is the beast, murder him in a
panic. Golding frequently suggests that Simon is a Christ-figure whose death is
a kind of martyrdom. His name, which means "he whom God has heard,"
indicates the depth of his spirituality and centrality to the novel's
Judeo-Christian allegory.
Sam and Eric
The twins are the only boys who remain with Ralph and Piggy to
tend to the fire after the others abandon Ralph for Jack's tribe. The others
consider the two boys as a single individual, and Golding preserves this
perception by combining their individual names into one ("Samneric").
Here one might find suggestions about individualism and human uniqueness.
Roger
One of the hunters
and the guard at the castle rock fortress, Roger is Jack's equal in cruelty.
Even before the hunters devolve into savagery, Roger is boorish and crude,
kicking down sand castles and throwing sand at others. After the other boys
lose all idea of civilization, it is Roger who murders Piggy.
Maurice
During the hunters' "Kill the pig" chant, Maurice, who
is one of Jack's hunters, pretends to be a pig while the others pretend to
slaughter him. When the hunters kill a pig, Jack smears blood on Maurice's
face. Maurice represents the mindless masses.
Percival
One of the smallest
boys on the island, Percival often attempts to comfort himself by repeating his
name and address as a memory of home life. He becomes increasingly hysterical
over the course of the novel and requires comforting by the older boys.
Percival represents the domestic or familial aspects of civilization; his
inability to remember his name and address upon the boys' rescue indicates the
erosion of domestic impulse with the overturning of democratic order. Note also
that in the literary tradition, Percival was one of the Knights of the Round
Table who went in search of the Holy Grail.
The Beast
A dead pilot whom
Simon discovers in the forest. The other boys mistake him as a nefarious
supernatural omen, "The Beast." They attempt to appease his spirit
with The Lord of the Flies.
The Lord of the Flies
The pig's head that
Jack impales on a stick as an offering to "The Beast." The boys call
the offering "The Lord of the Flies," which in Judeo-Christian
mythology refers to Beelzebub, an incarnation of Satan. In the novel, The Lord
of the Flies functions totemically; it represents the savagery and amorality of
Jack's tribe.
Naval Officer
The naval officer
appears in the final scene of the novel, when Ralph encounters him on the
beach. He tells Ralph that his ship decided to inspect the island upon seeing a
lot of smoke (the outcome of the forest fire that Jack and his tribe had set in
the hopes of driving Ralph out of hiding). His naivete about the boys' violent
conflict--he believes they are playing a game--underscores the tragedy of the
situation on the island. His status as a soldier reminds the reader that the
boys' behavior is just a more primitive form of the aggressive and frequently
fatal conflicts that characterize adult civilization.
Themes
Civilization vs. Savagery
The overarching theme of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between the human impulse towards
savagery and the rules of civilization which are designed to contain and
minimize it. Throughout the novel, the conflict is dramatized by the clash
between Ralph and Jack, who
respectively represent civilization and savagery. The differing ideologies are
expressed by each boy's distinct attitudes towards authority. While Ralph uses
his authority to establish rules, protect the good of the group, and enforce
the moral and ethical codes of the English society the boys were raised in,
Jack is interested in gaining power over the other boys to gratify his most
primal impulses. When Jack assumes leadership of his own tribe, he demands the complete
subservience of the other boys, who not only serve him but worship him as an
idol. Jack's hunger for power suggests that savagery does not resemble anarchy
so much as a totalitarian system of exploitation and illicit power.
Golding's emphasis on the
negative consequences of savagery can be read as a clear endorsement of
civilization. In the early chapters of the novel, he suggests that one of the
important functions of civilized society is to provide an outlet for the savage
impulses that reside inside each individual. Jack's initial desire to kill pigs
to demonstrate his bravery, for example, is channeled into the hunt, which
provides needed food for the entire group. As long as he lives within the rules
of civilization, Jack is not a threat to the other boys; his impulses are being
re-directed into a productive task. Rather, it is when Jack refuses to
recognize the validity of society and rejects Ralph's authority that the
dangerous aspects of his character truly emerge. Golding suggests that while savagery
is perhaps an inescapable fact of human existence, civilization can mitigate
its full expression.
The rift between civilization
and savagery is also communicated through the novel's major symbols: the conch
shell, which is associated with Ralph, and The Lord of the Flies, which is associated with Jack. The conch shell is
a powerful marker of democratic order on the island, confirming both Ralph's
leadership-determined by election-and the power of assembly among the boys.
Yet, as the conflict between Ralph and Jack deepens, the conch shell loses
symbolic importance. Jack declares that the conch is meaningless as a symbol of
authority and order, and its decline in importance signals the decline of
civilization on the island. At the same time, The Lord of the Flies, which is an
offering to the mythical "beast" on the island, is increasingly
invested with significance as a symbol of the dominance of savagery on the
island, and of Jack's authority over the other boys. The Lord of the Flies
represents the unification of the boys under Jack's rule as motivated by fear
of "outsiders": the beast and those who refuse to accept Jack's
authority. The destruction of the conch shell at the scene of Piggy's murder signifies
the complete eradication of civilization on the island, while Ralph's
demolition of The Lord of the Flies-he intends to use the stick as a
spear-signals his own descent into savagery and violence. By the final scene,
savagery has completely displaced civilization as the prevailing system on the
island.
Individualism vs. Community
One of the key concerns of Lord of the
Flies is the role of the individual in society. Many of the
problems on the island-the extinguishing of the signal fire, the lack of
shelters, the mass abandonment of Ralph's camp, and the murder of Piggy-stem
from the boys' implicit commitment to a principle of self-interest over the
principle of community. That is, the boys would rather fulfill their individual
desires than cooperate as a coherent society, which would require that each one
act for the good of the group. Accordingly, the principles of individualism and
community are symbolized by Jack and Ralph, respectively. Jack wants to
"have fun" on the island and satisfy his bloodlust, while Ralph wants
to secure the group's rescue, a goal they can achieve only by cooperating. Yet,
while Ralph's vision is the most reasonable, it requires work and sacrifice on
the part of the other boys, so they quickly shirk their societal duties in
favor of fulfilling their individual desires. The shelters do not get built
because the boys would rather play; the signal fire is extinguished when Jack's
hunters fail to tend to it on schedule.
The boys' self-interestedness
culminates, of course, when they decide to join Jack's tribe, a society without
communal values whose appeal is that Jack will offer them total freedom. The
popularity of his tribe reflects the enormous appeal of a society based on
individual freedom and self-interest, but as the reader soon learns, the
freedom Jack offers his tribe is illusory. Jack implements punitive and
irrational rules and restricts his boys' behavior far more than Ralph did.
Golding thus suggests not only that some level of communal system is superior
to one based on pure self-interest, but also that pure individual freedom is an
impossible value to sustain within a group dynamic, which will always tend
towards societal organization. The difficult question, of course, is what
individuals are willing to give up to gain the benefits of being in the group.
The Nature of Evil
Is evil innate within the human
spirit, or is it an influence from an external source? What role do societal
rules and institutions play in the existence of human evil? Does the capacity
for evil vary from person to person, or does it depend on the circumstances
each individual faces? These questions are at the heart of Lord of the
Flies which, through detailed depictions of the boys' different
responses to their situation, presents a complex articulation of humanity's potential
for evil.
It is important to note that
Golding's novel rejects supernatural or religious accounts of the origin of
human evil. While the boys fear the "beast" as an embodiment of evil
similar to the Christian concept of Satan, the novel emphasizes that this
interpretation is not only mistaken but also, ironically, the motivation for
the boys' increasingly cruel and violent behavior. It is their irrational fear
of the beast that informs the boys' paranoia and leads to the fatal schism
between Jack and Ralph and their respective followers, and this is what
prevents them from recognizing and addressing their responsibility for their
own impulses. Rather, as The Lord of the Flies communicates to Simon in the forest
glade, the "beast" is an internal force, present in every individual,
and is thus incapable of being truly defeated. That the most ethical characters
on the island-Simon and Ralph-each come to recognize his own capacity for evil
indicates the novel's emphasis on evil's universality among humans.
Even so, the novel is not
entirely pessimistic about the human capacity for good. While evil impulses may
lurk in every human psyche, the intensity of these impulses-and the ability to
control them-appear to vary from individual to individual. Through the
different characters, the novel presents a continuum of evil, ranging from Jack
and Roger, who are eager to
engage in violence and cruelty, to Ralph and Simon, who struggle to contain
their brutal instincts. We may note that the characters who struggle most
successfully against their evil instincts do so by appealing to ethical or
social codes of behavior. For example, Ralph and Piggy demand the return of
Piggy's glasses because it is the "right thing to do." Golding
suggests that while evil may be present in us all, it can be successfully
suppressed by the social norms that are imposed on our behavior from without or
by the moral norms we decide are inherently "good," which we can
internalize within our wills.
The ambiguous and deeply ironic
conclusion of Lord
of the Flies, however, calls into question society's role in
shaping human evil. The naval officer, who repeats Jack's rhetoric of
nationalism and militarism, is engaged in a bloody war that is responsible for
the boys' aircraft crash on the island and that is mirrored by the civil war
among the survivors. In this sense, much of the evil on the island is a result
not of the boys' distance from society, but of their internalization of the
norms and ideals of that society-norms and ideals that justify and even thrive
on war. Are the boys corrupted by the internal pressures of an essentially
violent human nature, or have they been corrupted by the environment of war
they were raised in? Lord of the Flies offers no clear solution to this
question, provoking readers to contemplate the complex relationships among
society, morality, and human nature.
Man vs. Nature
Lord of the Flies introduces the question of man's ideal relationship
with the natural world. Thrust into the completely natural environment of the
island, in which no humans exist or have existed, the boys express different
attitudes towards nature that reflect their distinct personalities and
ideological leanings. The boys' relationships to the natural world generally
fall into one of three categories: subjugation of nature, harmony with nature,
and subservience to nature. The first category, subjugation of nature, is
embodied by Jack, whose first impulse on the island is to track, hunt, and kill
pigs. He seeks to impose his human will on the natural world, subjugating it to
his desires. Jack's later actions, in particular setting the forest fire,
reflect his deepening contempt for nature and demonstrate his militaristic,
violent character. The second category, harmony with nature, is embodied by
Simon, who finds beauty and peace in the natural environment as exemplified by
his initial retreat to the isolated forest glade. For Simon, nature is not
man's enemy but is part of the human experience. The third category, subservience
to nature, is embodied by Ralph and is the opposite position from Jack's.
Unlike Simon, Ralph does not find peaceful harmony with the natural world; like
Jack, he understands it as an obstacle to human life on the island. But while
Jack responds to this perceived conflict by acting destructively towards
animals and plant life, Ralph responds by retreating from the natural world. He
does not participate in hunting or in Simon's excursions to the deep wilderness
of the forest; rather, he stays on the beach, the most humanized part of the
island. As Jack's hunting expresses his violent nature to the other boys and to
the reader, Ralph's desire to stay separate from the natural world emphasizes
both his reluctance to tempt danger and his affinity for civilization.
Dehumanization of Relationships
In Lord of the Flies, one
of the effects of the boys' descent into savagery is their increasing inability
to recognize each other's humanity. Throughout the novel, Golding uses imagery
to imply that the boys are no longer able to distinguish between themselves and
the pigs they are hunting and killing for food and sport. In Chapter Four,
after the first successful pig hunt, the hunters re-enact the hunt in a ritual
dance, using Maurice as a stand-in for
the doomed pig. This episode is only a dramatization, but as the boys'
collective impulse towards complete savagery grows stronger, the parallels
between human and animal intensify. In Chapter Seven, as several of the boys
are hunting the beast, they repeat the ritual with Robert as a stand-in for the
pig; this time, however, they get consumed by a kind of "frenzy" and
come close to actually killing him. In the same scene, Jack jokes that if they
do not kill a pig next time, they can kill a littlun in its place. The repeated
substitution of boy for pig in the childrens' ritual games, and in their
conversation, calls attention to the consequences of their self-gratifying
behavior: concerned only with their own base desires, the boys have become
unable to see each other as anything more than objects subject to their
individual wills. The more pigs the boys kill, the easier it becomes for them
to harm and kill each other. Mistreating the pigs facilitates this process of
dehumanization.
The early episodes in which boys
are substituted for pigs, either verbally or in the hunting dance, also
foreshadow the tragic events of the novel's later chapters, notably the murders
of Simon and Piggy and the attempt on Ralph's life. Simon, a character who from
the outset of the novel is associated with the natural landscape he has an
affinity for, is murdered when the other children mistake him for "the
beast"-a mythical inhuman creature that serves as an outlet for the
children's fear and sadness. Piggy's name links him symbolically to the wild
pigs on the island, the immediate target for Jack's violent impulses; from the
outset, when the other boys refuse to call him anything but "Piggy,"
Golding establishes the character as one whose humanity is, in the eyes of the
other boys, ambiguous. The murders of Simon and Piggy demonstrate the boys'
complete descent into savagery. Both literally (Simon) and symbolically
(Piggy), the boys have become indistinguishable from the animals that they
stalk and kill.
The Loss of Innocence
At the end of Lord of the
Flies, Ralph weeps "for the end of innocence," a lament
that retroactively makes explicit one of the novel's major concerns, namely,
the loss of innocence. When the boys are first deserted on the island, they
behave like children, alternating between enjoying their freedom and expressing
profound homesickness and fear. By the end of the novel, however, they mirror
the warlike behavior of the adults of the Home Counties: they attack, torture,
and even murder one another without hesitation or regret. The loss of the boys'
innocence on the island runs parallel to, and informs their descent into
savagery, and it recalls the Bible's narrative of the Fall of Man from
paradise.
Accordingly, the island is coded
in the early chapters as a kind of paradise, with idyllic scenery, fresh fruit,
and glorious weather. Yet, as in the Biblical Eden, the temptation toward
corruption is present: the younger boys fear a "snake-thing." The
"snake-thing" is the earliest incarnation of the "beast"
that, eventually, will provoke paranoia and division among the group. It also
explicitly recalls the snake from the Garden of Eden, the embodiment of Satan
who causes Adam and Eve's fall from grace. The boys' increasing belief in the
beast indicates their gradual loss of innocence, a descent that culminates in
tragedy. We may also note that the landscape of the island itself shifts from
an Edenic space to a hellish one, as marked by Ralph's observation of the ocean
tide as an impenetrable wall, and by the storm that follows Simon's murder.
The forest glade that Simon
retreats to in Chapter Three is another example of how the boys' loss of
innocence is registered on the natural landscape of the island. Simon first
appreciates the clearing as peaceful and beautiful, but when he returns, he
finds The Lord of the Flies impaled at its center, a powerful symbol of how the
innocence of childhood has been corrupted by fear and savagery.
Even the most sympathetic boys
develop along a character arc that traces a fall from innocence (or, as we
might euphemize, a journey into maturity). When Ralph is first introduced, he
is acting like a child, splashing in the water, mocking Piggy, and laughing. He
tells Piggy that he is certain that his father, a naval commander, will rescue
him, a conviction that the reader understands as the wishful thinking of a
little boy. Ralph repeats his belief in their rescue throughout the novel,
shifting his hope that his own father will discover them to the far more
realistic premise that a passing ship will be attracted by the signal fire on
the island. By the end of the novel, he has lost hope in the boys' rescue
altogether. The progression of Ralph's character from idealism to pessimistic
realism expresses the extent to which life on the island has eradicated his
childhood.
