CHAPTER SUMMARIES
CHAPTER 1:
It starts off with “the fair boy” walking through the jungle towards a lagoon. He’s soon joined by “the fat boy”, who wears spectacles. The two meet up and talk about the fact that their plane has crashed. The fat boy (he gets a name later, don’t worry) wonders where the man with the megaphone is. This is important, keep it in mind. There’s no grown ups, conveniently for the rest of the plot. They can’t seem to find the plane or the pilot. The fair boy (his name shows up soon) figures that both have been dragged out to sea. He says “there must have been some kids in [the plane]”. The fat boy asks the fair boy what his name is. It’s revealed the fair boy’s name is Ralph. He doesn’t bother to ask the fat boy’s name. The two assume |
that other people have survived and are probably hiding in foliage or something. The fat boy is kinda slow due to his “ass-mar” (we can assume he means asthma). Ralph decides to run to the water, where we get a lot of description of the palm trees and coconuts, which contrasts the dark forest. Ralph decides the best thing to do upon being stranded on an island is to strip naked and swim. Naturally. The fat boy shows up and decides to join in on the swimming and also strips down. This happens a lot. The water is “warmer than [their] blood” and “like swimming in a huge bath”. Ignore the blood imagery, and it’s quite a relaxing thought. Ralph is described at this point; he is twelve and has the build of maybe being a boxer someday. You can plainly see that there is “no devil” in him, and he has “bright, excited eyes”. The fat boy tells Ralph that a lot of people call him Piggy, and asks Ralph not to tell anyone. Ralph isn’t the nicest about it, but he gets away with it because he’s twelve. Ralph claims that his dad, who’s in the Navy, is going to come rescue them. Piggy counters with the fact that the pilot told him before the crash that an atomic bomb had gone off and everyone was dead. This, along with the megaphone comment from earlier (told you it would be important) suggests the boys were being evacuated, maybe from a war zone, seeing as this is set in WWII. As the boys are putting on their clothes again, Piggy finds a conch shell, which he says can make a trumpet-like sound. Ralph tries a few times before the shell makes “a deep, harsh boom”. Once again, man ruins the stillness of the peaceful island. Other boys start to show up, calls by the conch. A lot are small, many naked. Piggy decides to learn everyone’s names, such as a young boy named Johnny and a pair of twins named
Sam and Eric. Ralph sees a creature, though it turns out it’s just a group of boys wearing choir robes. There’s redhead boy in the back that’s controlling them. The redhead tells them to stand in a line, and one of the boys faints. The boys ask the redhead “But can’t we, Merridew...” which we’re sure means “can we take off these stupid cloaks now”. The redhead leader ignored the boy who’s faint. Piggy doesn’t ask the names of this group, as they’re intimidating. Ralph decides to tell everyone Piggy’s name is Piggy. Not cool. The choir boys are introduced. Maurice, who seems quite happy;
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Jack Merridew, who’s the leader and very aggressive; Roger, who has an “inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy”; Simon, who has recovered from fainting; and then Bill, Robert, Harold and Henry. Jack decides they should work on getting rescued, to which Ralph tells him to shut up. They decides they need a chief. Jack automatically wants to make himself leader because he’s the head choir boy and he can sing a C sharp, which us going to be important for the Lord of the Flies musical number. The rest of the group decides to vote, because they’re good British boys, and Ralph is voiced as Chief. Piggy seems hesitant to vote in Ralph, probably because he told everyone his name was Piggy. Ralph decides to let Jack keep control of his choir boys, and Jack decides that they’ll be the hunters. Because Jack is power-hungry AND bloodthirsty. This hopefully won’t be a problem in the future. Ralph, Jack and Simon go off to explore the uninhabited island to find out that it is, in fact, uninhabited. Piggy offers to go with, but Ralph says that he’s not the best at walking and stuff, and tells him to go take names. The dialogue of the boys exploring is filled with good banter, such as the words “Waco”, “wizard” and “sucks to you”. They find a large rock, and do the logic, thing of push it down the cliff. They get to the top of the mountain, and Ralph says “this belongs to us.” The land is described in full, with things such as a large Cora, reed and the gash in the trees where their plane hit. On the way back to the lagoon, they find a small pig. Jack tries to kill it, but can’t quite do it. Jack makes a lot of excuses, but decides “next time, there [will] be no mercy”.
