Chapter 1 "The Sound of the Shell"
A plane carrying a British school group has crashed into a tropical island, presumably shot down as World War II wages on in the outside world. Ralph, one of the survivors, climbs with Piggy through the debris and undergrowth onto the open beach. After a brief introduction, the two engage in a discussion to determine what to do next. Ralph is, at first impression, mild in responding to Piggy, who is overweight and bears a large set of spectacles on his face. His personality appears to be paranoid and wimpy. He was raised by his aunt (whose name he regularly invokes, "My auntie says that..." etc) and regularly speaks of how he was the subject of ridicule in school where he earned his nickname, saying with fear: "'I don't care what [you] call me so long as...[it's not] what they used to call me in school....They used to call me Piggy!'"Chapter 1, pg. 11. He talks incessantly to the point of annoyance, explaining some of his social problems. In contrast, Ralph has a "golden body" and is in fact quite handsome. His father is a commander in the navy and Ralph believes he will come to their rescue when he gets leave.
The two walk a bit and come upon a lagoon in which Piggy sees a conch; Ralph retrieves it with use of a broken palm sapling and Piggy suddenly proclaims that they can use it to call the other survivors by blowing through it. Ralph blows through one end under Piggy's direction and, sure enough, one by one, other children soon appear on the beach.
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 1
First to come is Johnny, one of the group of smaller children, which come to be known as the "littluns,". Next are the twins, Sam and Eric (Samneric) who speak almost in unison. Last to appear along the beach: "[There was] something dark...fumbling along....The creature was a party of boys, marching approximately in...two parallel lines...." Chapter 1, pg. 18. This is the school's choir group with Jack Merridew, the choirmaster, in lead. They appear in full uniform complete with black robes, crosses and caps. One of the choir, Simon, is faint and passes out. Jack relents only at the last moment to allow them all to rest and break formation. Among this choir are the boys, Roger and Maurice. With the assemblage of the boys complete, Ralph and Jack discuss their situation. Rules are established and a "chief," is democratically elected by all the boys, with a show of hands choosing Ralph. Jack however is assigned the duty of leading the choir which serves the function of "an army...or hunters." His cold, unwavering demeanor and talent for giving orders suit him well for such a responsibility.
Topic Tracking: Government 1
Topic Tracking: Religion 1
Ralph decides that it is necessary to venture out and explore the island with a small group, choosing himself, Jack and Simon. Piggy protests loudly but Ralph dismisses him saying, "'You're no good on a job like this.'" Chapter 1, pg. 22 while Jacks tries to act menacing, driving his knife into a tree trunk. Walking past the lagoon where the conch was found, they begin to climb the large mountain, which juts out from one side of the island near the coast. Rising through the undergrowth and creepers which wind their way all around the island, the three boys finally reach a section partway up which is quite rocky with pink granite. Here they stop to shove off a large boulder down the slope, which lands crashing far below with a sound "like a bomb." Continuing upwards in ascent they reach the mount's summit. They see the whole of their island and a coral reef partly circling them out in the sea; also visible is the crash site of their plane and the lagoon from where the had started walking. Jack and Ralph engage in most of the dialogue while Simon stares on smiling until he mentions that he is hungry. On this note they start back down. Along the way, Jack attempts to catch a piglet they come upon tangled in the creepers. The piglet manages to escape from Jack's hands after he hesitates to thrust the knife into its throat. Afterwards he makes excuses and proclaims he will not fail again, even though the three, as they head back to the others, shirk at the thought of the pig's blood spilling out over his hands, preferring instead to eat fruit from the trees lining their path.
Topic Tracking: Pig 1
Chapter 2 "Fire on The Mountain"
The following day, Ralph again uses the conch to call an "assembly" on the beach. He and Jack report their findings from the previous day's exploration. Jack reports the presence of pigs on the island and how he and his hunters shall kill one next time for food without hesitating--he drives his knife once more into the side of a tree to show his conviction.
Concrete rules are established for the children by Ralph: no one speaks to the assembly unless they are holding the conch which gives them the floor. Even the arrangement of the boys on the beach reflects something of a government meeting, carefully partitioned off into groups as "Ralph sat on a fallen trunk, his left side to the sun. On his right were most of the choir; on his left the larger boys who had not known each other before...before him small children squatted in the grass." Chapter 2, pg. 30. Piggy and Jack speak in succession (each in turn holding the conch), concerning their ability to survive on the island until they are rescued. A small boy with a "mulberry-colored birthmark" on his face is urged forward and proclaims his fear of a "beastie" or "snake-thing" on the island which "came after dark." Ralph assures everyone that there is no beastie and Jack proclaims that if there were such a creature, he and his hunters would kill it.
Topic Tracking: Beast 1
Topic Tracking: Government 2
Ralph returns to the issue of how to accelerate their rescue when the grown-ups come looking for them. He suggests they all build a signal fire on top of the mountain he had climbed the day before. In a crowd, the children all rush to the mountaintop and build a large pile of wood, before realizing they have no means to light the fire. Only when he needs something does Ralph actually bother to pay attention to Piggy: "'Have you got any matches?'" Chapter 2, pg. 38. Jack has the idea of using Piggy's glasses to light the fire, readily snatching them off his face without asking permission. Ralph bends to light the fire using the sun's light magnified by the glasses. After this succeeds, Ralph hands back the glasses to Piggy and decides that it is necessary to modify his plan, saying that they must make the smoke darker and people must be assigned to keep the fire always burning so that it will never go out.