The Negative Consequences of War
In addition to its other
resonances, Lord
of the Flies is in part an allegory of the Cold War. Thus, it is
deeply concerned with the negative effects of war on individuals and for social
relationships. Composed during the Cold War, the novel's action unfolds from a
hypothetical atomic war between England and "the Reds," which was a
clear word for communists. Golding thus presents the non-violent tensions that
were unfolding during the 1950s as culminating into a fatal conflict-a
narrative strategy that establishes the novel as a cautionary tale against the
dangers of ideological, or "cold," warfare, becoming hot. Moreover,
we may understand the conflict among the boys on the island as a reflection of
the conflict between the democratic powers of the West and the communist
presence throughout China, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union. (China's
cultural revolution had not yet occurred, but its communist revolution was
fresh in Western memory.) Ralph, an embodiment of democracy, clashes tragically
with Jack, a character who represents a style of military dictatorship similar
to the West's perception of communist leaders such as Joseph Stalin and Mao
Zedong. Dressed in a black cape and cap, with flaming red hair, Jack also
visually evokes the "Reds" in the fictional world of the novel and
the historical U.S.S.R., whose signature colors were red and black. As the
tension between the boys comes to a bloody head, the reader sees the dangerous
consequences of ideological conflict.
The arrival of the naval officer
at the conclusion of the narrative underscores these allegorical points. The
officer embodies war and militaristic thinking, and as such, he is symbolically
linked to the brutal Jack. The officer is also English and thus linked to the
democratic side of the Cold War, which the novel vehemently defends. The
implications of the officer's presence are provocative: Golding suggests that
even a war waged in the name of civilization can reduce humanity to a state of
barbarism. The ultimate scene of the novel, in which the boys weep with grief
for the loss of their innocence, implicates contemporary readers in the boys'
tragedy. The boys are representatives, however immature and untutored, of the
wartime impulses of the period.
Summary and Analysis of Chapter One: The Sound of the Shell
On a tropical
island, a twelve-year-old boy with fair hair is climbing out of plane wreckage
(referred to as "the scar") on a beach and towards a lagoon. He faces
another child around his age, a fat boy with glasses. The two, who have not
previously met, begin a conversation. The fair-haired boy introduces himself as
Ralph, while the
heavy boy accidentally reveals his nickname at school: "Piggy."
Against the other child's protestations, Ralph insists on calling him Piggy.
Through their conversation, it is revealed that the boys have survived a plane
crash in the Pacific Ocean, and no adults are present among the survivors. They
confirm that both the pilot and "the man with the megaphone"-perhaps
some sort of rescue worker-both died in the crash. The boys appear to have been
escaping from an atomic war in their country, a place referred to only as the
Home Counties (signaling England). When Ralph insists that his father, a
Commander in the Navy, will rescue the stranded boys, Piggy reminds him that "they"-perhaps
the military, perhaps the adult population-were all killed "by the atom
bomb."
Ralph,
excited by the idea of living without adult supervision, immediately takes
advantage of the freedom on the island. He disrobes and invites Piggy to join
him in a swim. Piggy nervously declines, explaining that his asthma prevents
him from swimming or running, but eventually-and with much
self-consciousness-removes his windbreaker. While Ralph is enjoying the new
sights and pleasures of the tropical water, Piggy reveals that his parents are
both dead and that he lives with his aunt, who operates a candy store. While
Ralph is playing on the shore, Piggy spots a conch shell in the lagoon. He
explains to an ignorant Ralph that a conch is valuable, and the two retrieve it
from the water. Piggy, who cannot breathe well due to his asthma, instructs
Ralph about how to blow into the shell so as to produce a loud whistle. After a
few failed attempts, Ralph sounds the shell successfully. The two boys are
surprised to see that the sound has attracted other survivors from the crash,
among them Sam and Eric, two young
identical twins, and abrupt, red-headed Jack Merridew, who is
accompanied by a party of boys wearing strange black cloaks and caps, marching
in two organized lines. Jack reveals that the group is a boys' choir and that
he is the leader.
Once a large
group is present, Piggy suggests that everyone state their names. Jack insists
on being called Merridew, for Jack is a kid's name, and demands that he be
established the leader of the survivors, for he is the head boy of his choir.
The group decides to settle the question of leadership by vote. While Jack has
natural leadership qualities and Piggy rational intelligence, Ralph has a calm
personality that invites the others' trust, so he is elected chief. Once
appointed, however, Ralph concedes that Jack may still lead his choir, who will
become hunters. He further insists that the group stay assembled near the
lagoon while three of the boys explore the territory to determine whether or
not it is an island. For this task, Ralph chooses himself, a mild-tempered boy
named Simon, and, at his
own insistence, Jack. When Piggy requests to join the explorers, Jack dismisses
the idea, humiliating Piggy, who is still ashamed that Ralph revealed his hated
nickname.
Ralph, Simon
and Jack search the island, climbing up the mountain to survey it. On the way
up, they push down the mountain a large rock that blocks their way. When they
finally reach the top, they determine that they are indeed on an island. The
island is described as "boat-shaped," bordered by rocks and
containing both lagoon and forest areas. Ralph, looking at the landscape, says
assertively, "this belongs to us." The three decide that they need
food to eat, and continue to explore the island, this time in search of food.
The boys
descend the mountain into brush area, where they consider and then decide
against eating some foliage they call "candle-buds." Shortly
thereafter, they discover a piglet caught in a curtain of creepers. Jack draws
his knife but pauses before he has a chance to stab the pig, which frees itself
and runs away. Jack insists that he was merely looking for the right spot on
the pig on which to stab it, but his white face suggests that he is
unaccustomed to such violence. But he vows that next time, he will show no
mercy toward his prey.
Analysis
The opening
chapter of Lord of the
Flies
establishes the novel as a political allegory. As a whole, the novel explores
the need for political organization and dramatizes the clash in human nature
between instinctual and learned behavior. In Chapter One, Golding depicts the
deserted island as a place where the abandoned boys have a choice between
returning to a pre-civilized state of humanity and re-imposing social order
upon the group. Thus, the situation tests a Hobbesian hypothesis by throwing
the children almost fully into a state of nature. The first chapter of the
novel confirms that the boys have no society, no rules, and no concerns beyond
personal survival. All they have is a set of histories. The narrative thrust of
the novel traces how the boys develop their own miniature society and the
difficulties that inevitably arise from this development. Chapter One
foreshadows these events by depicting the boys as alternately frightened,
ignorant, and exhilarated in the face of their newfound freedom.
Accordingly,
Chapter One immediately establishes the tension between the impulse towards
savagery and the need for civilization that exists within the human spirit.
Freed from adult authority and the mores of society, Ralph plays in the beach
naked, a practice that at the time of Golding's writing was commonly associated
with pre-industrial cultures believed to be "uncivilized" or
"savage." Yet if Ralph's nudity is an uncivilized practice, it is
also a reference to another popular conception of pre-civilized life, that of
the Garden of Eden. Ralph does not panic over the children's abandonment on the
island, but he approaches it as a paradise in which he can play happily. The
reader, aware of the outcome of the Biblical Eden, should treat the boys'
"paradise" with similar skepticism. Like Eden, the island paradise
will collapse; the questions are how and why.
Characterization
emphasizes the tension Golding establishes between anarchy and political
organization. The first sign of disturbance on the seemingly tranquil island is
the appearance of Jack and his choir. Golding describes Jack and his
compatriots as militaristic and aggressive, with Jack's bold manner and the
choir marching in step. They are the first concrete example of civilization on
the island, with a decidedly negative feel. Jack seems a physical manifestation
of evil; with his dark cloak and wild red hair, his appearance is ominous, even
Satanic. Accordingly, Jack is militaristic and authoritarian. He gives orders
to his choir as if they were troops, allowing room for neither discussion nor
dissent. Significantly, the role that he first chooses for his choir is that of
hunters-he selects that task which is most violent and most related to military
values. Yet, as his inability to kill the pig demonstrates, Jack is not yet
accustomed to violence. Golding indicates that Jack must prepare himself to
commit a violent act, for he is still constrained by his own youthful cowardice
or by societal rules that oppose violent behavior. While his authoritarian
attitude indicates a predisposition to violence, Jack must shed the lessons of
society and conscience before he can kill.
In both
temperament and physical appearance, Ralph is the antithesis of Jack. Golding
idealizes Ralph from the beginning, lavishing praise on his physical beauty. In
the island sun he immediately achieves a golden hue, a physical manifestation
of his winning charisma. Ralph's value is not intellectual; importantly, he
behaves somewhat childishly in his first encounter with Piggy. Still, Golding
suggests that Ralph has a gravity and maturity beyond his years. He is a
natural leader, a quality that the other boys immediately recognize when they
vote him leader. The vote for chief establishes a conflict between the
different values espoused by Jack and Ralph. Jack assumes that he should assume
the role automatically, while Ralph, who is reluctant to accept leadership,
achieves it by vote. Ralph therefore comes to represent a democratic ethos.
In contrast
to the violent Jack and charismatic Ralph, Piggy is immediately established as
the intellectual of the group. Although he is physically inept, clumsy, and
asthmatic, he has a rational mind and the best grasp of their situation. It is
his knowledge of the conch shell that allows Ralph to summon the rest of the
boys together and he who shows the most concern for some sort of established
order in meetings and in day-to-day life. He has a particular interest in
names, immediately asking Ralph for his and wishing that Ralph would
reciprocate the question, as well as insisting that a list of names be taken when
the boys assemble. This emphasis on naming is one of the first indications of
the imposition of an ordered society on the island (it also recalls the naming
of the animals in Genesis). For Piggy, names not only facilitate organization
and communication but also mark one's position within a social hierarchy. It is
significant that Piggy is forced by the others to keep his despised nickname
from home, which re-inscribes his inferior social status from the Home Counties
in the new dynamic of the island. We may also note that Piggy's name
symbolically connects him to the pigs on the island, which in subsequent
chapters become the targets of many of the boys' unrestrained violent impulses.
As the boys turn their rage against the pigs, Golding foreshadows Piggy's own
murder at the close of the novel.
The
reinforcement of Piggy's nickname, which clearly humiliates him, also indicates
that the boys have imported to the island the cruelty of human social life.
Ralph's mockery of Piggy is the first instance of inequality on the island, and
it foreshadows the gross inequities and injustices to come. We may also note
here Piggy's background (as an orphan who lives with an aunt) and his poor
diction ("can't catch me breath,""what's yer name?")-details
that indicate that, unlike Ralph and Jack, Piggy is a child from a
working-class background. His immediate ostracizing on the island suggests
another way in which the social hierarchies of the boys' home lives are
reproduced in island life. Golding suggests that Piggy's marginalization is due
not only to his unfortunate appearance and poor health but also because he is
of a lower class status than the other boys, who have brought with them to the
island the class prejudices of the Home Counties.
It is also
significant here that Golding emphasizes the establishment of property and
subtly critiques the concept of ownership by discovery. Ralph gains status from
his possession of the conch shell, which gives him the authority to speak when
the boys come together. Also, when he surveys the island from the summit of the
mountain he states that it "belongs" to them, almost as an act of
colonization or conquering. The invocation of colonial rhetoric suggests the
struggles to come over ownership of the key resources on the island (such as
the conch and Piggy's glasses) and over the power to rule one another.
The novel's
first chapter establishes another theme that recurs throughout the novel: the
corruption of innocence. Golding emphasizes the childish nature of the boys
from the outset of the narrative, and he suggests that many of the struggles
that mark their time on the island have less to do with either the natural
brutality of the human spirit or the corruption of political society than with
the boys' young age and incapacity for responsibility. Ralph's first reaction
to the abandonment is to play in the water, and Jack's impulse to
"kill" falls flat when he is confronted with an opportunity to do so.
The chatter of the younger boys-who fear a "beastie" and a
"snake thing," as well as Piggy's constant mention of his "auntie"
at home who gave him candy, are narrative details that underscore the boys'
youth and their essential innocence. As the brutality and violence among the
boys increase in later chapters, Golding suggests that childhood is a neutral,
formative state in which children can either be guided towards morality or
corrupted by savagery when they are unguided by conscience or society. The
emphasis on the boys' childishness in Chapter One establishes important
questions that the subsequent action seeks to answer: is human nature
essentially good, bad, or neutral, and how do early childhood experiences
inform individual character?
Summary and Analysis of Chapter Two: Fire on the Mountain
Back with the
group the same evening, Ralph blows the
conch shell to call another meeting. The effects of abandonment are visible in
the boys' attire: the sunburned children have put on clothing once more, while
the choir is more disheveled, having abandoned their cloaks. When the group of
boys give Ralph full attention, Ralph suffers a brief lapse in confidence and
is unsure whether to stand or sit while conducting a meeting. He looks to Piggy for
affirmation of his authority. Ralph announces to the boys the results of the
morning's explorations. He explains that they are on an uninhabited island. At
this point, Jack interjects and insists that they need an army to hunt the
pigs. Ralph, Jack, and Simon excitedly
describe to the others their encounter with the piglet, Jack insisting
defensively that it "got away" before he had the chance to stab and
kill it, and vowing again to kill it "next time." To demonstrate his
sincerity, Jack dramatically plunges his knife into a tree trunk, and the children,
made uneasy by Jack's boldness, fall into silence.
Recognizing
that the meeting has devolved into disorder, Ralph announces that they will
have to establish rules, not only in meetings, but also to organize day-to-day
life. He states that, in meetings, the boys will have to raise their hands,
like in school, so as to ensure that they speak one at a time. The boy whose
turn it is to speak will receive the conch shell, which he will hold while
talking, and then will pass it along to the next speaker. Jack interrupts to
approve of the imposition of rules, and he begins excitedly explaining the
punishment that will result from breaking them. Piggy, grabbing the conch from
Ralph, reprimands Jack for "hindering Ralph." He says that the most
important thing is that nobody knows where they are and that they may be there
a long time. The boys fall into an anxious silence.
Ralph, taking
the conch again from Piggy, reassures the other boys, explaining that the
island is theirs-and until the grown-ups come they will have fun. He says that
it will be like a novel, and the others, excited once more, begin shouting the
names of their favorite island adventure novels: Treasure Island, Swallows
and Amazons, and The Coral Island. Ralph quiets the assembly by waving
the conch. A small six-year-old boy whose face is half-covered by a red
birthmark stands hesitantly to request the conch. He appears as if he is about
to cry; once he has possession of the conch, he asks Ralph what the group will
do about a snake-thing, which he describes as a "beastie" that
appeared to him in the forest. Ralph assures the group that such animals only
live in large countries, like those in Africa, so the boy must have dreamt the
beastie in the aftermath of the crash. The boys seem largely reassured, though
Ralph notices some signs of doubt on the faces of the younger children.
Ralph tells
the boys that their goal while stranded shall be twofold: one, they should try
to ensure their rescue, and two, they should try to have fun. He assures them
that, as his Naval Commander father told him, there are no unknown islands on
the planet, and thus they will be rescued. The others break into spontaneous
applause at Ralph's confidence in their rescue. He then explains to the group
the details of his rescue plan. Ralph suggests that they build a fire on the
top of the mountain, for the smoke will signal their presence to passing ships.
Jack summons the boys to come build a fire on the mountaintop, and they
immediately follow, leaving Piggy and Ralph behind to discuss the outcome of
the meeting.
Piggy
expresses disgust at the childish behavior of the boys as Ralph catches up to
the group and helps them carry piles of wood to the mountaintop. Eventually,
the task proves too difficult for some of the smaller boys, who lose interest
and search for fruit to eat. When they have gathered enough wood, Ralph and
Jack wonder how to start a fire. Piggy arrives, and Jack suggests that they use
his glasses. Jack snatches the glasses from Piggy, who can barely see without
them. A boy named Maurice suggests
that they use green branches to ignite the fire. After a few attempts, the
glasses concentrate the rays of the sun and start a fire. Though the boys are
mesmerized by the fire, it soon burns out. Piggy, disheartened by the waste of
their only firewood, chastises Jack, and the two argue bitterly.
Ralph grabs
the conch from Piggy and again reminds the group of the importance of rules.