CHAPTER 2:
Ralph blows the conch and calls a meeting. The choir boys have removed their cloaks right now, probably for the better. Ralph tells the boys they need to get organized, which means rules. The boys have to raise their hands to talk, and only the person holding the conch can talk. Piggy takes the conch to express a few points. First, they might never got off the island. Second, assuming they don’t, they should figure out how to go about the process of not dying. Ralph agrees with Piggy, though determines that “this is a good island”. Foreshadowing. One small boy with a Burberry-coloured birthmark requests the conch, and everyone laughs until Piggy demands he be allowed to speak. The kid is too afraid to talk in front of everyone, so Piggy acts as a translator. The boy is afraid of a mysterious snake-thing in the jungle, and says the “beastie” only comes in the dark. The other boys snicker, and Jack says that there isn’t a beast. So, naturally, they all go hunting for it. Ralph is forced to concede, but he insists on making a signal fire for when his dad comes to save them. The boys piles up wood, and use Piggy’s glasses to light it. Piggy isn’t happy, as expressed by “[Piggy’s] voice rose to a shriek of terror as Jack snatched the glasses off his face.” Ralph wants to choose responsible people to keep the fire going at all times, in case a ship passes by. Piggy, who still doesn’t have his glasses, snatches the conch and complains that no one listens to him. As the boys fight, the fire starts to spread. Piggy’s asthma kicks in because of the fire, but he has enough breath to point out that the boy with the mulberry mark, the one who was scared of the beast, is missing.
CHAPTER 3:
Time has passed. The chapter starts by describing Jack, with his bare back a “mass of dark freckles and peeling sunburn.” Jack has become obsessed with killing a pig, to the point of tracking down pig droppings. Jack fails, and tries to take it out on Simon and Ralph, who are building shelters. Ralph and Jack argue, Jack thinking it’s more important to kill the pig, and Ralph thinking it’s more important to building shelters and generally not die of exposure. Simon admits that he’s still scars of the beast, and even Jack admits he’s not too fond of being in the jungle alone. Despite all this, Ralph is still concerned with the fire. Jack suggests painting their faces to help sneak up on the pig. Naturally. Piggy lies on his stomach and stares at the water, though he does point out that Simon is the only helpful person on this island, when he’s not missing. Cut to Simon, walking through the forest “with an air of purpose”. The littluns follow him, and he held them pick fruit before heading deeper I to the jungle. Simon comes to a place where “the creepers had woven a great mat that hung at the side of an open space in the jungle.” He crawls inside this space and hangs out while evening approaches.
CHAPTER 4:
More time has passed. The boys have a rhythm, of the littluns playing, the choir boys hunting, and the others (Ralph, Simon, and Piggy) trying to build shelters and keep the fire going. Turns out there are sharks in the water beyond the reef. One littlun named Percival cries a lot, and people thinks he’s going a bit mad. We see that the littluns aren’t cared for much, and hang out near the river. Henry, the biggest of the littluns, is hanging out with Perceval and Johnny. The children are “at peace” until Roger and Maurice step on their sandcastles. Roger follows Henry and he walks off to an overlook. Below, Ralph, Simon, Piggy, and Maurice are playing in the pool. Roger throws stones at Henry, though purposefully misses. Jack, who’s with Samneric |
(Sam and Eric), and Bill, are still trying to hunt the pig. Jack goes through with his plan to paint his face. He begins to dance, and it seems that the mask is a “thing on its own, behind which Jack his.” Back at the lagoon, Ralph, Simon and Piggy are still swimming with Maurice. Piggy suggests they make a sundial, and no one listened. Suddenly, Ralph spots a ship. Excitement follows, and Ralph goes to check if the signal fire is still lit. It’s not. The ship passes, and Ralph and the others are left to wonder where the choir boys went, seeing as they were meant to care for the fire. The choir boys are down the mountain, carrying a dead pig and chanting: “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood”. Jack and his crew talk about how they killed the pig. Ralph tells them they let the fire out, and the choir boys feel guilty. Piggy tells them off for being irresponsible, and Jack punches him in the face. Simon finds the glasses that fell off of Piggy’s face, to find one lens is broken. Jack apologizes. Ralph asserts his dominance again by telling the boys to rebuild the fire, using Piggy’s glasses to light it. Jack starts to roast the pig, and Ralph tries to act above everyone by not eating the meat. He gives in and eats because he’s eaten nothing but fruits and plants. No one hands Piggy any meat, and when Jack gives him a hard time about not helping wth the hunt, Simon gives his own food to Piggy. Jack yells at Simon to “Eat! Damn you!” He realizes he has no authority over the boys unless they eat the meat he got for them. The hunters keep on describing their kill. Ralph decides to call another meeting and walks down the mountain.
