Chapter 9 "A View to a Death"
Simon awakens from his slumber after being confronted by the beast within, dubbed The Lord of the Flies. Although Simon's face is encrusted with dried blood from the many times they have stung him, the flies which were buzzing around him have returned to the stinking pig's head on the stake. Continuing up the mountain he alone has the will to actually stop at the sight of the bulging body all the others had feared and fled from--he sees "the beast" for what it really is, not a beast at all but simply a pitiful figure, a "poor broken thing," which, though the pilot's flesh rots, is still held together by a mass of rubber cords and cloth. Staggering now from his ordeal with the Lord of the Flies, he sees in the distance the pig-roasting fire on the beach. Assuming this is where he'll find the rest of the boys, he descends to warn them there is no beast on the mountain.
Topic Tracking: Religion 9
Topic Tracking: Beast 7
Meanwhile, Ralph leaves to go to Jack's pig roast at Piggy's insistence, who wishes to satisfy his own rumbling stomach. It is the sow whose head was cut off and given as a gift for the beast that will be devoured here. Even as Piggy fears and hates Jack he is compelled to go to him once again, bearing the first signs of inconsistency in his behavior as well. Even after Jack's hunters stole fire from them earlier to set the blaze for this feast, even as Jack has bluntly rejected Ralph's society and rules, the two still both agree to go. Upon arriving, there is a massive feast. Ralph and Piggy eat and then, after showing up for a free meal, Ralph attempts to call yet another assembly, for he has brought the sacred conch to the feast. He is laughed at and mocked by all of the boys. Without warning it begins to rain furiously and Ralph reprimands them for not having shelters to protect them from the storm.
However, Jack excitedly begins again the ritual dance enacted earlier, repeating the chant, "'Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!'" Chapter 9, pg. 138. The word "pig" sung in their earlier chant has been replaced with "beast" and it is this creature which Roger now mimics, surrounded by all the other boys who pretend to attack him. Ralph and even Piggy now take part as well. They "found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror [of the makeshift beast] and made it governable." Chapter 9, pg. 138. Yet again Ralph and Piggy have forgotten the signal fire, the shelters and all of the things to which they had clung and propelled them on thus far. Like Jack, they begin to forget their civilized roots and are consumed by this strange new power.
Topic Tracking: Government 11
Topic Tracking: Pig 7
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 9
As the pace grows more and more frantic and the thunderstorm above rises in fury, Simon suddenly appears from the forest and breaks through their circle, trying to warn and comfort them not to be afraid, that he has seen the beast and it is just a dead rotting body. Only he seems to remember what matters to them, trying as always to help in the midst of crisis. However, his voice is drowned out by their chanting and, knocked to the ground, Simon is stabbed by their spears, mistaken for the beast, as he was earlier by one of the sleepwalking littluns. The events are described almost as if the boys were animals or beasts themselves: "There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws." Chapter 9, pg. 139
At last they back off and see Simon's dead body in the sand, recognizing who he is. Simultaneously the wind breaks the pilot's body free from the mountaintop, dragging it down through the circle of boys on the beach and out to sea, scattering them in all directions, driven by fear. The wind carried it out over the reef and out to sea. Shortly after, with the rain stopped, the night stars reflect down into the sea, and "The water rose farther and dressed Simon's coarse hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble." Chapter 9, pg. 140. In all of the confusion, the one boy who knew and truly saw things as they were was killed, as he had been warned would happen by The Lord of the Flies if he dared to try to warn them and not conform to his inner, primitive instincts. Simon had resisted even as all the others were consumed, including Ralph and Piggy who danced and chanted with the others and had joined in killing him.
For the last time, as in past days when he would attempt to convey his wisdom to the assembly, Simon and his words were ignored. His body is swept out to the ocean after the dead pilot's: "[S]urrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea." Chapter 9, pg. 140.