Jack agrees, explaining that they are not savages, they are English, and the
English are the best at everything, so they must follow the right rules. Ralph
concedes they might never be saved, and Piggy claims that he has been saying
that, but nobody has listened. They get the fire going once more. While Piggy
has the conch, he loses his temper again, telling the other boys they should
have listened to his earlier orders to build shelters first while a fire is of
secondary importance. Piggy worries that they still do not know exactly how
many boys there are, and he mentions the snakes. Suddenly, one of the trees
catches on fire, and one of the boys screams about snakes. Piggy thinks that
one of the boys is missing.
Analysis
In the
novel's second chapter, Golding uses the progress of the boys on the island as
a metaphor for early human development. The boys' first achievement on the
island is to build a fire, which like the conch shell brings the entire group
of boys together in awe and wonder. According to Piggy, the next step should be
for the boys to build some sort of shelter, again a mirror of the historical
development of early human society. The "government" established by
Ralph also develops during this chapter. Golding uses these developments to
signal that the island is becoming a society with rules that mirror Western
democratic culture. The conch shell, which authorizes its holder to speak and
is available to all, is a particular symbol of the ideal of democratic freedom
and equality. But, since Ralph decides who gets possession of the conch, the
freedoms of the island are decided by authority. Though Ralph is a benevolent
leader, the implication here is that democracy still depends on its leaders for
justice.
Also like a
democratic system, the makeshift government on the island sparks debate and
dissent. Jack and Piggy have differing perspectives on what particular end
Ralph's rules will serve. Ralph takes a rational perspective based on ideas of
justice: the rules will allow the boys to live fairly with one another, a
belief that fits well with his democratic sensibility. Jack relishes the idea
of rules as a means for control and for punishment, a reflection of his
dictatorial ethos and tendency toward violence. Piggy, as the most intelligent
of the three central characters, views the rules as useful tools for survival.
He views all aspects of the boys' behavior on the island in terms of whether
they will contribute to their eventual rescue.
Golding
continues to present Ralph as a calming, authoritative presence among the boys.
When fear sets in among some of the younger boys, only Ralph has the presence
to restore order and hope. Despite Piggy's clear thinking and appraisal of
their situation, his contentious manner and rude dismissal of the younger boys
unfortunately causes his ideas to be dismissed. Even more importantly, he is a
cynic who can do nothing to comfort the others, instead instilling in them a
sense of fatalism. Piggy, whose pessimism and sadness make him a likely martyr,
is established in this chapter as a prophet whose words are not heeded until it
is too late. Golding uses Piggy's advice as foreshadowing: failure to heed
Piggy, however absurd he may sound, leads to dire consequences. Chapter Two contains
the first example of Piggy's prophecy: after the trip to the mountain, one of
the boys seems to be missing. The implication is that if the others had heeded
Piggy's advice and allowed him to keep track of the number of boys and their
names, there would be no confusion over whether one is missing.
Despite the
boys' dislike for Piggy, they appear to recognize that he is an important
presence on the island. His glasses enable them to start a fire on the
mountain. In particular, Piggy is useful for Jack, who remains more interested
in hunting and causing pain and disorder than in contributing or constructing
anything of use. It is significant that the development he is most supportive
of is building a fire, which is by nature destructive even though it can be
used for good. In this chapter, Golding also establishes Jack as a boy who
tends to dominate. Jack's statement about the English being the "best at
everything" also suggests his nationalistic impulses. Jack adheres to the
colonial English position that depended on the perceived superiority of the
British to justify the colonization and forced development of other peoples,
foreshadowing his brutal behavior in subsequent chapters. His statement that
they are "not savages" will, by the end of the novel, appear deeply
ironic as Jack and his tribe devolve into unthinkable depths of brutality and
self-destruction.
The boys'
childishness is again highlighted as the boys face the challenge of meeting
their basic needs for survival. The immediate dangers that the boys face are
few, for on the island there is fruit, plus the pigs, to eat, yet as children
they are overcome with irrational and diffuse terror. Golding suggests that
their own sense of fear is the greatest danger to these boys. It is fear over a
snake that causes the younger boys to panic and to exaggerate the dangers on
the island, causing disorder and commotion. Both Jack and Piggy contribute to
this sense of dread. Jack does so through his aggressive stance, which contains
the implicit notion that they are in danger and must defend themselves from
some unknown force. Piggy does so through his constant fatalism. It is here
that Ralph best demonstrates his superiority for leadership, displaying the
most calm of any of the characters and encouraging the others to be confident
in their rescue. Ralph is established here not only as a political leader but
also as a parental figure whose job is to reassure the scared boys and protect
them from their own fears and doubts.
As the
narrative moves closer to dramatic conflict and tragedy, Golding distinguishes Lord of the Flies from the
romantic adventure stories that were popular among boys of the mid-twentieth
century. In the second meeting, Ralph encourages the boys to have fun on the
island and to think of the experience as one that would happen "in a
novel." Immediately, the boys begin shouting out the names of their
favorite island adventures, including The Coral Island. The Coral Island (1857), written by R.M. Ballantyne,
was a popular nineteenth-century novel that followed the happy adventures of
three unsupervised boys on a tropical island. Golding, who found the narrative
of The
Coral Island naive and unlikely, wrote Lord of the Flies partly as
a response to this novel. The mention of these idealized island narratives at
the outset of Golding's dystopian tale is thus ironic because the events to
follow are nothing like the entertaining experiences of the boys on The Coral
Island. Through the explicit comparison, the reader is encouraged
to recognize Golding's work as a critical commentary on popular adventure
fiction on the basis of its optimistic unreality.
Also in
Chapter Two, Golding introduces more symbols that will recur throughout the
novel and which highlight important developments in the dramatic action. The
fire that the boys build signifies the group's hope for their rescue and return
to the Home Counties. A powerful symbol of human civilization, the fire is a
marker of the imposition of human industry on wild, untamed nature; the boys'
inability to maintain the fire indicates the waning possibility of both rescue
and maintaining civilized order on the island. We may also note the
introduction in this chapter of the "beastie," or as it is later
known, the "beast." The idea of the beast is first mentioned by one
of the younger boys though it is dismissed by most of the older children. As
Ralph reassures them, he sees a glimmer of doubt in many of their expressions,
an observation that mirrors the group's eventual acceptance of the beast as a
legitimate if improbable reality. The beast becomes an important motif that
establishes the power and danger of group-think among the boys.
Summary
and Analysis of Chapter Three: Huts on the Beach
Jack scans the oppressively silent
forest, looking for pigs to hunt. A bird startles him as he progresses along
the trail. He examines the texture of vines ("creepers") to determine
whether or not pigs have run through that section of the brush. Finally, Jack
spots a path cleared by pigs (a "pig run") and hears the pattering of
hooves. He raises his spear and hurls it at a group of pigs, driving them away
and thus feeling a profound sense of impotence and frustration. The length of
Jack's hair, the mass of freckles on his tanned back, and the tattered
condition of his shorts indicate that weeks have passed since the boys were
abandoned on the island. Jack appears to have taken up his role as group hunter
with zeal, and he at least has become talented at tracking pigs in the dense
brush.
Having frightened off the pigs without
a kill, Jack abandons the hunt and returns to a clearing in the forest, where
the boys are constructing crude shelters out of tree trunks and palm leaves. He
comes upon Ralph, who is working on a shelter facing the lagoon. Jack asks
Ralph for water, who directs him to a tree where coconut shells full of water
are arranged. After Jack quenches his thirst, Ralph complains to Jack that the
boys are not working hard to build the shelters. The little ones-referred to
now as "littluns," are hopeless, spending most of their time bathing
or eating. Jack reminds Ralph that he and his hunters are working hard to
ensure that the group is always fed.
Jack then tells Ralph that as chief he
should just order them to work harder. Ralph admits that even if he called a
meeting, the group would agree to five minutes of work and then "wander
off to go hunting." Recognizing this as a slight against himself and his
hunters, Jack blushes, and he explains that the group is hungry. Ralph points
out that Jack's group has yet to bring any meat back from the forest-the
hunters would rather swim than hunt. Jack explains that he has little control
over his hunters, but he has been working hard himself to "kill." A
"madness" flashes in his eyes when he vows to kill a pig, but Ralph
again reminds him that he has not yet captured any prey.
The two argue about Jack's
contributions to the society on the island, Jack vowing to kill prey and Ralph
insisting that they need shelters more than anything. Ralph mentions that the
other boys, especially the littluns, are frightened and scream in the middle of
the night. The two are interrupted by Simon, who reminds Ralph and Jack about
the littluns' fear of the "beastie." The three reminisce about their
first day on the island, when they explored the unknown territory together.
They laugh that the littluns are "crackers." Jack says that when he
is hunting he often feels as if he is being hunted, but he admits that this is
irrational. Nevertheless, he says, he knows "how they feel."
Ralph ignores this confession and
reminds Jack to remember the fire when he is out hunting. Ralph and Jack make
their way to the mountain to inspect the fire, leaving Simon behind. The two
speculate as to whether or not the fire is strong enough to signal a passing
ship, but Jack is distracted again by thoughts of killing a pig. Ralph,
indignant at Jack's preoccupation with hunting, accuses him again of not
contributing to the project of building shelters. Not wanting to start a
fruitless argument, however, Ralph points out the other boys near the bathing
pool and explains that Simon has worked as hard as he has at building shelters.
The two make their way back to the huts in search of Simon, but he is nowhere
to be found. Ralph, disappointed and confused, pronounces Simon
"queer" and "funny." The two boys decide to go swimming
together in the island bathing pool and soon find that the tension between them
has dissolved.
In the forest, Simon is wandering
alone. Simon followed Jack and Ralph halfway up the beach toward the mountain,
then turned into the forest with a sense of purpose. He is a tall, skinny boy
with a coarse mop of black hair, brilliant eyes, and bare feet. He walks
through the acres of fruit trees and finds fruit that the smallest boys cannot
reach. He gives the boys fruit, then proceeds along the path into the jungle.
He finds an open space and looks to see whether he is alone. This open space
contains great aromatic bushes, a bowl of heat and light. Simon eagerly takes
in the complex sensations of the forest, and he stays peacefully enclosed in a
"cabin" of leaves until long after day has faded into night.
Analysis
The main focus of this short chapter
is the developing conflict between Ralph and Jack. The two engage in a verbal
argument that indicates that each character is clinging dogmatically to his own
perspective. What is more, they represent opposing ideologies. While Ralph is
dedicated to building shelters for the group, Jack is determined to become a
successful hunter and establish himself as a lone hero among the group. Ralph's
orientation is towards the group, while Jack is concerned with his own glory,
which hinges again on militaristic values. Jack seeks to dominate and conquer
nature through hunting and killing pigs, a goal that foreshadows the
intensification of his violent impulses throughout the novel and further
identifies him as a symbol for totalitarian, as opposed to democratic,
political organization.
Chapter Three provides the reader with
more insight into Simon's character. Simon was introduced in Chapter One but is
not important until he interrupts Ralph's and Jack's argument. Described as
barefoot, long-haired, and alternately "queer" and "funny,"
Simon is revealed as socially outcast from the other boys. Yet, unlike Piggy,
Simon seems content with his difference and even cultivates it. When he, Ralph,
and Jack decide to go look at the signal fire, Simon abruptly abandons the
mission without word in order to wander off into the forest with a sense of
"purpose." Ignoring the usual rules of social interaction, which
would require him to tell the others of his plans out of politeness, Simon
distinguishes himself as ruled not by society but by an intense and even spiritual
inner force. His long hair and bare feet connect him not only to nature but to
the stereotypical wandering prophet or even Jesus Christ, a link that the novel
will enforce further with his murder.
While the dialogue in Chapter Three highlights the ideological contrast between Jack and Ralph, on a structural level, Golding also forces Jack and Simon into comparison. The chapter begins and concludes in the forest, linking both characters to the area (in contrast to Ralph, who is associated with the beach and mountain areas that he has marked with symbols of civilization-the fire and shelters). Jack and Simon are both anti-civilizing characters, attracted to the wild, untamed environment of nature, which they prefer to experience in solitude and silence. Nevertheless, their experiences of the forest are markedly distinct. While Jack disturbs and disrupts his surroundings, causing both birds and pigs to flee, Simon feels in complete harmony with the natural world. He submerges himself in the rhythms of the forest not to disturb it, but to appreciate its unique sounds, scents, and images. Jack and Simon thus represent two different human approaches to the natural world: the desire to subjugate nature and the desire to coexist in harmony with it. Within this schema, Ralph and Piggy represent a third position, that which seeks to retreat from but make use of nature with a distant but tangible respect.
Summary
and Analysis of Chapter Four: Painted Faces and Long Hair
The boys become accustomed to the
pattern of their days on the island although it is impossible to adjust to the
new rhythms of tropical life, which include the strange point at midday when
the sea rises and appears to contain flickering images. Piggy discounts the
midday illusions as mere mirages. While mornings are cool and comfortable, the
afternoon sun is oppressively hot and bright, which incites fatigue among many
of the boys. The northern European tradition of work, play, and food right
through the day is not forgotten, making the transition difficult.
As the boys settle into life on the
island, factions develop. The smaller boys are now known by the generic title
of "littluns," including Percival, the smallest boy on the island,
who had previously stayed in a small shelter for two days and had only recently
emerged, red-eyed and miserable. The littluns spend most of the day searching
for fruit to eat, and since they choose it indiscriminately they suffer from
chronic diarrhea. They cry for their mothers less often than expected, and they
spend time with the older boys only during Ralph's assemblies. The littluns
occupy themselves by building castles in the sand, complex structures whose
fine details are only noticeable from close range. The littluns remain
collectively troubled by nightmares and visions of the "beastie"
described at the first meeting. They fear that the creature hunts the boys
after nightfall.
Two older boys, Roger and Maurice,
come out of the forest for a swim and, expressing their superiority over the
littluns, begin to kick down the sand castles on the shore. Maurice,
remembering that his mother chastised him for such behavior, feels guilty when
he gets sand in Percival's eye. While this conflict unfolds, Henry-a littlun
who is related to the boy who disappeared-is preoccupied by some small
creatures on the beach, which he finds fascinating. Roger picks up a stone to
throw at Henry but deliberately misses him when he throws it, recalling the
taboos of earlier life.
Jack thinks about why he is still
unsuccessful as a hunter. He believes that the animals see him, so he wants to
find some way to camouflage himself. Jack rubs his face with charcoal and
laughs with a bloodthirsty snarl when he sees his reflection in a pool of
water. From behind the mask, Jack appears liberated from shame and
self-consciousness.
Piggy thinks about making a sundial so
that they can tell time and better organize their days, but Ralph dismisses the
idea. The idea that Piggy is an outsider is tacitly accepted. Ralph believes
that he sees smoke along the horizon coming from a ship, but there is not
enough smoke from the mountain to signal it. Ralph starts to run to the up the
mountain, but he is too late. Their signal fire is dead. Ralph screams for the
ship to come back, but it passes without seeing them. Frustrated and sad, Ralph
places the blame on the hunters, whose job it was to tend the fire.
From the forest, Jack and the hunters
return covered in paint and humming a bizarre war chant. Ralph sees that the
hunt has finally been successful: they are carrying a dead pig on a stick.
Nevertheless, Ralph admonishes them for letting the fire go out. Jack, however,
is overjoyed by the kill and ignores Ralph. Piggy begins to cry at their lost
opportunity, and he also blames Jack. The two argue, and finally Jack punches
Piggy in the stomach. Piggy's glasses fly off, and one of the lenses breaks on
the rocks. Jack eventually does apologize about the fire, but Ralph resents
Jack's misbehavior. Jack considers not letting Piggy have any meat, but he
orders everyone to eat. Maurice pretends to be a pig, and the hunters circle
around him, dancing and singing, "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her
in." Ralph vows to call an assembly.