CHAPTER 5:
Ralph sounds the conch to start another meeting. Ralph sits in his designated chief log, to his right is a slightly smaller log, and to his left is four even smaller logs. Ralph starts off by asking questions about “If faces [are] different when lit form above or below—what [is] a face? What [is] anything?” Then he reminds the boys of some rules: keep the signal fire going, don’t build any other fires, and do their toilet business by the rocks by the bathing pool instead of all over the island. When he puts the conch down, Jack picks it up and |
tells all the little children to stop acting like children, and that there is no beast. If they’re afraid, they should suck it up. There’s a notable moment where someone asks what a beast would eat. Someone else says “pig”, and yet another person said “We eat pig”. Foreshadowing. Piggy suddenly states that there is no beast, and no fear, either—unless they get frightened of people. So there’s nothing to fear but... themselves. One of the little kids, Phil, tries to declare the beats comes out at night. When they tell him it was all a dream, he insists that it wasn’t. He was dreaming that the creepers were snakes, and then he woke up and saw something big moving in the dark. Ralph insists it was a dream, and Simon admits he was the one messing around in the dark. Simon grabs the conch and explains that sometimes he likes to go hand out in this “place” in the jungle. Another littlun comes forward, and Piggy has to once again hold the conch for him. The kid is called Percival. Percival rambles about his street address, he cries, yawns, and falls down in the grass and just sleeps. Though he does tell Jack that the beast “comes out of the sea” before sleeping. Simon makes a comment on “mankind’s essential illness” and says that the beast is “only us.” Someone suggests the beast is a ghost, and someone yells at Piggy to “shut up, you fat slug”. The meeting disassembles after that. Ralph shouts that the rules are the only thing keeping them together, but Jack is louder and leads a group of hunters to go find the beast and hunt him down. Piggy, Simon and Ralph are left alone. Piggy wants to blow the conch, but Ralph states that if he blows it now and no one comes back, the conch will have lost its power, and they will all “be like animals”. Ralph wants to give up being chief altogether, but Piggy asks what would happen them, and Simon tries to convince him to go on with his duties. Conversation arises of what would happen if grown-ups were there, they’d all know what to do. They all wish they had a “sign” for the adults. As the buys stand in the darkness, a bin wail arises. It’s Percival, crying out from his spot on the grass.
CHAPTER 6:
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and claws and winch’s, and there was something moving behind it’s head. The other guys have gathered around to listen, including Jack, who wants to hunt the beast down. Jack, Ralph, and an assortment of the older boys head off to do so. Piggy asks who’s going to look after the littluns, Jack says “Sucks to the littluns.” They all decide to head for the tail end of the island, where rocks make a sort of bridge that they call “the castle.” Simon doesn’t think that there’s really a beast, saying he imagines “a picture of a human, at once heroic and sick.” Ralph declares that he’ll look for the beast, since he’s the chief, but Jack follows him. Though, there is no beast inside. They decide to explore, and climb to the top of the mountain to look for the beast. Ralph realizes the signal fire has gone out again, and the boys follow Jack and Ralph to the top of the mountain.