Topic Tracking: Beast 8
Chapter 10 "The Shell and the Glasses"
Shortly thereafter, Ralph and Piggy converse on the beach. Only two and Samneric, aside from some littluns, remain from the original group. Even after what has happened to Simon, all but these four have defected to Jack's tribe. They express guilt about the murder of Simon, having all taken part in it. "'It was an accident,'" Piggy insists and he tells Ralph to hide the fact that they were involved. "'We was on the outside. We never done nothing, we never seen nothing.'" Chapter 10, pg. 143. Samneric share this sentiment as well and it remains a topic not discussed. They want to forget it happened though the deep regret and sadness lingers over them all.
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 10
In the society Jack has created, the tribe, Jack's hunters obey him with a strict obedience and reverence, the kind which was never paid to Ralph. Jack has inhabited the Castle Rock with all of those under his lead. Robert is placed at the entrance like a sentinel. Everyone admires Jack's talent, dubbing him a "proper chief" in contrast to their perceptions of Ralph, who is viewed as a failure for his dependence on Piggy. Jack's orders come from no one else but himself. The boys are all painted over now, carrying spears and looking tribal; their assimilation by Jack has been completed. At a meeting of his "tribe," Jack declares that they shall soon hunt again. The issue of Simon is raised by these boys and Jack declares that the beast came in the form of Simon "disguised." It takes on a supernatural presence over them, now dubbed as a thing which cannot be killed. Jack warns them all, "'We'd better keep on the right side of [the beast]....You can't tell what he might do.'" Chapter 10, pg. 146. Here one finds the source of the power he holds over the boys: where Ralph attempted to tap into their common sense and intuition; Jack, in contrast, taps into their fears. Ralph's assembly has morphed into Jack's tribe.
Jack plans to attack Ralph that night with Maurice and Roger to steal Piggy's glasses--the one item from the civilized world they need in order to start their cooking fires.
Topic Tracking: Beast 9
Ralph and Piggy continue to decline in function. They decide to let the signal fire stop burning for the night, afraid to go into the woods to gather wood. Ralph dreams now not of the sweet ponies at his home in Devon, England, deeming them to be too savage. Wishing to escape from the savagery, as "the attraction of wildness had gone" he thinks now of "What could be safer than the bus center with its lamps and wheels?" Chapter 10, pg. 150. The solution and elimination of the primitive, of the beast and wildness in Ralph's mind, is technology and civilization. Nearby, as Ralph thinks of escaping this wildness, Samneric, usually so collected and speaking as one, are fighting one another, "locked in an embrace." Broken into two pieces, it is almost as if they are reflecting the inner battle in Ralph's mind between the savage and the civilized worlds.
Suddenly, the sleeping boys are attacked by Jack, Maurice and Roger. Piggy thinks that the hunters are really the beast descending upon them and shouts: "'It's come...It's real!'" Chapter 10, pg. 151 In the ensuing scuffle, Piggy's glasses are stolen. Assuming naively that the tribe has come for the conch, Ralph notices that it hasn't even been touched--the conch and assembly were part of Ralph's old world and have no value or worth in the new world Jack has created for the boys at Castle Rock. It is only the fire which they need for their rituals and pig roasting.
Piggy is now completely helpless in his blindness. Ralph, who has been relying on Piggy for advice and guidance, now sees his friend struck down, as powerless as himself. With this final strike, Jack has won the war, leaving Ralph and Piggy with nothing of value.
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 11
Topic Tracking: Government 12
Topic Tracking: Beast 10
Chapter 11 "Castle Rock"
After deciding to go to sleep without tending to the fire, Ralph, nursing his swollen cheek from the previous night's attack in which Piggy's glasses were stolen, awakens at dawn and begins blowing into the cold embers, hoping that some spark is still burning. However the result is only to have ash blown into his eyes, mirroring the incident on the mountain earlier in which he, Jack and Roger investigated the presence of the beast.
Piggy urges him to call yet another assembly even though nobody is left except for Samneric. Ralph, though doubtful as to the necessity of this, at last agrees and blows hard into the conch. The four of them talk about how all of the problems of the island are to be blamed on Jack. Ralph insists that he would have given Jack fire to use if he had only asked rather than stealing the glasses; their not getting rescued due to the lack of a signal fire is blamed on Jack, as is the murder of Simon, in which the four of them had taken part as well.