Analysis
Golding begins the chapter by
describing a sense of order among the boys on the island, and he concludes it
by describing the order's disintegration. Even the smallest boys appear to have
accepted their fate on the island, and they have developed strategies, such as
the building of sand castles, to minimize and contain their anguish. The key to
the initial tranquility on the island is the maintenance of customs from the society
in which the boys were raised. Yet, as the chapter's opening passages imply,
these customs are threatened by the natural forces at work on the island. The
regular schedule of work, play time, and meal time is impossible in the
volatile tropical atmosphere. That the boys do not know whether the movement of
the mid-afternoon sea is real or a "mirage" indicates how
ill-adjusted to the island they still are.
We begin to focus on the
boys'-particularly Jack's-transgression of the ordered rules of their invented
society. Golding highlights how life on the island has begun to mirror human
society, with the boys organizing themselves into cliques according to age and
placing these cliques in a social hierarchy. The littluns have their own
routines and separate themselves from the older boys. The intricate sandcastles
the littluns build on the shore represent their continued respect for-even
idealization of-human civilization, and their continuing presence at Ralph's
meetings signals the littluns' investment in ordered island life, even though
they do not contribute directly to the group's survival. Golding employs the
littluns as symbols for the weak members of society that a successful democracy
strives to protect.
The episode with Roger and Maurice
kicking down the sandcastles thus signals the disintegration of ordered life on
the island, and it foreshadows the end of Ralph's democratic plans. The
sandcastles are a miniature civilization on the shore. By destroying the
sandcastles, Roger and Maurice not only express an abusive power over the
younger boys but indicate their increasing disrespect for civilized order and
human institutions. Still, Golding suggests, they have not yet devolved into
complete savagery. Maurice, remembering his mother's discipline, feels guilty
about kicking sand into Percival's eye, and Roger refrains from throwing a
stone at Henry. The implication is that the influences of human society are
difficult to erase from the human psyche; they remain internalized even in the
absence of rules, and conscience retains its hold. Whatever lessons the boys'
past had instilled in them prove critical to maintaining some semblance of
peace on the island. Despite the stirrings of anarchy, the boys obey notions of
appropriate behavior without any real external authority to determine what they
can and cannot do. It is only when the boys completely transgress these
civilized norms that they suffer.
Jack is the first to seriously
overstep the boundaries of civilized society. His attempts to become a successful
hunter are in effect attempts to succumb entirely to his animalistic nature.
His painted face, reminiscent of some less developed societies, supposedly
makes him indistinguishable from the animals of the forest. When Jack finally
does kill a pig, as he has intended to do since the beginning of the novel, he
fulfills a violent blood-lust that, until then, had remained frustrated. The
other hunters share this quality; when they dance and sing about killing the
pig, they show that they have succumbed to the thrill of violence. They relish
the slaughter, an enjoyment that transcends pride and signifies pure lust. As
they cheer on the means by which they mutilate the pig, their painted skin,
chanting, and frenzy suggest they have developed their own sub-society, one
based on rituals and an almost spiritual worship of blood, violence, and
slaughter.
Maurice's impression of the pig during
the dance calls attention to the increasingly indistinct line between violence
against animals on the island and violence among the boys. Significantly, this
chapter contains the first instance of explicit aggression between two boys.
Jack, now accustomed to harming others with his recent kill, punches Piggy,
who, as Golding reminds us, remains an outsider. The chapter further sets up
Piggy as a martyr. He has the most grounded concerns of all the boys, and he
offers the reasonable proposal that they construct a sundial, but he is also
loathed by the others. Only Ralph, the most mature and grounded of the
characters, sympathizes with Piggy and agrees with him that Jack made an
egregious error by letting the fire go out. Piggy stands apart from the other
boys, for he retains the goal of living in an increasingly civilized society.
His hair does not even seem to grow, helping him retain the appearance of a
normal English schoolboy while the others grow more disheveled and unkempt.
Jack also clashes with Ralph in this
chapter, and the tension between their perspectives furthers the novel's
concern with the two opposing political ideologies the boys represent, namely,
totalitarianism and democracy. Ralph, whose overarching concern is the
maintenance of the signal fire, is dedicated to the welfare of the entire
group. He uses his power for the good of all. Jack, however, is concerned with
becoming a successful hunter, less for the good it will bring to the other boys
than for the thrill of the hunt and the increased social status he will have on
the island. He seeks power because it will allow him to gratify his impulses
and abuse others without punishment. The two boys' treatment of the
littluns-Ralph is assuring, while Jack mocks and yells at them-demonstrates
their different approaches to power.
The concurrent sighting of the ship
and killing of the pig contribute to the disintegration of the relative calm on
the island. These two events represent the different strands of human behavior
inherent on the island. The ship is a reminder of the civilized society to
which the boys belong, renewing the possibility that they may eventually escape
the island. The killing of the pig is an example of their descent from
civilized behavior into animalistic activity. This makes clear the dichotomy
dividing Ralph and Piggy from Jack and the hunters. The former have a greater
concern for returning to society while the latter enjoy their freedom from
civilization (a group that, again, imposes its own totalitarian order under
Jack). This conflict between the two forces at work among the boys on the
island will guide much of the following conflict in the novel.
Summary
and Analysis of Chapter Five: Beast From Water
Ralph goes to the beach because he
needs a place to think and feels overcome with frustration and impotence. He is
saddened by his own physical appearance, which has grown shabby with neglect.
In particular, his hair has grown uncomfortably long. He understands the
weariness of life, where everything requires improvisation. Ralph decides to
call a meeting near the bathing pool, realizing that he must think and must
make a decision but that he lacks Piggy's natural intellectual ability.
That afternoon, Ralph blows the conch
shell and the assembly gathers. He begins the assembly seriously, telling them
that they are there not for making jokes or for cleverness. He reminds them
that everyone built the first shelter, which is the most sturdy, while the
third one, built only by Simon and Ralph, is unstable. He admonishes them for
not using the appropriate areas for the lavatory. He also reminds them that the
fire is the most important thing on the island, for it is their means of
escape. He claims that they ought to die before they let the fire out. He
directs this at the hunters in particular. He repeats the rule that the only
place where they will have a fire is on the mountain. Addressing the spreading
fear among the littluns, Ralph then attempts to demystify the question of the
"beastie" or monster. He admits that he is frightened himself, but
their fear is unfounded. Ralph again assures the group that there are no
monsters on the island.
With his customary abruptness, Jack
stands up, takes the conch from Ralph, and begins to yell at the littluns for
screaming like babies and not hunting or building or helping. Jack tells them
that there is no beast on the island. Piggy does agree with Jack on that point,
telling the kids that there are no beasts and there is no real reason for
fear-unless it is of other people. A littlun, Phil, tells that he had a
nightmare and, when he awoke, saw something big and horrid moving among the
trees. Ralph dismisses it as nothing. Simon admits that he was walking in the
jungle at night.
Percival speaks next, and as he gives
his name he recites his address and telephone number. This reminder of home,
however, causes him to break out into tears. All of the littluns join him in crying.
Percival claims that the beast comes out of the sea, and he tells them about
frightening squids. Simon says that maybe there is a beast, and the boys speak
about ghosts. Piggy claims he does not believe in ghosts, but Jack attempts to
start a fight again by taunting Piggy and calling him "Fatty." Ralph
stops the fight and asks the boys how many of them believe in ghosts. Piggy
begins yelling, asking whether the boys are humans, animals, or savages.
Jack threatens Piggy again, and Ralph
intercedes once more, complaining that they are breaking the rules. When Jack
asks, "who cares?" Ralph says that the rules are the only thing that
they have. Jack says that he and his hunters will kill the beast. The assembly
breaks up as Jack leads them on a hunt. Only Ralph, Piggy, and Simon remain.
Ralph says that if he blows the conch to summon them back and they refuse, then
they will become like animals and will never be rescued. He asks Piggy whether
there are ghosts or beasts on the island, but Piggy reassures him. Piggy warns
Ralph that if he steps down as chief Jack will do nothing but hunt, and they
will never be rescued. The three imagine the majesty of adult life. They also
hear Percival still sobbing his address.
Analysis
The weight of leadership becomes oppressive
for Ralph as the story continues; he is dutiful and dedicated, but his attempts
to instill order and calm among the boys are decreasingly successful. Golding
develops Ralph's particular concerns and insecurities in this chapter. By
showing him brooding over his perceived failures, Golding highlights Ralph's
essentially responsible, adult nature. Ralph's concern about his appearance,
and particularly his grown-out hair, indicate his natural inclination towards
the conventions of civilization. Although Ralph demonstrates a more than
sufficient intellect, he also worries that he lacks Piggy's genius. His one
consolation is that he realizes that his abilities as a thinker allow him to
recognize the same in Piggy, again a rational observation that draws the
reader's attention to his potential as a leader. The implication is that
deviations from Ralph's plans will be illogical, ill-informed, and dangerous.
Ralph still has a strong sense of
self-doubt. He is not immune to fear, which he admits to the boys, and he even
feels it necessary to ask Piggy whether there might actually be a ghost on the
island. Thus, Golding presents Ralph as a reluctant leader. His elected
position of chief has been thrust upon him, and he assumes it only because he
is the most natural and qualified leader. He has no real ambition or drive,
such as the rapacious energy that motivates Jack, but he knows that the boys
will be best provided for under his care. It is Ralph who is most concerned
with the rules of order on the island. He accurately tells the boys that
without the rules, the boys have nothing. Ralph's rules keep the boys tethered
to some semblance of society, but without these rules there will be disastrous
consequences.
Piggy remains the only fully rational
character during the assembly and afterward. Piggy is the only boy who
categorically dismisses the idea of a beast on the island, and he even
reassures the generally unwavering Ralph on this point. It is Piggy who
realizes that the boys' fear is the only danger that they truly face so long as
they have enough food to survive, and even this fear proves no actual threat to
them. Still, the outcast Piggy once again is ignored in favor of lurid tales of
beasts and ghosts; although he is consistently correct in his judgments, Piggy
is continually ignored. He raises the important question of whether the boys
wish to act like humans, savages, or animals. Once again, Ralph and Piggy
exemplify civilized human order, while Jack represents a brutal anarchy that
may devolve into animal behavior.
The conflict between Jack and Ralph,
with Piggy as his ally, reaches a breaking point in this chapter. Although Jack
initially dismisses the idea of a beast on the island, he comes to accept the
idea when they conceive of the beast as an enemy that his hunters may kill.
Jack continues to be an aggressive and destructive force. He again physically
threatens Piggy, foreshadowing the eventual violent conflict between the two
boys, and he even manipulates the young boys' fear of monsters and ghosts.
During the assembly Jack fully abandons the rules and codes of society. He
promotes anarchy among the boys, leading them on a disorganized hunt for an
imaginary beast. While Ralph is appointed leader for his calm demeanor and
rationality, Jack gains his authority from irrationality and instinctual fear,
manipulating the boys into thinking that there may be a dangerous creature that
they should hunt. This behavior is dangerous; Ralph concludes that a focus on
hunting will prevent them from ever leaving the island and seal their fate as
no more than animals.
The assembly highlights how fear
ferments and spreads in a group. The littluns begin with a concrete example of
a frightening incident that is easily explained and is understandable, but the
idea of something more sinister on the island provokes mass hysteria. The
terrors that the boys imagine become progressively more abstract and
threatening. Percival uses concrete facts about squids to arrive at an
illogical conclusion that a squid may emerge from the sea to harm them. This
then provokes the unfounded rumors that there may be supernatural beings,
ghosts, on the island.
Monsters, violent squid, and ghosts:
all three creatures represent different instantiations of the "beast"
or "beastie" that has been the subject of the boys' mounting fear. As
the title suggests, the beast is of crucial importance to this chapter and will
figure largely in the tragic events to come. On a symbolic level, the beast has
several meanings. First, it invokes the devil, the Satan of Judeo-Christian
mythology, which foreshadows the "lord of the flies" object that will
become the mascot of Jack's tribe later. The fear of the beast among the boys
may symbolize their fear of evil from an external, supernatural source. Second,
it symbolizes the unknown, amoral, dark forces of nature, which remain beyond
the boys' control. Finally, the beast may allude to the Freudian concept of the
Id, the instinctual, primordial drive that is present in the human psyche and
which, unfettered by social mores, tends towards savagery and destruction. In
this framework, the boys' fear of the beast is a displacement of a fear of
themselves, of their capacity for violence and evil which is unleashed in the
absence of adult authority and ordered social life.
With the anarchy incited by Jack and
the panic among the littluns, only the illusion of civilization is left on the
island. Percival's tearful repetition of his home address is a stark reminder
that the boys no longer reside in civilized culture and that the Home Counties
remain little more than a pleasant memory. As Ralph, Piggy, and Simon muse on
adulthood, we recall that adult society should be sufficiently rational and
organized to solve the problems that the children face on the island, though we
wonder how well a similar group of adults would do.
Summary
and Analysis of Chapter Six: Beast from Air
Later that night, Ralph and Simon pick
up Percival and carry him into a shelter. Overhead, beyond the horizon, there
is an aerial battle while the boys sleep. They do not hear the explosions in
the sky, nor do they see a pilot drop from a parachute, sweeping across the
reef toward the mountain. Unbeknownst to the boys, the dead pilot lands on the
mountaintop, his flapping chute throwing strange shadows across the ground,
with his head appearing to float in the wind.
Early the next morning, there are
noises from a rock falling down the side of the mountain. The twins Samneric,
the two boys on duty at the fire, awake and add kindling to the fire. Just then
they spot the dead pilot at the top of the mountain and are immobilized by
fear. Eventually, they scramble down the mountain to wake Ralph. Samneric claim
that they saw the beast. Ralph calls a meeting, and the group assembles again
at the beach. Eric announces to the other boys that he and Sam saw the beast.
He describes it as having teeth and claws and states that it followed them as
they ran away.
Jack calls for a hunt, but Piggy says
that they should stay there, for the beast may not want to approach them on the
beach. In response to Jack's belligerence, Piggy points out that only he has
the right to speak because he is holding the conch. Jack responds that they no
longer need the conch. Ralph becomes exasperated at Jack, accusing him of not
wanting to be rescued, and Jack takes a swing at him. Despite Jack's hostility
towards Ralph and the rules of the island, Ralph not only allows Jack to lead
the hunt but also decides that he will accompany the hunters to search for the
beast.
Simon, wanting to prove that he is
accepted, travels with Ralph, who wishes only for solitude. Soon, they reach a
part of the island that they had not yet discovered. It is a thin path that
leads to a series of caves inside a mountain face. While the other boys are
afraid to traverse the walkway and explore the caves, Ralph accomplishes the
feat and is encouraged by his own bravery. He enters one of the caves and is
soon joined by Jack. The two experience a brief reconciliation as they have fun
together exploring the new mountain territory.
They continue along a narrow wall of
rocks that forms a bridge between parts of the island, reaching the open sea.
At this point, however, some of the boys get distracted and spend time rolling
rocks around the bridge. Ralph again gets frustrated and then asserts that it
would be better to climb the mountain and rekindle the fire. He accuses the
boys of losing sight of their original goal, finding and killing the beast.
Contradicting Ralph, Jack states that he wishes to stay where they are because
they can build a fort.
Analysis
The landing of the dead pilot on the
mountain is a pivotal event in Lord of the Flies. The pilot represents an
actual manifestation of the beast whose existence the boys had feared but never
confirmed. None of the boys is immune to the implications of the dead pilot's
presence on the island. Even Piggy, faced with some evidence that a beast
actually exists, begins considering measures the boys should take to protect
themselves. In contrast to the "beast from water" of the previous
chapter (alternately figured as a monster, squid, and ghost), the beast from
air is a concrete object toward which the boys can direct their fear.