CHAPTER 7:
The boys stop to rest and eat some fruit, and Ralph wishes he could take a bath and cut his hair. He looks around at the others and realizes he’s become used to the conditions of dirtiness - it has become normal. He sighs, knowing that’s not really a good thing. Simon speaks into Ralph’s ear, saying “You’ll get back all right”. Ralph expresses that he thinks Simon is batty, though is still comforted. Simon seems to have some |
knowledge of things that the other boys don’t. For a moment, they smile at each other. But it becomes less comforting when you realize Simon has said “you’ll get back all right.” Roger calls that he’s found fresh pig droppings, and the hunt is on again. Ralph thinks about his family, right before a boar comes crashing out of the bushes. Ralph chucks his spear, and it hits the pig in the nostrils for a few seconds before falling out. Ralph proudly calls out that he hit the pig, and thinks that maybe hunting isn’t that bad after all. Jack runs after the boar, though doesn’t catch it, instead getting hurt in the arm. The excitement in the boys doesn’t die down, with Robert choosing to play the boar as the others play at jabbing Robert with their spears. They start their chant again, and Ralph joins in. They finish with Robert screaming in cruel terror as they pin him down. Robert isn’t actually hurt, and Ralph says it was “just a game”, but even he knows he’s lying to himself. Most people wish they could do it again, and Jack jokingly suggests they could use a littlun. The boys decide they won’t go back until after dark, going in search of the beast. People slowly chicken out, until it’s just Ralph, Jack, and Roger. Jack goes ahead and sees the parachute man, thinking it’s the beast. He runs back to the other two, and all three go to investigate. Ralph is afraid he may pass out. They finally see what they think is a giant ape sitting asleep. As the wind roars through the trees, the creature lifts its head, “holding towards them the ruin of a face.” The boys run away screaming.
CHAPTER 8:
Cut to the next morning, the boys are telling Piggy about the beast. Ralph points out that if they’re too scared to go to the top of the mountain, they can’t keep the signal fire going. Jack, who’s trying to control the situation, blows the conch. He tells the group about the beast, and then attempts to impeach Ralph on the grounds of (1) he likes Piggy, (2) he doesn’t hunt, and (3) he was scared on the mountain. No one wants Ralph to stop being chief, and Jack storms off. Before he leaves, he invited anyone who wants to come with him. Ralph assumes that Jack will come back once it gets dark. Piggy isn’t happy with the beast situation, and is no longer convinced that it’s all imaginary. |
Meanwhile, Simon says that they should go and face the beast, but no one agrees. Piggy finally suggests they just relocate where they make the signal fire, and the boys do so. Piggy suggest they see which green leaves make the most smoke when they burn. Once they get going, Piggy and Ralph notes many of the older boys - Maurice, Bill, Roger and Robert - are gone. The only once left besides Piggy and Ralph are Samneric and Simon. Well, Simon seems to be gone too, cut to him in his meditation spot in the jungle. Meanwhile, Jack and his tribe are making hunting plans. They decide if they leave part of the pig for the beast, the beast will leave them alone. They find a group of sleeping pigs, and go after a big, fat mother pig. A gruesome scene follows of them killing the screaming pig. The boys laugh, and then decide to rub her blood all over their faces. They act out the pig killing again, before realizing they’ll need fire to cook the pig. They decide to steal it from Ralph later. Jack tells Roger to “sharpen a stick at both ends”, before cutting off the pig’s head. They ram a pointed stick into the crack of a rock and put the pig’s head onto the other end. They carry off the rest, leaving the head as a gift for the beast. Cut to Simon again. He’s hiding behind his mat of creepers, where he was watching the, slaughter the pig. He now stares at the dead pig’s
head, which assure him that “everything [is] a bad business.” Simon responds, out loud, that he already knows that. The head seems to be saying things to Simon, and Simon stares at the black cloud of bloody guts that the boys have left on the ground, buzzing with flies. Is the flies crawl over him, Simon stares at the impaled head, the “Lord of the Flies.” The head is grinning back at Simon, and we’re all convinced he’s hallucinating. Now we return to Piggy and Ralph, who are lying on the grass and staring at the fire, Samneric having wandered off. They realize it’s going to rain soon and don’t know how to keep the fire going. Ralph asks what makes things “break up as they do.” Piggy suggests it’s Jack, and the two continue to contemplate how to not die, until “demoniac figures with faces of
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white and red and green [rush] out howling.” It’s just Jack’s tribe, who steal some fire and invite them to a pig roast. Two of the ‘savages’ say “the chief has spoken”, implying that Jack has declared himself the new chief, and they all run off again. Ralph thinks it might be nice to join them, but then reminds everyone that they need to tend to the fire because... Piggy needs to remind him of rescue. Samneric and Bill decide to go eat food, and they all head off to the feast. We cut back to Simon. The Lord of the Flies is now fully speaking to Simon, telling him that he’s a “Silly little boy”. The Lord of the Flies asks Simon if he’s afraid, and Simon doesn’t answer, only shaking, his tongue swollen. The pig’s head says there’s no one there to help Simon. “Only me,” the pig’s head says. “And I am the Beast.” The Lord of the Flies rolls his eyes at the idea that the beats was something to be hunted and killed, claiming that he’s a part of Simon, that he’s close, and that es the reason “why things are what they are”, to answer Ralph from earlier. Simon feels like “one of his times is coming on,” like maybe he’s about to save a seizure. The pig threatens that “we are going to have fun on this island,” and that everyone-he lists off the names of all the boys- are going to “do” Simon. As the Lord of the Flies continues to talk, Simon faints.