Piggy dismisses all of this, saying: "'This is 'jus talk....I want my glasses.'" Chapter 11, pg. 155. He, as always, propels Ralph (who is described earlier as comparable to "a chess player") into action. Ralph speaks about going up to the Castle Rock where Jack has established the base for his tribe: "'[We should be] looking like we used to, washed and hair brushed -- after all we aren't savages really....'" Chapter 11, pg. 155. Here he clings again to the old nostalgia of his dreams and his yearning for home and things civilized. Though this is a symbolic gesture for their adherence to civilized behaviors, Piggy dismisses it all, seizing up the conch in order to speak, saying he is going to go up the mountain, without a spear, and walk right up to Jack and demand that his glasses back. Piggy's old timidity has completely left, as he speaks without fear. As he talks, "[a] single drop of water that had escaped Piggy's fingers now flashed on the delicate curve [of the shell] like a star." Chapter 11, pg. 156. The mention of a star here recalls the description of stars earlier, when they reflected off the dead body of Simon as it was swept out into the ocean. The remaining four boys leave to visit Castle Rock, on a mission to retrieve Piggy's glasses.
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 12
As the boys approach, the thin line of a cooking fire is visible overhead and Roger stops them at the entrance. Ralph ignores his command to turn back and declares that once more he is calling an assembly, much in contrast to his earlier doubts on the beach about the futility of such action. Roger begins tossing rocks at Samneric, "aiming to miss" just as he had done with Percival, Johnny and Henry when they were building sand castles on the beach. Now at Castle Rock, this activity is repeated again. Jack is suddenly seen emerging from the forest with two other hunters, all three "masked in black and green." Chapter 11, pg. 160. Just returning from the hunt, "Behind them on the grass the headless and paunched body of a sow lay where they had dropped it." Chapter 11, pg. 160
Upon seeing this, Piggy begins to yell nervously. Jack and Ralph enter an argument about Piggy's glasses and the two begin to fight, swinging spears at one another, their language mirroring each anothers, the one saying, "Come on then" and the other saying, "Come on" and later, "You come on and see what you get" responded by, "You come on." They fight alike and act alike. Their struggle and scuffle is much akin to that small incident of the twins, Samneric, fighting earlier. Piggy attempts to maintain Ralph's focus and, fearing for his own safety, shouts out: "'Ralph -- remember what we came for. The fire. My specs.'" Chapter 11, pg. 161 and once more Ralph attempts to regain his senses. Caught between these two elements, Piggy and his logic versus Jack and his savagery, Ralph struggles to stop fighting and begins again with his old jargon, talking about the need for a signal fire in order to be rescued.
Topic Tracking: Government 13
Topic Tracking: Pig 8
Samneric are suddenly seized at Jack's command by his hunters and "Samneric protested out of the heart of civilization, 'Oh, I say!' '-honestly!'" Chapter 11, pg. 163. Here the two twins are both taken prisoner by the savages. Now Ralph screams out, calling out to Jack: "'You're a beast and a swine and a bloody, bloody thief!'" Chapter 11, pg. 163. As the two prepare to fight again, Piggy steps in suddenly in one last attempt to restore reason to the group, holding the conch aloft. "Let me speak...I got the conch," he says and even as he begins his monologue, Roger has already begun dropping stones upon him--this time not aiming to miss. "'Which is better--to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is....Which is better--to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?'" Chapter 11, pg. 164. Now, rather than speaking through Ralph as he has done thus far, Piggy himself speaks and attempts to lead. However, at this moment Roger presses down on a lever set in place beneath a large boulder and it falls slowly--"[t]he rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist." Chapter 11, pg. 164. "Piggy's arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig's after it has been killed." Chapter 11, pg. 165. After he falls far down to the beach his dead body, as with the body of Simon, is sucked out to sea by the waves.