Significantly, however, the beast from air proves no threat to the boys. The
dead body is nothing more than a harmless object left to be interpreted in
vastly different ways by the various boys.
Given his increasingly violent
behavior, intensified further by his successful slaughter of a forest pig, Jack
unsurprisingly interprets the appearance of the beast from air as a cause for
war. The possibility of a dangerous presence on the island is key to Jack's
gaining authority over the other boys, for he affirms their fear and gives them
a focus for their violence and anger. Jack thus continues his authoritarian behavior
with a strong emphasis on demagoguery. Jack requires a concrete enemy in order
to assume dictatorial authority, and he finds one in the dead pilot despite its
obvious inability to harm them. This foreshadows later developments in which
Jack will focus his vitriol against other possible enemies. Like many tyrants,
Jack assumes power by directing public fear towards scapegoats, in this case,
the body of the dead pilot.
Chapter Six also confirms the
increasing tension between Jack and Ralph, whose opposing ideas of social
organization resurface. While he despises Piggy, Jack's most threatening enemy
is Ralph, who insists on rules and self-discipline over wild adventures and
hunting. Ralph remains focused on the clear objective of keeping the fire burning
to alert possible passing ships, while Jack is committed to only those pursuits
that allow him to behave in a destructive manner. Previously, Jack was
committed to the rules of order that would allow him to punish others; in this
chapter, however, Golding presents Jack as accepting anarchy when it serves his
purposes. His assertion that the boys no longer need the conch shell in
meetings signifies Jack's explicit rejection of the democratic rules
established in the boys' first meeting. Jack emerges in Chapter Six as driven
less by totalitarian or anarchist ideology than by self-interest, although the
anarchy makes room for a new order led totally by Jack.
Jack's increasing credibility among
the group isolates Ralph from the other boys, who find Jack's focus on the
games of hunting and building forts more appealing than Ralph's commitment to
keeping the fire burning and remaining safe. After all, what is so bad about a
life on the beach with plenty of fruit and fun? Throughout the chapter, Golding
develops this rift between the more mature Ralph and the other boys. Ralph
finds he must ally himself with the intellectual Piggy and the introspective
Simon. As the other boys narrow their focus to pure self-interest, with a
limited focus on survival (killing the beast) and a greater goal of satisfying
their boyish desires (playing as hunters), the three boys represent three
facets of distinctly human thought. Ralph, who strives to balance priorities
successfully, represents practical reason and democratic ethics. Piggy the
problem-solver represents pure intellect. Simon, in contrast, is a spiritual
thinker who demonstrates the ability to transcend individual interests in order
to achieve not just peace but harmony with others and with the natural
environment.
Significantly, Golding begins Chapter
Six with a description of an aerial battle that, unlike most of the narrative,
is not filtered through one of the boys' perspectives. The reader learns of the
events of the battle while the boys remain sleeping and unaware. This special
knowledge calls our attention to the dramatic irony here, the gap between
reality and the boys' interpretation of that reality. The group's hysterical
reaction to the "beast from air," which the reader knows is a dead
parachutist, underscores how distorted, irrational, and fear-driven the boys'
reasoning is. Rather than leaving readers with the boys' perspective, which
would require readers to figure out the reality of the situation on their own,
Golding briefly gives the reader an objective viewpoint in order to help
readers perceive the danger of the children's mounting irrationality.
Moreover, the chapter's opening
description of the aerial battle highlights one of the novel's missions, that
is, as a political allegory rooted in the Cold War. The war described here is
fictional and accords with no real historical events; nevertheless, the
rhetoric Golding uses in this section evokes the conflict of the Cold War. The
battle is between England and "the Reds," and an atom bomb-the main
weapon at issue in the arms race-is responsible for evacuating the children
from the Home Counties. Golding plays on the fears of Cold War America and
Great Britain to reinforce his cautionary tale about the superiority of
democracy. That the war again threatens the boys, through the misinterpreted
figure of the dead parachutist, also draws the reader's attention to the fact
that the children are primarily victims of war. From this perspective, the
tragic events to follow are consequences of a global crisis rooted as much in
war as in human nature.
Again in Chapter Six, Golding uses
religious symbolism to express the underlying themes of the novel. The dead
parachutist appears to the boys as a supernatural creature; Golding enforces
the twins' interpretation by describing the dead body with mystical imagery and
language. The body appears to lift and drop its own head, and the flapping
parachute opens and closes in the wind. Samneric describe it as a
"beast," but Golding's opening description, which follows the parachutist
as he drifts across the island-as well as the wing-like quality of his torn
parachute-implies that he is more akin to a fallen angel. In Judeo-Christian
mythology the first fallen angel was Lucifer, who later became Satan, the
incarnation of evil. The parachutist thus serves as a symbol of, and motivation
for, the evil that is now manifesting on the island. The Satanic function of
the dead body is compounded by the violent, tragic action that results from the
confusion surrounding its identity.
Summary
and Analysis of Chapter Seven: Shadows and Tall Trees
The boys continue to travel across the
island to the mountain, and they stop to eat. Ralph notices how long his hair
is and how dirty and unclean he has become. He has been following the hunters,
and he observes that on this side of the island, which is opposite to the one
on which the boys have settled, the view is utterly different. The horizon is a
hard, clipped blue, and the ocean crashes against the rocks. He compares the
ocean to a thick wall, an impermeable barrier preventing the boys' escape. As
Ralph appears to lose hope, Simon reassures him that they will leave the island
eventually. Ralph is somewhat doubtful, but Simon replies that his thoughts are
simply opinions. Roger calls for Ralph, telling him that they need to continue
hunting.
That afternoon, the boys discover pig
droppings. Jack suggests that they hunt the pig in addition to continuing their
search for the beast. A boar appears, and the boys set out in pursuit of it.
Ralph, who has never hunted before, is excited by the chase and quickly gets
caught up in the adventure. He throws his spear at a boar. While it only nicks
his snout, Ralph is encouraged by what he considers his good marksmanship.
Jack is wounded on his left forearm,
apparently by the boar's tusks. He proudly presents his wound to the crowd, and
Simon tells him he should suck the wound to prevent infection. The hunters go
into a frenzy once more, repeatedly chanting "kill the pig." Caught
up in the momentum of their chanting and dancing, they jab at Robert with their
spears, at first in jest, and then with more dangerous intent. Frightened and
hurt, Robert drags himself away from the crowd, now aware that they are carried
away with their game. Roger and Jack talk about the chanting, and Jack says
that someone should dress up as a pig and pretend to knock him over. When
Robert says that Jack should get a real pig that he can actually kill, Jack
replies that they could just use a littlun. The boys, enamored by Jack's bold
statement, laugh and cheer him on. Ralph tries to remind the boys that they
were only playing a game. He is concerned about the increasingly violent,
impulsive behavior of the hunters.
As evening falls, the boys start
climbing up the mountain once more, and Ralph realizes that they won't be able
to return to the beach until morning. He does not want to leave the littluns
alone with Piggy all night. Jack mocks Ralph for his concern for Piggy. Simon
says that he can go back to the beach and inform the group of the hunters'
whereabouts. Ralph tells Jack that there is not enough light to go hunting for
pigs, so they should wait until morning. Sensing hostility from Jack, Ralph
asks him why he hates him. Jack has no answer.
Though the hunters are tired and
afraid, Jack vows that he will go up the mountain to look for the beast. Jack
mocks Ralph for not wanting to go up the mountain, accusing him of being
afraid. Jack claims he saw something bulge on the mountain. Since Jack seems
for the first time somewhat afraid, Ralph agrees that they will look for it
immediately. The boys see a rock-like hump and something like a great ape
sitting asleep with its head between its knees. As soon as they see it, the
boys run off, terrified.
Analysis
In this chapter, Golding further develops
the themes he introduced in "Beast From Air." The rift between Jack
and Ralph becomes more intense as Ralph continues to remind Jack of his
misguided priorities. The struggle in this chapter between the two characters
again assumes political overtones, as the two engage in a power struggle for
authority over the other boys. The concerns of Ralph and Jack were established
in previous chapters: the former focuses on survival and escape while the
latter focuses on hunting and self-gratification. In this chapter Golding
examines the tactics that each uses to assert his authority. Jack uses his
bravado to signify his strength and dominance, and he attempts to diminish
Ralph in the eyes of the other boys by ridiculing him for his supposed
cowardice. Ralph, on the other hand, is straightforward and direct. He
challenges Jack's overblown self-confidence by honestly noting that Jack is
wrongly motivated by hatred.
Golding continues to use imagery and
symbolism to trace the boys' descent into disorder, violence, and amorality. In
particular, Golding suggests in this chapter that the line between the boys and
animals is becoming increasingly blurred. The hunters chant and dance, and one
of the boys again pretends to be a pig while the other boys pretend to kill him.
The parallel between boy and pig in the ritual is a powerful dramatization of
the implications of the boys' giving in to their violent impulses, indicating
that the children are no better than animals and that, like the pig, they too
will be sacrificed to fulfill the brutal desires of Jack and his hunters.
Characterization in Chapter Seven also
foreshadows the tragic events to come. In particular, Jack, who is increasingly
confident as a hunter and leader, suggests that his violent impulses are now
directed at the other children as well as at the pigs on the island. Jack's
joke that the group should kill a littlun in place of a pig demonstrates a
blatant disregard for human life and explicitly acknowledges that he
appreciates violence for its own sake. His joke also signals the waning of his
conscience as the boys continue to exist in the absence of adult society and
its rules. Jack, who previously needed to prepare himself to kill a pig,
indicates that he is now probably capable of killing people without remorse.
As Ralph faces the challenge of
tracking and hunting the beast, physical tasks that are unfamiliar to him as
the political leader of the boys, he demonstrates the dangerous appeal of
aggressive and impulsive behavior such as Jack's. Golding tracks Ralph's brief
sympathy with Jack's mindset to suggest that even the most civilized humans are
susceptible to groupthink and the pressures of the Id, which is inclined
towards destruction and self-gratification. The chapter begins with Ralph
expressing disgust over his appearance, which again indicates his natural
disinclination towards savagery. Yet, like Jack, Ralph feels exhilarated during
the hunt and begins to understand the primal appeal of killing pigs. It is
Jack's decision to continue the hunt in darkness, which Ralph rightly
recognizes as ill-informed, that finally reminds Ralph of the essential
foolishness of Jack's mindset. By showing Ralph's character as threatened but
not subsumed by Jack's will, Golding suggests that the human impulse towards
savagery, which is both strong and natural, can nevertheless be overcome by
reason and intelligence.
While Golding's characterization of
Jack and his hunters intends to caution the reader about the destructive
impulses that reside inside all humans, it is important to note the historical
biases at work in this depiction of the boys' hunting rituals. The boys chant
and dance around in circles, whipping themselves up into a "frenzy"
that pushes them to the brink of actual murder. They represent or are becoming
"savages," which in Golding's time reminded readers of the native
peoples of the Americas and Africa. This stereotype tended to associate these
peoples with a very limited and barbaric culture, failing to appreciate the
complex culture that events such as ritual dances expressed. A more charitable
view of Jack's new warrior culture, say from an anthropologist's perspective,
would not stress the dehumanization of the war-dance so much as their natural
human reaction to the difficult conditions on the island, a reaction that after
all can produce the meat that the children need.
Nature is also of crucial significance
in this chapter. As the boys move farther from the camp into the unexplored
recesses of the forest and mountain areas, they contend with the powerful forces
of the natural world, which is untamed and indifferent to the boys' concerns.
The emphasis on the indifference of nature in this chapter is significant in
several ways. First, it suggests the continuing dehumanization of the boys as
they remain cut off from the larger world and without successful social
organization. Their progress from the semi-humanized beach, with its shelters
and sandcastles, to the wild forest and mountain areas, mirrors their descent
into complete savagery. The chapter's beginning, in which Ralph compares the
ocean to an impenetrable wall, also suggests the extent to which nature remains
the boys' most powerful antagonist. Ralph's pessimistic observations foreshadow
the following chapters, in which Simon discovers that the "beast" is
actually a dead body, whose presence on the island can be explained rationally.
It was the darkness of the night that prevented the boys from recognizing the
true nature of the creature of the mountaintop. Throughout the novel, the
natural world frustrates and threatens the boys' understanding of their
situation and their relationships with one another. Ralph's sense of defeat in
the face of the ocean in this chapter thus indicates that he is beginning to
register the power of nature and the part it plays in their struggle for rescue
and self-government.
The conclusion of the chapter, with
the boys' collective misrecognition of the dead parachutist as a malevolent
beast, highlights the power of human nature to fear the unknown and magnify its
importance. The boys compare the figure on the mountaintop to a great ape. The
primate is a common symbol for early man and man's origins as an animal
species. The boys recognize the ape-like creature as a monster, a moment that
underscores the monstrous potential of humanity at its most primitive and base.
The parachutist, whose arrival on the island inaugurates a series of events
that lead to complete anarchy and bloodshed, thus links together evil, nature,
and humanity in a single symbol. The haste with which the boys decide the dead
body is a "monster" indicates not only the infectiousness of
hysterical thinking among the boys, but also the extent to which the beast is a
projection of their fear of their own savagery and violence.
Summary
andAnalysis of Chapter Eight: Gift for the Darkness
The next morning, the boys gather on
the beach to discuss what the hunters saw. Ralph tells Piggy about the creature
on the mountain, which he describes as a beast with teeth and big black eyes.
Piggy is skeptical. Jack assures the group that his hunters can defeat the
beast, but Ralph dismisses Jack's group as no more than boys with sticks. Jack
tells the other boys that the beast is a hunter, and he informs them that Ralph
thinks that the boys are cowards. He continues his attack on Ralph, claiming
that Ralph is no proper chief, for he is a coward himself. Jack asks the boys
if they want Ralph to be fired as chief. When nobody agrees with him, Jack runs
off in tears. He asserts that he is no longer going to be part of Ralph's lot.
Jack leaves the group on the beach.
After Jack runs off, Piggy tells the
group they can do without him, but they should stay close to the platform.
Simon suggests that they climb the mountain. Piggy says that if they climb the
mountain they can start the fire again, but he then suggests that they start a
fire down by the beach. Piggy organizes the new fire area by the beach. Ralph
notices that several of the boys are missing. Piggy is confident that they all
will do well enough if they behave with common sense, and he proposes a feast.
They wonder where Simon has gone and surmise that he might be climbing the
mountain. In fact, Simon left to sit in the open space he had found earlier.
Far off along the beach, Jack
proclaims that he will be chief of the hunters and that they must forget about
the beast. He says that they might go later to the castle rock, but now they
will kill a pig and have a feast to celebrate their independence. They find a
group of pigs, and Jack kills a large sow by forcing his spear up her anus.
Jack rubs the blood over Maurice's cheeks while Roger laughs about how the
fatal blow against the sow was delivered up her ass. They cut off the pig's
head and leave it on a stick as a gift for the beast at the mountaintop. When
they place the offering upright, blood drips down the sow's teeth, and they run
away. Simon, from his private space, sees the head, which has flies buzzing
around it.
Back on the beach, Ralph worries that
the boys will die if they are not rescued soon. Ralph and Piggy realize that it
is Jack who makes everything break apart.
Ralph's group is startled as the
forest suddenly bursts into uproar. The littluns run off while Jack approaches,
naked except for paint and a belt, his hunters taking burning branches from the
fire. Jack tells Ralph and his group that he and his hunters are living along
the beach by a flat rock, where they hunt and feast and have fun. He invites
the boys to join his tribe. When Jack leaves, Ralph says that he thought Jack
was going to take the conch, which Ralph still considers a symbol of ritual and
order. They reassure each other again that the fire is the most important task
at hand. But a boy among them named Bill appears skeptical. He suggests that
they go to the hunters' feast and tell them that the fire is hard on them. At
the top of the mountain remains the pig's head, which Simon has dubbed the Lord
of the Flies.