CHAPTER 9:
Now it's evening. The unconscious Simon gets a bloody nose. When he wakes, The Lord of the Flies is still hanging on his stick "like a black ball." Simon wakes and asks (as he did before): "What else is there to do?" Covered in dried blood, Simon staggers out of his hiding place and begins making his way up the mountain, still intending to face the beast like a man. Or, like a young boy who just happens to be very brave and wise. When he gets to the top, he of course sees that the beast is just a dead body on a parachute, all tangled up in the rocks. Simon pukes (the dead body is a rather hideous and smelly sight) and then frees the parachute line from the rocks. He staggers downward to tell everyone that the "beast" is harmless, almost collapsing with each step. Meanwhile, Ralph and Piggy join everyone at Jack's party, "to make sure nothing happens." When they get to the party, they see that everyone is having a grand old time. Jack is sitting on a great log, "painted and garlanded" like an idol. He graciously offers Piggy and Ralph some food, which they take, and then bosses everyone to get him a drink and tell him he's the fairest one of all and so forth. After everyone eats, Jack demands to know who is going to join his tribe. His seriousness and bossiness is a real downer, and the party stops feeling like a party. In response, Ralph
Now it's evening. The unconscious Simon gets a bloody nose. When he wakes, The Lord of the Flies is still hanging on his stick "like a black ball." Simon wakes and asks (as he did before): "What else is there to do?" Covered in dried blood, Simon staggers out of his hiding place and begins making his way up the mountain, still intending to face the beast like a man. Or, like a young boy who just happens to be very brave and wise. When he gets to the top, he of course sees that the beast is just a dead body on a parachute, all tangled up in the rocks. Simon pukes (the dead body is a rather hideous and smelly sight) and then frees the parachute line from the rocks. He staggers downward to tell everyone that the "beast" is harmless, almost collapsing with each step. Meanwhile, Ralph and Piggy join everyone at Jack's party, "to make sure nothing happens." When they get to the party, they see that everyone is having a grand old time. Jack is sitting on a great log, "painted and garlanded" like an idol. He graciously offers Piggy and Ralph some food, which they take, and then bosses everyone to get him a drink and tell him he's the fairest one of all and so forth. After everyone eats, Jack demands to know who is going to join his tribe. His seriousness and bossiness is a real downer, and the party stops feeling like a party. In response, Ralph
says he's the chief, but his voice trembles as he speaks and no one really believes him. There's some rather ominous thunder. Ralph offers to blow the conch and call an assembly, but Jack says no one will hear it. Everyone knows Jack is right about this. Piggy suggests quietly to Ralph that this would probably be a good time for them to get the heck out of there. Lightning flashes and they all decide to (what else) reenact the pig's death scene for the umpteenth time. Only this time, instead of chanting about the pig, they shout: "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" As they dance
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wildly, something crawls toward them from the forest and stumbles into the circle of boys. It is Simon, who cries out something about a "dead man on a hill." The boys, who are in some kind of a fury of wild chanting and blood lust, aren't really in a listening kind of mood. In fact, they decide that Simon is the beast. Pouncing on him, they scream, strike, bite, and tear. "There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws." Rain pours down, suddenly, and the boys straggle away, leaving the pitiful heap that is Simon lying in the dirt, his blood "staining the sand." As the wind blows, it picks up the other "beast" (the dead man in the parachute) and carries him out to sea—the boys "rush screaming into the darkness." In case you can't tell, this is an amazing paragraph—you should take a look at it. Eventually the rain stops, and as the water rises under the moon, "Simon's dead body [moves] out toward the open sea." Yep, they've actually killed him—even Ralph and Piggy helped.