Events following occur very quickly, as Ralph attempts to speak with no sound coming out. Jack hurls a spear which catches him in the ribs and bounces off. Boundaries have been crossed as now it is a boy not a pig which is attacked by spears. Ralph takes off running into the forest, bounding over the headless sow's body still lying on the ground. Jack orders everyone back to their fort, to Castle Rock, and he draws near to Samneric, still tied up, demanding to know why they had resisted joining his tribe. Silently, Roger approaches the twins edging past Jack, "as one wielding a nameless authority." Chapter 11, pg. 166. They are about to be tortured by Roger's hands, the very same hands which had only just murdered Piggy moments before.
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 13
Topic Tracking: Beast 11
Topic Tracking: Pig 9
Chapter 12 "Cry of the Hunters"
Ralph at last settles in an area of forest which he thinks he is safe, nursing the wounds and scratches from the trees which now cover his body. Intense description is now given to his senses, what he hears and sees. He attempts to rationalize, wondering what shall happen next, thinking for a fleeting moment that they would leave him alone. The old idealism continues to show through, going so far as allowing him to think about the murder of Piggy: "'They're not as bad as that. It was an accident.'" Chapter 12, pg. 168 He at last realizes this is an impossibility, for "[t]hen there was that indefinable connection between himself and Jack; who therefore would never let him alone...." Chapter 12, pg. 168 The two appear to be very much the same in character as described by their actions, having mirrored one another when engaged in battle.
Arriving at some fruit trees, Ralph feasts hungrily. Some littluns flee screaming when they see his unsightly appearance. He then comes across the same clearing where Simon had confronted The Lord of the Flies, where still stands the pig's head on the stick. Now only a hairless skull remains--all flesh has been consumed by the hundreds of flies which were surrounding it earlier. Punching the skull from fear, Ralph takes up the stick which had held it. The skull, now split into two pieces, continues to grin up at the sky. Continuing onwards in the dark of night, he nears Castle Rock again where Samneric are now described, like all the rest of the boys, as "savages." Behind the outline of these two, "A star appeared...and was momentarily eclipsed by some movement." Chapter 12, pg. 170. The presence of the star recalls again the scene of Simon's dead body and the description of the drop of water on the conch, shortly before the death of Piggy. Now a star is described, not only "covered" but undergoing an "eclipse," the covering of one heavenly body over another.
Ralph approaches and calls out to his two old friends, Samneric, but they usher him away out of fear, at first "gibbering" incoherently and then explaining that the hunters had hurt them. They warn Ralph that when the morning came, the hunters would all be hunting Ralph and how they had "'to be careful and throw...spears like at a pig.'" Chapter 12, pg. 172. The boy Ralph is viewed by the tribe the same as a pig--a thing to be hunted. The twins warn him that Roger had "sharpened a stick at both ends," implying that Ralph's head would also sit upon a stake as an offering to the beast. After giving Ralph a chunk of meat, Ralph leave and returns to hiding in order to sleep, reverting briefly to his old nostalgia, even now wishing for his home with its civilized things like "a bed and sheets." As he closes his eyes, cries of pain from Samneric are heard.
Topic Tracking: Pig 10
Ralph awakens at dawn to the sound of a noise nearby, stirring him. Rising, he enters the thicket in which the boulder which had been used to murder Piggy had passed through, observing the damage. Next there is the commotion of Jack speaking to one of the twins, saying "Are you sure?" implying that his hiding place had been disclosed by them. As he sits quietly listening and seeing everything around him, enormous boulders begin to roll past, tossed from Castle Rock; Ralph thinks of how one rock that remains there is "half as big as a cottage, big as a car, a tank." Chapter 12, pg. 176. Savages begin to fan out all around Ralph's hiding place and finally, with one directly adjacent he stabs his spear hard into its leg, twisting it. "A babble of voices" is heard and, still crouched in his hiding place, Ralph "showed his teeth at the wall of branches....snarled a little, and waited." Chapter 12, pg. 177. Ralph himself begins to act like a savage. Smoke begins to fill the area and he, realizing that they have set the entire island aflame to drive him out into the open, ponders what to do next. This brings up the fire of the first night, when they set the island aflame after lighting a signal fire for the first time--what was begun then is now nearing its end.