Simon believes that the pig's head
speaks to him. He thinks that it is calling him a silly little boy. The Lord of
the Flies tells Simon to run off and play with the others, who think that he is
crazy. The Lord of the Flies claims that he is the Beast, and the Beast laughs
at the idea that the Beast is something that could be hunted and killed, for he
is within every human being and thus can never be defeated or escaped from.
Terrified and disoriented by this disturbing vision, Simon falls down and loses
consciousness.
Analysis
In this chapter, Golding continues to
use his main characters as personifications of various facets of the human
spirit. Piggy remains the lone skeptic among the boys and still unsure of the
presence of the beast, which continues to be the focus of island life for Jack
and his hunters. Even Ralph, succumbing to fear and suspicion, now believes
that there is a beast on the island. Although Ralph is the clear protagonist of
the story and the character to whom Golding affixes the reader's perspective,
he is still susceptible to the childish passions and irrationality that are, to
varying extents, present in the other children. Ralph's weakness is not
insignificant. While Ralph may be more mature and rational than Jack and his
hunters, given the right circumstances he can submit to the same passions as
the other boys, a tendency that foreshadows the tragic events that unfold in
subsequent chapters.
The political subtext of previous
chapters becomes more overt in this chapter as Jack explicitly attempts to
overthrow Ralph as chief. Although Ralph successfully defends himself against
Jack's attack by calling the other boys' attention to Jack's shortsightedness
and cowardice, Jack is resolved that he will take control. Jack's refusal to
accept the other boys' decision serves as a reminder that Jack is still a child
who considers life on the island as a game; he assumes the position that, if he
cannot set the rules of the game, he refuses to play at all. This decision
provokes the subsequent events of the chapter, which focus on Jack's rejection
not only of Ralph's authority but of the entire pseudo-democracy on the island
that had conferred authority on Ralph. Jack, realizing that he cannot take
authority directly away from Ralph, appoints himself as the authority and
begins his own "tribe." Two "governments" thus exist on the
island in this chapter. Ralph presides over what resembles a liberal democracy,
while Jack forms a type of military dictatorship. The two systems remain
ideologically opposed, an opposition that Golding highlights by placing the
camps on different sides of the island. The structure of the chapter also
evokes the creation of two different governments on the island and foreshadows
the dominance of Jack's system over Ralph's. If there is a belligerent culture
nearby, a peaceful culture must militarize in order to survive. The chapter
begins with Jack rejecting Ralph's conch shell as a symbol of authority
conferred by democratic consensus, and it ends with the creation of the Lord of
the Flies, a symbol of the lawlessness and violence that motivates Jack's
desire for power.
Golding also continues to represent
Piggy as the sensible and in some respects the most essential character for the
boys' survival. The abrasive edge that Piggy demonstrated upon their arrival
now becomes secondary to his practical wisdom, his ability to quickly
understand and adapt to new situations. Among the major characters, Piggy is
the only one who does not have predictable emotions. While Jack and Simon
descend into their respective forms of madness and Ralph remains sensible but
increasingly cynical and vulnerable, Piggy confounds the reader's expectations
by assuming authority over the boys despite his sickly appearance and aversion
to physical labor. In this chapter, even Ralph defers to Piggy's sound judgment
and resolve. But any hints of Piggy's heroism in this chapter are undermined by
the increasing subjugation of the island's pigs to Jack and his hunters. Piggy
is linked to the pigs by his name; as Jack's group become more focused on and
adept at hunting them, Piggy's own victimization by the group becomes more
likely. In part, the killing of the sow foreshadows Piggy's tragic fate.
As was foreshadowed in the previous
chapter, Jack and his hunters continue to devolve into savagery in Chapter
Eight. They indulge more and more in stereotypical "native" behavior
that emphasizes the use of violence and rituals of song and dance. For these
boys the actions are initially little more than a game; when Jack invites the
other boys to join his tribe, he explains that the point of this new tribe is
solely to have fun. The boys continue to see their behavior as savages as part
of an elaborate game, even as the "game" takes on increasingly
dangerous and violent undertones. The mounting brutality and impulsiveness of
Jack's group in this chapter foreshadows the events of Chapter Nine, in which
the boys' behavior moves from mere pretending at violence to actual murder.
The scene where Simon confronts the
pig's head, which he calls the Lord of the Flies, remains the most debated
episode among critics of the novel. Many critics have noted that the scene
resembles the New Testament's telling of Jesus' confrontation with Satan during
his forty days in the wilderness. Simon, a naturally moral, selfless character,
does seem to be a Christ-figure who, in his knowledge of the true nature of the
beast, is the sole bearer of truth at this point in the novel. In this scene
with the pig's head, represented as evil, he meets and struggles against his
antithesis. His eventual sacrifice, again an allusion to the crucifixion of
Jesus, will mark the triumph of evil over good on the island.
A close reading of Simon's interaction
with the pig's head can yield additional interpretations. In ways that
complicate the biblical allegory in this scene, Golding also represents the
Lord of the Flies in this chapter as the symbol of the boys' descent from civilized
behavior to inhuman savagery. In this framework, the pig's head serves as a
corrective for Simon's naive view of nature as a peaceful force. For Simon, the
pig's head is a revelation (his final one) that alerts him to the fact that
while nature is beautiful and fascinating, it is also brutal and indifferent.
In previous chapters, Golding linked Simon to a vision of nature that was
abundant, beautiful, and Edenic. The Lord of the Flies represents a different
kind of nature, a hellish one, not one of paradise. Seen through Simon's
perspective, the Lord of the Flies is a Hobbesian reminder that human life in
the most basic state of nature is in fact nasty, brutish, short, and worse. In
keeping with Golding's characterization of Simon as spiritual, the pig's head
has deep religious connotations: the phrase "lord of the flies" is a
translation of the Hebrew word Ba'alzevuv, or its Greek equivalent Beelzebub.
The pig's head is thus a symbol of Satan, but, as it reminds Simon, this devil
is not an external force. Rather, it is a more nefarious evil, one created by,
and remaining within, the boys themselves.
Another interesting facet of Golding's
representation of nature in this chapter is evident in the pig hunt.
Historically, artists and novelists have associated the natural world with
women, in contrast to the civilized world, which they linked to men. Nature is
often gendered in literature as female and in this sense a threat to the
civilized forces of masculinity. Accordingly, Golding represents this pig hunt
in gendered terms and with violent sexual imagery in that the boys kill a
female pig with a spear thrust into her anus, which evokes rape. In a novel
that has no female human characters appearing in any scene, and in which women
are barely even mentioned, this sow and what happens to her carries additional
weight. The brutal murder of the sow represents the boys' attempts to subjugate
and impose their will on the natural world, coded here as feminine. We may
again note the metaphoric link between Piggy and the sow, which calls attention
to the ways in which Piggy is himself coded as "feminine": hairless,
softly rounded, and with several stereotypically girlish qualities, such as
disliking physical labor. In this way, too, the sow's subjugation anticipates
his own.
Summary
andAnalysis of Chapter Nine: A View to a Death
On the humid, dark mountaintop,
Simon's fit passes into the weariness of sleep. Waking up, Simon speaks aloud
to himself, questioning what he will do next. His nose bleeding, he climbs
farther up the mountain, and in the dim light, catches sight of the Beast. This
time, however, he recognizes it as the body of the man who parachuted onto the
island. Overwhelmed with disgust and dread, Simon vomits. He realizes that he
must inform the other boys of their mistake, and he staggers down the mountain
toward Jack's camp to tell them what he has found.
Ralph notices the clouds overhead and
estimates that it will rain again. Ralph and Piggy play in the lagoon, and
Piggy gets mad when Ralph squirts water on him, getting his glasses wet. They
wonder where most of the other boys have gone, and they realize that they must
have gone to Jack's feast for the childish fun of pretending to be a tribe and
putting on war paint. They decide to find them to ensure that the events do not
spiral out of control.
When Ralph and Piggy arrive at Jack's
camp, they find the other boys sitting in a group together, laughing and eating
the roasted sow. Jack, now a leader, sits on a great log, painted and garlanded
as an idol. When he sees Ralph and Piggy, he orders the other boys to give them
something to eat, then orders another boy to bring him a drink. Jack asks all
of the boys who among them will join his tribe, for he gave them food and
demonstrated that his hunters will protect them. Ralph is distressed to see
most of them agree to join Jack's tribe. Attempting to convince his boys
otherwise, Ralph provokes yet another argument with Jack, and the two yell at
each other about who deserves to be chief. Feeling that he is losing ground,
Ralph appeals to his symbol of authority, the conch shell. Jack, however, does
not acknowledge the conch's significance and tells Ralph that it does not count
on his side of the island.
Disturbed by the hostile turn of
events, Piggy urges Ralph to leave Jack's camp before there is serious trouble.
It starts to rain. Ralph warns the group that a storm is coming and points out
that Jack's tribe is unprepared for such disasters, since they do not even have
any shelters. The littluns become frightened, and Jack tries to reassure them
by ordering his group to perform its ritual pig hunting dance. The boys begin
dancing and chanting wildly, and they are soon consumed by frenzy. The storm
begins, and a figure emerges suddenly from the forest. It is Simon, running to
tell the others about the dead parachutist. Caught up in the madness of the
dance, however, they do not recognize him. As Simon cries out about the dead
body on the mountain, the boys rush after him with violent malice. They fall on
Simon, striking him repeatedly until he is dead.
Meanwhile, on the mountain, the storm
intensifies and spreads across the island. The boys run to the shelters,
seeking safety from the increasingly violent wind and rain. The strong winds
lift the parachute and the body attached to it and blow it across the island
and into the sea, a sight which again terrifies the boys, who still mistake the
body for a beast. At the same time, the strong tide, propelled by wind, washes
over Simon's body and carries it out to sea, where a school of glowing fish
surrounds it.
Analysis
In this particularly significant
chapter, Ralph finally loses his leadership over the other boys, who succumb to
Jack's increasing charisma and the opportunity he gives them to indulge their
violent and childish interests. Golding underscores the tragedy of this shift
in power with the violent storm that ravages the island, a storm for which the
shortsighted Jack was not prepared. Just when Ralph's calm judgment and
practicality is most needed, he lacks the authority to bring the boys to
safety. The storm on the island serves as a reminder of the perils they face;
while Ralph has built shelters for the boys and is prepared for this situation,
Jack has focused simply on hunting and entertaining the boys, to their
detriment. Golding again directs the reader's sympathy towards Ralph, whose
concern remains for the good of the group.
Jack's authority over the other boys
becomes increasingly disturbing and dangerous in this chapter. When Ralph finds
Jack, he is painted and garlanded, sitting on a log like an idol. This
distinctly pagan image is at odds with the ordered society from which Jack came
and is the final manifestation of his rejection of civilization. We may note
again the presence of chanting and dancing among the boys in his group and
recall that, prior to their arrival on the island, Jack and his boys were
members of a choir. Traditionally, boys' choirs sang Christian religious songs
and hymns. Jack and his tribesmen still sing, but they sing chants that
strongly evoke the animistic religious traditions of native cultures. Their
choice of ritual and song, coupled with Jack's appearance as an
"idol," indicates the boys' complete and final rejection of the
civilization of the Home Counties.
In this chapter, Golding also
emphasizes Jack's rise to power and foreshadows the brutal consequences of his
authority. Again, Jack rejects the rules established for the island, telling
Ralph that the conch yields no authority when Ralph attempts to cite precedent.
He signifies his power over his tribe with his painted body and garlands, an
image that alludes to Joseph Conrad's 1902 novella, Heart of Darkness, in which
a boat captain, Marlow, accepts an assignment to find a defecting government
agent, Kurtz, in Africa. In Conrad's story, Marlow discovers Kurtz in a remote
area of the continent, living with a group of natives who worship him as their
leader and god. In this chapter of Lord of the Flies, Golding draws a
deliberate parallel between Jack and Kurtz in order to emphasize the extent of
Jack's power over the other boys and to call the reader's attention to the
severity of the tension between Ralph and Jack which, like the tension between
Marlow and Kurtz, is strongly ideological (Marlow and Ralph representing civilization,
and Jack and Kurtz representing savagery). This tension eventually leads to
violent conflict.
Note the increasing importance of the
beast to the boys in this chapter, and its centrality to Jack's usurping of
leadership from Ralph. As Ralph and Piggy discover, Jack and his tribe have
constructed an elaborate mythology around the beast, to whom they now attribute
many qualities that were not present in earlier descriptions. They believe that
the beast is immortal and can change shape as it wishes, and they claim that it
must be both worshiped and feared. Around this mythology Jack has established
the rules of his society. His boys are united by their belief in the beast and,
above this, their belief in Jack as the one person who can protect them from
the beast. Their ritual dances and chants, as well as Jack's makeup and
adornments, express their commitment to this mythology, within which the Lord
of the Flies functions totemically.
The Lord of the Flies embodies and
expresses the mythology of the beast that unites Jack's tribe and is
significant in many ways. As an offering to the body of the parachutist on the
mountain, which the boys (excluding Piggy) regard as the beast, it symbolizes
Jack's acknowledgment of, and deferral to, the evil impulses that reside inside
the individual psyche. In previous chapters, he had vowed to kill the beast;
here, Jack attempts to appease it, to gain its favor. As a totem, an artifact
that unites Jack's tribe (much like the conch served as a totem for Ralph's
group), the Lord of the Flies symbolizes the solidification of Jack's group
around a shared set of values and interests which, as we have noted, are
self-interested and indulgent. Finally, as a memento of the hunting of the sow,
the Lord of the Flies represents the imposition of human will over nature,
another of Jack's goals for island life. The pig's head reminds the boys of the
essential opposition between man and nature, an opposition Jack views as
essentially hostile and one that the boys can win.
The most important event of the
chapter, however, is the murder of Simon by Jack's tribe. They are in a
trance-like state from their ritual dancing, although this does not excuse
them. The murder continues the parallel between Simon and Jesus established in
the previous chapter by depicting the murder as a sacrifice, akin to Christ's
murder on the cross. Like Jesus, who was the sole bearer of knowledge of God's
will, it is Simon who alone possesses the truth about the beast. Also like
Christ's, Simon's tragedy is governed by the fact that he is misunderstood or
disbelieved by those around him. For example, the other boys believe Simon is
crazy, yet he is the only boy to discover the truth about the supposed beast.
This irony is compounded when Jack's hunters mistake Simon for the beast
himself. His murder represents the culmination of the violent tendencies
prevalent among Jack's band of hunters, who finally move from brutality against
animals to brutality against each other. The change is subtle: they murder
Simon out of instinct, descending on him before they realize that he proves no
danger to them. Nevertheless, this is yet another line that the boys cross on
their devolution into inhuman savagery and another step toward engaging in
complete and premeditated violence against one another. Simon's murder reveals
the essential brutality of the human spirit. On both metaphoric and structural
levels, Golding casts Simon as a martyr, a figure whose death is instructive at
least to the reader.
The parallels between Simon and Christ
continue even after Simon is dead. We may note not only the religious subtext
of the chapter's final image, but the distinctly pessimistic tone of this
subtext. The storm simultaneously removes the parachutist's and Simon's bodies
from the island. Yet, while the parachutist appears to ascend on the winds,
Simon is dragged under the tide. The parachutist, who represents both the war
that caused the events that brought the children to the island (he is a
soldier) and, in a more general sense, the evil that is present in the human
psyche (he resembles a fallen angel, a common figure for Satan), is lifted into
the sky, while Simon, a Christ-like figure, appears to descend beneath the
surface of the earth. The image, therefore, reverses the traditional story,
with Satan rising to the heavens and Christ descending to the underworld. The
implication is that the ideal order of good and evil has been reversed on the
island. Evil has triumphed, a suggestion that mirrors Jack's rise to power and
foreshadows the even more tragic events to come. Still, a vestige of optimism
remains: Simon's body, as it is carried out to sea, is surrounded by some small
glowing fish, who function as a kind of living halo. They do not necessarily
want to eat the body; perhaps they are figuratively honoring it. The
implication is that the truth of Simon's message, and the injustice of his
death, will be recognized in time, as is the case with martyred prophets and
saints.