CHAPTER 10:
Piggy and Ralph try to keep the fire going and talk about what happened. (We're thinking they must have realized it was Simon sometime in between "Kill that thing!" and waking up the next morning.) Ralph shouts that it was murder and Piggy shrieks that it was not, it was just an accident. Samneric show up, and all four of them try to convince each other that they didn't really participate like the others had. The four of them continue to rationalize until they've decided that they never even attended the dance, that they had left early before anything bad happened. Denial: not just a river in Egypt. Now we're with Roger, who is climbing up Castle Rock. Someone calls for him to halt, and Roger isn't surprised as he thinks of people hiding from "the horrors" of the previous night. It's Robert; he and Roger talk about how Jack is a real chief. They look at a log that's been jammed under a huge rock. When Robert leans on the protruding end of the log, the rock |
groans. Roger thinks this is super-nifty. They then discuss the fact that Jack has tied up Wilfred (a character we haven't seen until now) and is going to beat him up for some reason. When they get back to the cave, Jack is sitting, naked from the waist up with his face painted in white and red. Wilfred, untied but "newly beaten," is crying. Jack—excuse us, "the chief"—announces that they'll hunt again tomorrow. He explains away the whole last-night's-murder thing by saying that the beast came disguised, and may come again. Oh, and they're still going to have to steal fire to roast the meat. Back at the shelter on the beach, Piggy yammers on about building a radio. Sam and Eric wonder if they'll be captured by "The Reds," but think that would be better than you-know-who. Ralph gets a little nutty. He can't remember why he wants to make a fire, he gives up on it for the night, and then he's dancing around as he thinks of a bus station and how wonderful it would be to go home. He is interrupted by shouts as Sam and Eric start fighting with each other. They've never acted like this before, and Piggy whispers desperately to Ralph that they've got to get out of this somehow before they go "barmy," or "bomb happy," as he puts it. Ralph pushes the "damp tendrils of hair out of his eyes" (there's that hair again) and suggests sarcastically to Piggy that he write a letter to his auntie to come rescue them. Well, sure, says Piggy—but he has no envelope and no stamp. Nighttime. There's definitely something moving outside—it must be the beast. (Um, that didn't work out so well last time, guys. Just sayin'.) Ralph and Piggy cling desperately to each other inside the shelter. Ralph, in a not-so-noble moment, prays that the beast will prefer littluns to him. Tension builds until something crashes into their shelter and pounces on them, beating them viciously. The shelter collapses. After the attackers leave, Samneric come in to see if they are all right. They aren't.
CHAPTER 11:
Piggy wants to go to Jack and the others and insist that they give his glasses back, because it's the right and reasonable thing to do. Ralph thinks this is going to work just about as well as we do, but he agrees to try. The pair decides to bring the conch shell with them to give an impression of authority, and maybe clean themselves up a little, too. Ralph and Piggy argue a little about the smoking fire, and then they set off along the beach with Sam and Eric—leading Piggy, who's practically blind now. When they get there, the boys in Jack's group are "painted out of recognition." Ralph announces that he's calling an assembly and wishes he'd had the bright idea to tie his hair back like the "savages." Roger throws a small stone at Sam and Eric, and then Jack and Ralph argue about Piggy's glasses. Piggy screams, afraid to be left by himself when he can't see. This is going well. Not. "'You pinched Piggy's specs,' said Ralph, breathlessly. 'You've got to give them back.'" Jack is not convinced. Once Ralph calls Jack a dirty thief, the boys begin to fight, swinging at each other with their spears. But Golding is careful to tell us that they use their spears "as sabers," not jabbing at each other with the "lethal points," possibly because everyone is still a little bit traumatized over Simon's death. Piggy tries to defuse the sitch by telling Ralph to remember what they came