Viewing the scene, the savages are all masked in different colors. This is made quite clear in the description of one in "brown, black, and red" and another "striped red and white" at which "Ralph launched himself like a cat; stabbed, snarling, with the spear, and the savage doubled up." Chapter 12, pp. 177-8. Even as he thinks of these enemies as savages, he himself seems to have become consumed in the same aggression and desire to hurt others which they carry. Hiding again under a bush and still being hunted, he ponders what to do next, urging himself to think. "What was the sensible thing to do? There was no Piggy to talk sense." Chapter 12, pg. 179. Without Piggy who had urged him along thus far and maintained his focus, Ralph is lost. At last he compares his thoughts to those of a pig, wondering "if a pig would agree."
Topic Tracking: Government 14
Topic Tracking: Pig 11
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 13
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 14
Lamenting vainly that the fire has begun to burn the fruit trees, he worries still about "[w]hat would they eat tomorrow?" He compares his movement to an animal again, "[c]ouldn't a fire outrun a galloping horse?" Chapter 12, pg. 180. His thoughts begin to race with a mirage of painted faces around him, all "savages" and Simon's old words of comfort return, "You'll get back." Chapter 12, pg. 181. Now screaming again and "foaming" he attacks again and breaking into a full sprint he runs out, tailed by all of the hunters now screaming and shouting as all around him the fire burns, consuming everything. Finally nearing the beach, "[h]e saw a shelter burst into flames and the fire flapped at his right shoulder...." Chapter 12, pg. 182.
Stumbling out of the forest and into the sand, ending at last with no place left to run--stuck against the water, he falls down, covering his face with his arms in a last defensive cry for mercy, preparing for the approach of the savages. Rising to his feet, he looks up at the sight of a grown-up, a naval officer in full dress uniform. Behind him a cutter sits on the beach "her bow hauled up and held by two ratings. In the stern-sheets another rating held a sub-machine gun." Chapter 12, pg. 182. The officer asks Ralph if there are grown-ups with him; as if in a daze he shakes his head. Running up behind Ralph come all of the other "savages" now reduced to what they are: "a semi-circle of little boys, their bodies streaked with colored clay, sharp sticks in their hands...." Chapter 12, pg. 182-3. They no longer hunters but boys; they wear not elaborate paint but clay; they carry not spears but sticks. Behind them, the island continues to be consumed by flame, burning at last the coconut trees bordering the beach.
Topic Tracking: Beast 12
Topic Tracking: Religion 11
Claiming that the smoke from the huge blaze on the island, set by Jack's hunters, had drawn them there, the officer asks Ralph if they were having some sort of "war" to which he responds "yes" and states that two had already been killed. Percival walks up to introduce himself as he had before with full name and address, but now he stops only after "I'm--, I'm--" for he has forgotten his identity. After Ralph declares he is the boss there, the officer expresses disappointment at the state they had gotten themselves into saying, "'I should have thought that a pack of British boys...would have been able to put up a better show than that....'" Chapter 12, pg. 184. Ralph struggles for an answer and the officer, attempting to be helpful, replies that it must have been an adventure for them, "Like the Coral Island." This comparison was used at the book's onset in expressing the boys' original excitement of being stranded on a tropical island.
Thinking back to this, and recalling all that had happened with the murders and breakdown of the society he had tried so hard to maintain until their rescue, Ralph begins to cry; the others all join him and the sobs rise up, overwhelming the officer who turns his back to glance at the naval cruiser out in the water. No longer savages, the arrival of a grown-up and "civilization" turns them from savages back to what they were in the beginning--a group of lost boys. "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." Chapter 12, pg. 184 Piggy's name, the voice of reason, is invoked here one last time, counterbalanced by the mention of "the darkness of man's heart." Everything returns to what it was and, at last, the boys are rescued by naval officers who came across their ruined island in a British ship of war.
Topic Tracking: Government 15
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 15
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