Summary
andAnalysis of Chapter Ten: The Shell and the Glasses
Back on the other side of the island,
Ralph and Piggy meet on the beach. Tired, injured, and disturbed by the
previous night's action, they discuss Simon. Piggy reminds Ralph that he is
still chief, or at least chief over those who are still with them. Piggy tries
to stop Ralph from dwelling on Simon's murder by appealing to Ralph's reason.
Piggy says that he participated in the murder because he was scared, to which
Ralph replies that he was not scared. He does not know what came over him.
Piggy tries to justify the death as an accident provoked by Simon's
"crazy" behavior, but Ralph, clutching the conch defensively, is
consumed with guilt and regret and insists that they took part in a murder.
Piggy asks Ralph not to reveal to
Samneric that they were involved in Simon's death. Ralph and Piggy reveal that
almost all the other boys have abandoned them for Jack's tribe save Samneric
and some other littluns. Samneric return to the beach, where they present Ralph
and Piggy with a log they have dragged out of the forest. They immediately take
off to go swimming. Ralph stops the twins with the intention of informing them
that he and Piggy did not participate in Simon's murder. All four appear
nervous as they discuss where they were the previous night, trying to avoid the
subject of Simon's murder. All insist that they left early, right after the
feast.
At Castle Rock, Roger is attempting to
gain entry to Jack's camp. Robert, already inside, makes Roger announce himself
before he can enter-one of Jack's new rules. When Roger enters, Robert shows
him a new feature of Jack's camp: the boys have rigged a log so that they can
easily trigger a rock to tumble down and crush whatever is below it. Roger
appears disturbed by this, and Robert changes the subject, telling him that
Jack had a boy named Wilfred tied up for no apparent reason. Roger considers
the implications of Jack's "irresponsible authority" and makes his
way back down to the caves and the other boys in Jack's tribe. He finds Jack
sitting on a log, nearly naked with a painted face. Jack declares to the group
that tomorrow they will hunt again. He warns them about the beast and about
intruders. He promises them another feast. Reluctantly, Bill asks Jack what
they will use to light the fire. Jack blushes. He finally answers that they
shall take fire from the others.
In Ralph's camp on the beach, Piggy
gives Ralph his glasses to start the fire. They wish that they could make a
radio or a boat, but Ralph says that if they do so, they risk being captured by
the Reds. Eric stops himself before he can admit that it would be better than
being captured by Jack's hunters. Ralph wonders what Simon had been saying
about a dead man. The boys become tired from pulling wood for the fire, but
Ralph insists that they must keep it going. Ralph nearly forgets what their
objective is for the fire, and they then realize that two people are needed to
keep the fire burning at all times. Given their small numbers, each member of
Ralph's group would have to spend twelve hours a day devoted to tending the
fire. Exhausted and discouraged, they give up the fire for the night and return
to the shelters, where they drift off to sleep.
Ralph and Piggy sleep fitfully. They
are wakened by sounds within the shelter: Samneric play-fighting. Aware of his increasing
fear, Ralph reminisces about the safety of home, and he and Piggy conclude that
they will go insane. Suddenly, they hear the leaves rustling outside their
shelter and a boy's voice whispering Piggy's name. It is Jack with his hunters,
who are attacking the shelter. Ralph's boys fight them off but suffer
considerable injuries. Piggy tells Ralph that they wanted the conch, but he
then realizes that they came for something else: Piggy's broken glasses.
Analysis
As the chaos surrounding Simon's death
calms down, Golding focuses on the horror Piggy and Ralph feel about their
involvement in the murder. The two boys attempt to justify their role in
Simon's death with the ideas that they did not know that it was Simon until it
was too late, they were not among the inner circle of boys beating him to
death, and they operated on instinct rather than on malice. Still, the
involvement of Piggy and Ralph makes clear that even these two, the paragons of
rationality and maturity among the children on the island, are susceptible to
the same forces that motivate Jack and his hunters. Golding obscures the
once-clear dichotomy between the "good" Ralph and the
"evil" Jack, demonstrating that the compulsion towards violence and
destruction is present inside all individuals. The reverse, a "good"
Jack, is rarely in evidence. The implication of Ralph's and Piggy's brief but
tragic participation in the brutal activities of Jack's tribe is that the
natural state of humanity is neither good nor evil but mixed. Social order and
rules, with conscience and reason helping out only on occasion, are what
constrain and limit the "evil" impulses that exist inside us all.
Indeed, Golding does present one major
qualification that distinguishes Ralph and Piggy from Jack. Ralph and Piggy still
possess a moral sensibility. They realize that their actions are wrong and
accordingly struggle to find some justification for their parts in the murder.
They are ashamed of the murder, unlike the other boys, who show no qualms about
what they have done. Even if Ralph and Piggy present unsuccessful
rationalizations, the fact that they need to find some reason for their
behavior shows that they have an understanding of moral principles and retain
an appreciation for them. Golding thus suggests that while evil may be present
inside all of us, the strength of conscience and reason can positively move
one's morals, for some more than for others.
As the new leader of the boys, Jack
maintains his authority by capitalizing on the fears and suspicions of the others.
Even when presented with information that the figure on the mountain is not
harmful, Jack continues to promote fear of the dreaded beast. Like many
tyrants, his rules are based on a strict distinction between insiders and
outsiders: the insiders are his tribe, and the outsiders are their common
enemies: the beast and the boys on the island who reject Jack's authority. His
methods of rule are entirely exclusionary, and they fail to provide that first
role of government, the security and the safety of the group, even while Jack
purports to be able to provide protection from the beast and other enemies. The
formal declaration by the guard that visitors must announce their presence does
nothing to improve the boys' safety.
Even as Golding continues to emphasize
the successful rise of Jack as a leader, he suggests that this rule may be
short-lived. The shortsightedness Jack displays as a ruler is clear even to
Jack himself. Intent on pleasing the boys with games and hunting, he does
nothing to address more practical concerns. Faced with the dilemma of providing
a feast without a fire, his solution is to steal from the boys who have
maintained a sense of responsibility. Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric are therefore
considerably burdened. Without help from the other boys who are content to play
as savages, these four must devote all their energy to maintaining the signal
fire, an almost impossible task. The strain Jack has left the boys with is
considerable, but this does not matter to Jack if he can only secure the
glasses for fire for the feasts. Ralph and Piggy muse, for their part, that
they may go insane if they are not rescued soon.
A more immediate danger to Ralph and
Piggy comes when Jack and his followers charge the camp on the beach. The
attack on Ralph and Piggy signals yet another stage in the boys' descent from
civilized behavior into pure savagery. The murder of Simon was motivated by
mass hysteria, instinctual fear, and panic. Here the violence used to gain
Piggy's glasses, even though it is not fatal, is intentional, an act that
anticipates the murder of Piggy in the following chapter. Piggy's premeditated
murder is also foreshadowed by the description of the rock perched near the
fortress. Jack and his soldiers have placed the rock so that it may be tipped
over on another boy. The question remains regarding which boy will suffer this
fate.
As in previous chapters, Golding uses
symbolism and imagery to call the reader's attention to the novel's tragic arc,
which follows the boys as they devolve from civilized, moral human beings to
animal-like savages, motivated only by self-interest and given over to violent
impulse. Piggy's glasses, throughout the novel a symbol of intellectual reason
and pragmatism-they are used to start the signal fire-come into the hands of
the irrational and brutal Jack. Jack, of course, wants the glasses to start not
a signal fire, but a bonfire for a pig roast, a decision that reflects his
shortsightedness and hedonism. We may also notice that Ralph and Piggy are
surprised by the theft of the glasses, since they thought Jack's intent was to
steal the conch shell. Jack's disinterest in the conch, a symbol in the novel
for democratic authority, reflects his rejection not only of Ralph's authority,
but also of the entire system of liberal democracy. The conch is useless if one
does not believe in its power. Ralph apparently still thinks that the conch
matters or should matter. The image of Ralph clutching the conch is a powerful
reminder that he is one of only a few boys who still believe in civilized life
on the island.
As the conch shell is divested of
meaning and Piggy's glasses fall into the hands of Jack's tribe, Ralph and
Piggy become desolate and depressed, hopeless that they will ever be rescued.
Golding emphasizes the despair of Ralph's group to provoke pessimism in the
reader. That is, when Ralph and Piggy no longer have faith in their rescue, we
lose hope for them as well. Rather, it appears that the boys' future will
forever be on and of the island, guided by the demented but flourishing tribal
system of Jack and his hunters. The scene on Ralph's beach, with its declining
and injured population, dwindling fire, and meaningless cultural symbols (in
particular the conch) stands in sharp contrast to the scene in Jack's forest, with
its army, enforced borders, and even weaponry (the defense contraption). The
implication is less that Ralph's civilization has been destroyed than that it
has been replaced by another, more primitive but more warlike society. As the
boys' early days on the island mirrored the evolutionary progress of early man,
the boys' final days mirror some aspects of the development of human
civilizations, which clash violently over religious and political differences.
Summary
and Analysis of Chapter Eleven: Castle Rock
On the beach Ralph, Piggy, and
Samneric gather around the remains of the signal fire, bloody and wounded. They
attempt to rekindle the fire, but it is impossible without Piggy's glasses.
Ralph, blowing the conch, calls an assembly of the boys who remain with them.
Piggy, squinting and unable to see, asks Ralph to instruct them about what can
be done. Ralph responds that what they most need is a fire, and he reminds them
that if they had kept the fire burning they might have been rescued already.
Realizing the importance of Piggy's glasses, Ralph, Sam, and Eric think that
they should go to the Castle Rock with spears, but Piggy refuses to arm
himself. Piggy says that he is going to go find Jack himself and appeal to his
sense of justice. A tear falls down his cheek as he speaks. Ralph says that
they should make themselves look presentable, with clothes, to resemble boys
and not savages.
Ralph and his boys set off along the
beach, limping. When they approach the Castle Rock, Ralph blows the conch,
which he has brought with him, believing it will remind Jack and his hunters of
his rightful authority. He spots Jack's boys guarding their camp, and he
approaches them tentatively. Samneric rush to Ralph's side, leaving Piggy
alone. Jack's hunters, unimpressed by the conch shell, throw rocks at Ralph and
his companions and shout for them to leave. Suddenly, Jack emerges from the
forest, accompanied by a group of hunters who are dragging a dead pig. He warns
Ralph to leave them alone. Ralph demands the return of Piggy's glasses, and the
two argue. Ralph finally calls Jack a thief, and Jack responds by trying to
stab Ralph with his spear, which Ralph deflects.
As Ralph and Jack fight, Piggy reminds
Ralph what they came to do. Ralph breaks away from the fight and tells Jack's
tribe that they have to give back Piggy's glasses, because they are necessary
to maintain the signal fire on the beach. He reminds them that the fire is
their only hope for rescue. Frustrated by their indifference to his pleas,
Ralph breaks down and calls them painted fools. Jack orders the boys to grab
Samneric. The hunters wrestle Samneric's spears from their hands, and Jack
orders them to tie up the twins. Ralph again screams at Jack, calling him a
beast and a swine and a thief. As they fight again, Piggy, yelling over the
boys' jeers, demands that he address the group.
Struggling to be heard over the
commotion, Piggy asks the other boys whether it is better to be a pack of
painted Indians or to be sensible like Ralph. He asks if they would rather have
rules and peaceful agreement or be able only to hunt and kill. He reminds them
of the importance of Ralph's rules, which are there to ensure their rescue.
Above on the mountain, a frenzied Roger deliberately leans his weight on the
log that Robert showed him earlier, dislodging a great rock, which begins to
roll down the mountainside. Ralph hears the rock falling and manages to dodge
it, but Piggy can neither see nor hear its tumble. The rock crashes down on
Piggy, crushing the conch shell, which he was holding, on the way. The rock
pushes Piggy down a cliff, where he lands on the beach, dead.
The group falls into a sudden and deep
silence. Just as suddenly, however, Jack leaps out of the group, screaming
deliriously. He shouts at Ralph that "that's what you'll get" for
challenging his authority, and he expresses happiness that the conch is gone.
Declaring himself chief, Jack deliberately hurls his spear at Ralph. The spear
tears the skin and flesh over Ralph's ribs, then shears off and falls into the
water. A terrified Ralph turns and runs, spears now coming at him from
different directions. He is propelled by an instinct he never knew he
possessed. In his flight, he catches sight of the headless sow from the earlier
hunt. After Ralph departs, Jack casts his gaze on the bound Samneric. He orders
them to join the tribe, but when they request only to be released, he bullies
them, poking the twins in the ribs with a spear. The other boys cheer him on
but fall silent when they notice Roger edging past Jack to confront the twins.
Analysis
As the tension between Ralph and Jack
comes to a violent head, Golding again establishes the conflict between the two
boys as an explicit struggle between savagery and civilization. The two
continue to clash over previously developed points of conflict: Ralph
criticizes Jack for his lack of responsibility and his ambivalence toward rules
of order and justice, and Jack continues to blame Ralph for his lack of direct
action against the beast. Their accusations express and emphasize their
respective visions of human society on the island: while Ralph is oriented
towards a cooperative community organized around the common goal of getting
rescued, Jack adheres to a militaristic ideal and unites his tribe around a
shared interest in hunting, self-gratification, and fear of the mythical island
beast.
Unfortunately, Ralph's criticisms fall
on deaf ears, for they are based on the assumption that Jack and his hunters
are members of a society with moral codes and regulations. Ralph is appealing
to standards Jack no longer believes in, as is symbolized by his glee when the
conch shell is crushed. The shift in the struggle between Ralph and Jack is
subtle but significant. Previously Jack and Ralph debated over the type of
civilization that should predominate on the island: the former advocated a
militaristic culture and the latter a liberal community. Now, with Jack's
repudiation of any rational system, the two now argue over whether there should
be any ordered society at all on the island. One might think of Jack as Plato's
Callicles from the Gorgias or Plato's Thrasymachus from the Republic.
The political subtext of the chapter
is most evident, however, in the final confrontation between Ralph, Piggy, and
Jack. As Ralph and Piggy face Jack and the other boys, Golding clearly
delineates the tension between civilization and animalistic savagery. Before
they face Jack, Ralph and Piggy deliberately readopt the manners and customs of
English society, grooming themselves and dressing themselves as proper English
boys. They do so to exaggerate their differences from the hunters, who wear
little if any clothing and who adorn themselves with "native" makeup.
When Piggy speaks to the boys, he explicitly expresses the major question the
novel explores, asking whether it is better to live sensibly according to rules
and standards of behavior or to live in a state of anarchy (again, one might
turn to Plato's Republic for guidance on this question and others raised by
Piggy and the events of the novel). It is significant that the most insightful,
reasoned statement in the novel is the one that provokes the most horrific
tragedy on the island: the murder of the rational Piggy by the brutal and
amoral Roger.
With his death, Piggy joins Simon as
the second martyr among the boys. There are several parallels between their
respective murders. The two outcasts both die when they shatter the illusions
held by the other boys. Simon dies when he exposes the truth about the
nonexistent beast, while the hunters kill Piggy when he forces them to see
their behavior as barbaric and irresponsible. The murder of Piggy, however, is
a more chilling event, for the boys killed Simon out of an instinctual panic.