Piggy wants to go to Jack and the others and insist that they give his glasses back, because it's the right and reasonable thing to do. Ralph thinks this is going to work just about as well as we do, but he agrees to try. The pair decides to bring the conch shell with them to give an impression of authority, and maybe clean themselves up a little, too. Ralph and Piggy argue a little about the smoking fire, and then they set off along the beach with Sam and Eric—leading Piggy, who's practically blind now. When they get there, the boys in Jack's group are "painted out of recognition." Ralph announces that he's calling an assembly and wishes he'd had the bright idea to tie his hair back like the "savages." Roger throws a small stone at Sam and Eric, and then Jack and Ralph argue about Piggy's glasses. Piggy screams, afraid to be left by himself when he can't see. This is going well. Not. "'You pinched Piggy's specs,' said Ralph, breathlessly. 'You've got to give them back.'" Jack is not convinced. Once Ralph calls Jack a dirty thief, the boys begin to fight, swinging at each other with their spears. But Golding is careful to tell us that they use their spears "as sabers," not jabbing at each other with the "lethal points," possibly because everyone is still a little bit traumatized over Simon's death. Piggy tries to defuse the sitch by telling Ralph to remember what they came
for—the fire, the specs. And then Ralph says something interesting: he tells Jack, "You aren't playing the game—" and then he cuts himself off. He sure isn't. Jack's next move is to tell the savages to tie up Sam and Eric. There is some hesitation as everyone in the crowd thinks (roughly speaking): "Seriously?" Seriously. The twins get tied up and Jack revels in his ability to boss the others around. As the fighting between Jack and Ralph worsens, Piggy yells at them to let him speak and
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holds up the conch. Surprisingly, everyone quiets down. Piggy tries to reason with them, telling them to cut out all this painted savage nonsense. He suggests that law and rescue are better than hunting and breaking things up. Jack's tribe isn't convinced. Remember that lever catapult from Chapter 6? High above them on the cliff, Roger leans on the lever "with a sense of delirious abandonment." Piggy is still holding the conch when the boulder strikes him. The conch shatters into thousands of pieces, and Piggy falls forty feet toward the sea. He lands on the rocks below, the contents of his skull oozing out. We are told that his body twitches a bit, "like a pig's after it has been killed." The boys watch in horror as the waves suck Piggy's body into the sea. Apparently, this is the sign Jack needed: he screams that he really is chief now because the conch is gone, and then throws his spear at Ralph. Jabbed in the ribs, Ralph turns and runs, with the savages (ineffectively) hurling spears after them. Jack returns to home base, standing with Roger in front of Sam and Eric and demanding they join his tribe. There's an interesting Jack-Roger moment here; Roger edges past Jack, "only just avoiding pushing him with his shoulder." Jack shouts and pokes at the twins, but we end the chapter with Roger advancing towards them menacingly—"wielding a nameless authority."
CHAPTER 12:
Ralph is completely alone now—no Piggy, no Simon, no Samneric. He hides in the thick underbrush, wondering what to do about the rather serious wound on his ribs. He can't wash himself without risking capture, so he just lies there, trying to think. At one point, peering out from his hiding spot, he sees a painted face—Bill. But no; this wasn't Bill. It was a savage who had nothing to do with Bill. Finally, as the sunlight starts to fade, he sneaks over to the edge of the thicket so he can see what Jack and his group are doing. The smoke is rising and he can smell the pig they are roasting. Ralph is hungry. He tries to convince himself that they will leave him alone, that everything was an accident and that "they're not as bad as that." It doesn't work. He makes his way back to the beach and on the way comes to a clearing in the forest. Yes, it is the same clearing we saw before, the one with the Lord of the Flies, now |
checking out Ralph "like one who knows all the answers and won't tell." Ralph smashes the skull with his fists, bruising his knuckles in the process, but even afterwards still thinks the head is grinning (its smile is just wider now that it's been split open). He grabs the spear on which the head had been impaled and makes off. As night falls, Ralph goes back to Castle Rock to stare at the savages and Jack. He is completely isolated and lonely. He wonders if he can't just wander into the fort, as though it were a game, say "I've got pax" and laugh about it. After all, aren't these the same boys who said "Sir" and wore caps? Not so much. The tribe—including Sam and Eric—is dancing and chanting, "Kill the beast. Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" Ralph is at the end of his rope—Piggy is dead, Samneric are savages. There is no signal fire. The conch is smashed to powder. The whole situation sucks unbelievably. Eventually, Ralph sneaks down and calls out softly to Sam and Eric. They come over, but they don't want to—they tell Ralph to go away. Ralph begins to say "If it were light–" and the narration tells us that, if it were light, the boys would burn in shame. Sam and Eric say "they hurt us," and reveal that Jack is planning to hunt him (Ralph) tomorrow, starting early in the morning. And by hunt, they mean kill. Ralph begs them to come with him, but they are obviously too scared: Roger and the chief are both terrors, but Roger… But Roger what? We don't find out, but we're guessing it's pretty bad. Also bad: Ralph has sharpened a stick on both ends. Weird. Hearing footsteps approaching, Samneric quickly hand Ralph a hunk of meat and then run off. Ralph eats and falls asleep in the thicket near the camp, still wondering what this sharpened stick business means. (Do you get it? It means Ralph is going to get a little Lord of the Flies treatment himself.) When he wakes up, he realizes that Jack is just feet away, right outside the thicket where he's hiding. Ralph gets ready to fight, and sees the boys throwing great rocks
(à la the killing-Piggy method) toward the dense thicket he's hiding in. The red rocks go past him and roll towards the sea. That doesn't work, so the boys try to smoke him out with a fire. Ralph worms his way back through the thicket (away from the smoke) and toward the forest. A small savage is waiting for him as he emerges, but the poor little guy is rubbing the smoke out of his eyes. No time for sympathy! Ralph stabs the little boy and runs away. Now what? Climb a tree? Just keep running? Sit down and cry? Piggy was the brains of this operation. Finally, Ralph decides to hide again, lunging into the deepest tangle of creepers he can find. As he lies there, he realizes the fire that the savages set to smoke him out has spread, once again much like wildfire. While under the vines, Ralph suddenly sees
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the legs of a savage moving toward him. The savage is holding a stick that is… sharpened on both ends. Dun dun dun. Ralph tells himself not to scream and tries to hold still—when the savage's face peers underneath the vines. Ralph screams and plunges out, snarling and bloody. He swings at the savage until the guy falls, but there are others coming. He runs away as a spear flies past him. What follows is one of the best, heart-pounding chase scenes ever, as Ralph runs desperately through the forest, trying to evade the savages. He hears them all crashing through the underbrush as they give chase. Ralph stumbles over a root and falls, just as he sees one of their shelters burst into flame. As he rolls down the hill, he realizes he's close to the water's edge. Well, this is it. Ralph covers himself with his arms and cries for mercy. When he finally opens his eyes and staggers to his feet, he's
staring up at a white-topped cap with a gold anchor on the brim. Whoa! A naval officer! They're both pretty surprised to see each other. Behind him, Ralph can see a ship in the water, its "bows hauled up and held by two ratings." And, in the "stern-sheets another rating [holds] a sub-machine gun." The officer says "hello" and Ralph suddenly realizes how filthy he is. Any adults on the island? Nope. Just a semicircle of boys, their bodies "streaked with colored clay, sharp sticks in their hands." The officer assumes they've been playing a
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game and asks jokingly if anyone was killed. Ralph answers, "Only two" and makes it clear the bodies are gone. The officer finally catches on that he is serious and whistles softly. The whole island is "shuddering with flame," and other boys appear, coming out of the jungle, brown and with distended bellies. Little Percival comes running—he tries to start his incantation (name and address, which comforted him so much before) but he can't remember it. The officer asks who's boss and Ralph says loudly, "I am." Jack starts to protest but thinks better of it. Remember how he was described as a freaky, painted idol? Now he's just "a little boy who wore the remains of a […] black cap on his red hair." Irony alert: instead of Ralph's precious signal fire, it is the smoke that Jack created—in an attempt to kill Ralph—that the rescuers saw. The adult gives them a little lecture, saying that a group of British boys should have put up a better show than this. Ralph tries to explain that it was good at first, and the officer nods, adding that it was "like the Coral Island," another book about boys stranded on an island. Now that he's finished running for his life, Ralph has time to think about what's happened. He begins to cry, sobbing for the first time about "the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." The officer is a little embarrassed and turns away to give the boys time to pull themselves together, letting his eyes rest on the "trim cruiser in the distance." Oh, and that trim cruiser? It's involved in an equally violent and bloody war—so maybe that officer shouldn't be giving anyone any lectures.