In contrast to the frenzied hunters, Roger has a clear understanding of his
actions when he tips the rock that kills Piggy. This event thus completes the
progression of behavior that Golding developed in the previous two chapters:
the boys have moved from unintentional violence to completely premeditated
murder. The chapter's final image, in which Piggy's murderer, Roger, edges past
Jack to approach the bound twins, implies that Roger's brutality surpasses even
Jack's. While Jack condones and participates in violence against animals and
humans alike, it is Roger who orchestrates and carries out the murder of Piggy.
Significantly, he does not seek authorization from Jack for the murder or for
the implied torture of Samneric. Rather, his sadism appears to be entirely
self-interested, and it suggests that he is a potential threat to Jack's
authority.
The novel's major symbol of
civilization, the conch shell, appears in this chapter only to be destroyed
after Roger pushes the boulder onto Piggy. This crucial act provokes and
foreshadows Ralph's destruction of the Lord of the Flies, the primary cultural
symbol of Jack's tribe, in the next and final chapter of the novel. The gesture
will suggest Ralph's own descent into savagery and violence. The conch, an
established marker of Ralph's authority and a consistent symbol for liberal democracy
throughout the novel, has lost power; Jack and his hunters long ago refused to
recognize it as a symbol of authority. In this chapter, the conch is finally
destroyed in a demonstration of the triumph of Jack's will over Ralph's.
As Ralph flees from the spears of
Jack's hunters, Golding again draws the reader's attention to the lower,
immoral, animalistic humanity that lurks inside every individual. Ralph is
literally being hunted like the pigs on the island, a moment that was
foreshadowed in previous chapters when Roger pretended to be a pig in the
hunting dance, and when Jack suggested to the group that they should hunt a
littlun. Boy and animal become indistinct, and as Ralph flees he is propelled
by a primitive subhuman instinct. His terror is that of a hunted animal:
instinctual, unthinking, and primal. Ralph, the character who throughout the
novel stood for pragmatism and civilization, has been reduced to an animal of
prey, just as Jack and his hunters have reduced themselves to predatory beasts.
(For more on the theme of humans and animals, compare The Island of Dr. Moreau
by H. G. Wells.)
Note also the presence of animals in
this penultimate chapter. Throughout the novel, Golding has used animal imagery
and metaphors to call the reader's attention to the delicate line between human
and animal nature, as well as to highlight the hostile relationship between
civilization and the natural world that civilization subdues in order to ensure
human survival. As Ralph flees the spears of Jack and his hunters, the last
thing he registers is the headless body of the sow that Jack's tribe had just
slaughtered. The image of the sow's body evokes both the Lord of the Flies, a
pig's head on a stick that has signified evil, and Piggy, whose brutal murder
marks the final destruction of civilization on the island.
Summary and Analysis of Chapter Twelve: Cry of
the Hunters
Ralph hides in the jungle, worrying
about his wounds and the inhuman violence into which the boys on the island
have devolved. He thinks about Simon and Piggy and realizes that civilization
is now impossible among the boys. Ralph, who is not far from the Castle Rock,
thinks he sees Bill in the distance. He concludes that the boy is not Bill-at
least not any more. This boy is a savage, entirely different from the boy in
shorts and shirt he once knew. Ralph is certain that Jack will never leave him
alone. Noticing the Lord of the Flies, now just a skull with the skin and meat
eaten away, Ralph decides to fight back. He knocks the skull from the stick, which
he takes, intending to use it as a spear. From a distance, Ralph can still make
out the boys' chant: "Kill the beast. Cut his throat. Spill his
blood."
That night, armed with his makeshift
spear, Ralph crawls undetected to the lookout near Castle Rock. He calls to Sam
and Eric, who are now guarding the entrance. Sam gives Ralph a chunk of meat
but does not agree to join him again. Sam tells Ralph to leave. The twins tell
Ralph that Roger has sharpened a stick at both ends, and they warn him that
Jack will be sending the entire tribe after Ralph the following day. Dejected,
Ralph crawls away to a thicket where he can safely sleep. When he awakes in the
morning, he can hear Jack torturing one of the twins and talking to Roger
outside the thicket where he hides. They are trying to find out where Ralph is
hiding. Several other boys are rolling rocks down the mountain, trying to break
into the thicket. More boys are trying to climb in.
Just as Ralph decides to find a new
hiding place, he smells smoke. He realizes with horror that Jack has set the
forest on fire in an attempt to smoke Ralph out of hiding. He also recognizes
that the fire will destroy all the fruit on the island, again endangering the
boys' basic survival. Terrified, Ralph bolts from his hiding place, fighting
his way past several of Jack's hunters, who are painted in wild colors and
carrying sharpened wooden spears. Wielding their spears menacingly, they chase
Ralph through the forest. Weaving through the dense underbrush, Ralph finally
escapes to the beach, where he collapses in exhaustion and terror. He is aware
that Jack's hunters are close behind.
When Ralph looks up, he is surprised
to see a figure looming over him. He realizes that the figure is a man-a naval
officer! The officer tells Ralph that his ship saw the smoke and decided to
investigate the island. Ralph realizes that the officer is under the impression
that the boys have been only playing games. The other boys begin to appear from
the forest, and the officer begins to realize the chaos and violence among the
stranded boys. Percival tries to tell him his name and address but finds he can
no longer remember it. Ralph, informing him that he is boss, is sad to find he
cannot answer the officer when asked how many boys are on the island. The
officer, aware that they have not been behaving according to the rules of
civilization, scolds the boys for not knowing exactly how many they are and for
not being organized, as the British are supposed to be.
Ralph insists to the officer that they
were organized and good at first. The officer says he imagines it was like the
"show" in The Coral Island. Ralph, not understanding his reference,
begins to weep for the early days on the island, which now seem impossibly
remote. He weeps for the end of innocence and the darkness of man's heart, and
he weeps for the deaths of Simon and Piggy. All of the other boys begin to cry
as well. The officer turns away, embarrassed, while the other boys attempt to
regain their composure. The officer keeps his eye on the cruiser in the
distance.
Analysis
The dynamic of interaction between
Ralph and the other boys changes dramatically in the opening scenes of the
final chapter. Ralph is now an object to the other boys as he flees Jack's
hunters, who seem unable to make the distinction between hunting pigs and
hunting each other. As Ralph observes, the other boys on the island bear no
resemblance to the English schoolboys first stranded there; they are complete
savages without either moral or rational sensibilities. As they cease to
exhibit the qualities that define them as civilized human beings, they no
longer qualify as boys. This shift from human to animal identity is noticeable
now in Ralph. No longer considered human by the other boys, he must rely on his
primitive senses to escape the hunters. Because Ralph can no longer defend
himself through any sense of justice or morality, he must use his animal
instinct and cunning to survive.
The final chapter emphasizes the
self-destructive quality of the boys' actions. Throughout the novel, Golding
has indicated that the boys are destructive not only to their enemies, but to
themselves, a theme that culminates dramatically in this chapter. Images of
decay permeate the final scenes, particularly in the Lord of the Flies, which decayed
until it became only a hollow skull. Significantly, Ralph dismantles the Lord
of the Flies by pushing the pig's skull off of the stick it was impaled on, an
act that mirrors and completes Roger's destruction of the conch in the previous
chapter. The destruction of both objects signals to the reader that the boys
have been plunged into a brutal civil war. Ralph takes apart the Lord of the
Flies-a totem for Jack's tribe-to use the stick it is impaled on as a spear
with which to attack Jack. Ralph's action thus indicates that he has accepted
Jack's savage terms of war, a conflict he had previously approached with reason
and nonviolence, but it is too late for that. Ralph's decision to attack Jack
or at least to defend himself with a weapon indicates that he too has devolved
into savagery. All vestiges of democratic civilization on the island are gone,
and it is unclear if Jack's monarchy retains any civilization at all.
Another ominous image in this chapter
is Roger's spear. As Samneric inform Ralph, Roger has sharpened a spear at both
ends, a tool that symbolizes the danger the boys have created for themselves.
The spear simultaneously points at the one who wields it and the one at whom it
is directed; it is capable of harming both equally. The significance of the
double-edged spear is demonstrated in the boys' hunt for Ralph. That is, in
order to find Ralph, the boys start a fire that might overwhelm them and
destroy the fruit that is essential for their survival. Golding thus alerts the
reader to the counterproductive consequences of vengeance: in the world of the
novel, the ultimate price of harming another is harming oneself.
Despite the seemingly hopeless
situation on the island, however, the boys are finally rescued by a naval
officer whose ship noticed the fire on the island. This ending is not only
unexpected but deeply ironic. It was not the signal fire that attracted the
navy cruiser. Instead it was the forest fire that Jack's tribe set in an
extreme gesture of irresponsibility and self-destruction. Ironically and even
tragically, it is Jack and not Ralph who is ultimately responsible for the
boys' rescue. The implications are grim: it was not careful planning and
foresight that brought the boys to safety, but a coincidence. The consequences
of savagery, not civilization, are what saved the children. With this abrupt
narrative gesture, Golding overturns the logic he had established throughout
the novel. Of course, poetic justice is not required, but the issue is vexing.
Perhaps, he suggests, savagery and civilization are less unlike than we
believe. By casting Jack as the boys' unintentional savior, Golding ends the
novel before the action can properly climax. The reader is denied a chance to
see a final battle between Ralph and Jack, although we can easily imagine that
Ralph is doomed. Since the dehumanization is complete, there is almost nothing
more to be said.
The sudden appearance of the naval
officer at the beach mitigates the effects of the boys' aggression. The officer
is a deus ex machina (an unexpected figure who shows up almost out of nowhere
and who appears only to wrap up the plot and bring it to a speedy conclusion).
His arrival on the island frees Golding from having to explore the final
implications of the hunters' suicidal attack on Ralph and Ralph's own descent
into violent brutality.
In another unlikely gesture, the naval
officer repeats to the boys the lessons that, throughout the novel, Ralph and
Piggy had attempted to impart to the other boys. He emphasizes the importance
of order just as Ralph and Piggy had, thus retroactively calling attention to
the maturity and sensibility of Ralph's advice to the other boys. Nevertheless,
the naval officer cannot comprehend the full reach of the boys' experience on
the island. He interprets the hunting and painted faces as a childish game,
unaware that their dress carries more than symbolic meaning. The boys have not
been playing as savages; they have become them. The officer's mention of the
nineteenth-century adventure novel The Coral Island underscores his ignorance
of the brutality that is dominating the island. While the boys in The Coral
Island had carefree, childish adventures, the boys in Golding's narrative
actually descended into unthinkable depths of violence and cruelty. Through the
officer's naivete as informed by The Coral Island, Golding again implicitly
critiques the idealistic portrayals of children in popular literature. Still,
these unlikely concluding events feel abrupt and unsatisfying after so much
richness in the narrative.
Another significant aspect of the
naval officer's character is his admonition to the boys that they are not
behaving like proper "British boys," which recalls Jack's patriotic
claims in Chapter Two that the British are the best at everything. The
officer's statement symbolically links him to Jack and underscores the
hypocrisy of such a military character. While the officer condemns the violent
play of the boys on the island, he is himself a military figure, engaged in an
ongoing war that itself necessitated the boys' evacuation from their homeland
and (unintentionally) led to the events on the island. Again, the issue is
ambiguous: perhaps the violence among the boys was not an expression of an
unrestrained inner instinct but a reflection of the seemingly "civilized"
culture they were raised in, a culture engaged in an ugly and fatal war. In any
case, the officer echoes Ralph rather than Jack, repeating many of the warnings
about rules and order that Ralph had expressed to the boys throughout the novel.
By associating the officer with both Ralph and Jack, in different ways, Golding
calls into question the distinction between civilization and savagery that he
traced with increasing emphasis in the novel's earlier chapters and then erased
in later chapters.
If the naval officer saves the boys
from their self-destruction, he may have come too late. The final scenes of the
novel emphasize the permanent emotional damage that the boys have inflicted on
themselves. With the possible exception of Ralph, the boys are no longer
accustomed to the society from which they came. Golding underscores this fact
by presenting Percival as unable to state his name and address as he could when
the boys first arrived on the island. More importantly, Ralph perceives their
experiences on the island as the end of their innocence. He has witnessed the
overthrow of rational society as represented by Piggy in favor of the barbarism
and tyranny of Jack. His final thoughts: "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." These thoughts indicate a play of the
Eden myth with which Golding began. If there was an Eden on the island, it was
the special place found by Simon that none of the other boys wanted to experience.
They began out of Eden rather than inside it. Any paradise they hoped for on
the island came to an end when the boys chose nature and instinct over
rationality and awareness-compare, however, the rise of rationality and
awareness in Genesis, which seems to occur most of all after the Fall. Ralph
loses his innocence when he realizes that the violence inherent in humanity is
always under the surface of the order and morality that civilization imposes on
individuals.
The
Lord of the Flies: Biblical Allegory or Anti-Religious Critique?
One of the major points of debate
between critics who have studied Lord of the Flies is the significance of the
substantial number of allusions to Judeo-Christian mythology. While many
scholars have argued that these references qualify the novel as biblical
allegory, others have suggested that the novel's allusions to the Old and New
Testaments turn out to be ironic and thus criticize religion. A careful reading
of Lord of the Flies should take into account not only the abundance of
biblical images and themes in the text, but also the ways in which religion and
religious themes are used.
In particular, the biblical account of
good and evil is invoked-but the account in the novel is not quite the same.
Take, for instance, the narrative of Eden. The early chapters of the novel, the
island itself resembles the Garden of Eden from Genesis, with its picturesque
scenery, abundant fruit, and idyllic weather. Accordingly, the boys are
symbolically linked to Adam and Eve before the fall. Ralph's first act after
the plane crash is to remove his clothes and bathe in the water, a gesture that
recalls the nudity of the innocent Adam and Eve and the act of baptism, a
Christian rite which, by some accounts, renews in the sinner a state of grace.
Naming also becomes important in Genesis, reflected in the novel as the boys
give their names. Golding extends the Edenic allusion when he presents the
contentment of island life as soon corrupted by fear, a moment that is first
signified by reports of a creature the boys refer to as
"snake-thing." The "snake-thing" recalls the presence of
Satan in the Garden of Eden, who disguised himself as a serpent. But unlike
Adam and Eve, the boys are mistaken about the creature, which is not a force
external (like Satan) but a projection of the evil impulses that are innate
within themselves and the human psyche. Still, it is the boys' failure to
recognize the danger of the evil within themselves that propels them deeply
into a state of savagery and violence. They continue to externalize it as a
beast (again "Lord of the Flies" and "the Beast" are used
in religion to refer to Satan), but they become more and more irrational in
their perception of it, and they end up developing alternative religious ideas
about the Beast and what it wants and does. Although Satan in the Genesis
account also has been read as a reflection of evil within human nature, readers
usually consider Satan an external force. Original sin enters human nature
because of Satan. Without a real Satan in the novel, however, Golding stresses
the ways that this Eden is already fallen; for these boys, evil already is
within them waiting to be discovered.
On the positive side, Simon's story is
that of a prophet or of Jesus Christ. Simon is deeply spiritual, compassionate,
non-violent, and in harmony with the natural world. Like many biblical prophets
and like Jesus, he is ostracized and ridiculed as an "outsider" for
what the others perceive as his "queer" or unorthodox behavior. Critics
also have noted that Simon's confrontation with The Lord of the Flies resembles
Christ's conversation with the devil during his forty days in the wilderness as
described in the New Testament gospels, and critics have noted parallels
between Simon's murder and Christ's sacrifice on the cross. But Simon's
revelation is more of a debunking and a turn to the secular, rather than a
prophetic condemnation of evil or a call to the higher things. His revelation
is that the beast does not exist but is just a dead human.
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