Showing respect for democracy and the conch, Jack says, "'We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.'" Chapter 2, pg. 40. He volunteers his hunters as being in charge of tending the fire and keeping a lookout for ships. Piggy cuts into the discussion with an odd laughter--looking down, the signal fire has spread to a large section of the island, burning down everything in its path. Piggy says, "'You got your small fire all right.'" Chapter 2, pg. 41
Shelters, not fire, Piggy says, are the most important things to create first. He reprimands them all for their impulsive behavior; he reprimands them for taking his glasses and starting a fire without clearing the area beforehand. Lastly, he notes missing from the group, as parts of the island below them burns, the boy with the birthmark who worried about the "beastie." This boy is never seen again throughout the rest of the story and it is assumed he dies in this fire. All the boys, including Ralph, are at last silent for a moment, their childish impulses put to rest.
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 2
Chapter 3 "Huts on The Beach"
Jack is in the forest tracking a pig; a spear is clutched in his hands and he is clothed only in a tattered pair of underwear held on by his knife belt. Suddenly the trampling of pigs' hooves is heard and he realizes once again that he has lost his chance at catching one. Returning to the beach, he and Ralph begin to talk after drinking from a coconut half-filled with water. While Jack has been out hunting, Ralph and Simon were the only two still working to construct the shelters after working for a few days. Ralph complains to Jack about the importance of finishing the shelters before anything else is undertaken, including hunting. "'We need meat,'" Jack insists simply as he "tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up." Chapter 3, pg. 47
An important difference begins to show between these Ralph and Jack, a distinct contrast of their personalities. Ralph speaks more of the need to create shelters as a "sort of home" for the boys, especially the littluns, in order to maintain and recreate some link to the civilized existence they once knew. Jack, however, shows a certain disinterest for recreating civilization--he says he would like to catch a pig and kill it before they are rescued, despite Ralph's continued insistence on having a fire on the mountain always burning as a beacon to draw any ships to them.
Topic Tracking: Government 3
Topic Tracking: Pig 2
Simon, usually a silent objective observer to these discussions, interjects that the littluns are all afraid as if "the beastie or snake-thing was real." He then disappears suddenly before Jack and Ralph themselves go off to the water hole to bathe, assuming that Simon has gone there as well. But he has not. Simon walks off mysteriously, alone. Around him is a certain glow and radiance where he walks--he gives of himself without greed or desire for power, unlike both Ralph and Jack: "Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight, Simon found for [the littluns] the fruit they could not reach...[and] passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands." Chapter 3, pg. 51. This aura of comfort and security continues to spread wherever Simon walks and nature seems to flourish everywhere around him. This is in sharp contrast to the depictions of Jack, Ralph and Piggy, who vie for control of the group's lifestyle on the island.
Simon is described as almost supernatural in force; even as dusk and night approach, where he walks the plants he named candle-buds "opened their wide white flowers....Their scent spilled out into the air and took possession of the island." Chapter 3, pg. 52. Simon is never afraid, and, though quiet and private, he is shown for the first time to have a certain power and wisdom of his own.
Topic Tracking: Beast 2
Topic Tracking: Religion 2
Chapter 4 "Painted Faces and Long Hair"
Things continue to change and fragment amongst the boys, especially between the two contrasting personalities of Jack and Ralph. The littluns' nightmares continue to worsen. One day, three littluns, Percival, Johnny and Henry are building sand castles and digging. Nearby in the trees, Roger and Maurice linger, watching them. Roger and Maurice, just relieved from tending to the fire, emerge and kick aside the smaller boys' castles, laughing with pleasure. Maurice wanders away while Roger remains to observe Percival crying. The crying only gets worse when Johnny also, following the older boys' destructive behavior, scatters sand into the air, and Percival leaves, crying, as does Henry. Johnny is left with the castles all to himself after scaring them off. Roger then follows Henry to the beach and proceeds to toss stones at him although "[T]here was a space round Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life." Chapter 4, pg. 56. Despite the lack of an adult authority, the old ways into which he had been brought up still stayed with him, and with Jack also (Roger is somewhat of Jack's second-in-command). These boundaries of their old lives continue to deteriorate as the boys continue to remain on the island.
ack appears suddenly, having smeared clay on his face like war paint or a tribal mask and, joined by Samneric and Bill, proceeds to take them all on a pig hunt. With the addition of the mask, Jack transforms from within as well, already completing the move towards his primal impulses. "He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling." Chapter 4, pg. 58.
Topic Tracking: Government 4
At this time, Ralph and Piggy are swimming in the water hole, when Piggy suggests the idea of creating a sundial to keep track of time--like the shelters, Piggy strives to maintain a hold on the old world they came from. Suddenly, Ralph sees a ship out in the water, though it passes the island without pause. The signal fire on the mountain has gone dead, which Ralph realizes after climbing to the mountain's summit.
Jack had called all of his hunters, whose duty it was to tend to the fire, in order to hunt down and kill a pig at last. This time they succeeded, returning shortly thereafter to dangle the gutted carcass from a stake and chant "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood." Jack doesn't seem bothered that the fire was left untended and that the ship had passed by--he sees the slaying of the pig as more important, their minds "crowded with memories...of the knowledge...that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink." Chapter 4, pp. 63-4. Arguing, Piggy supports Ralph in reprimanding Jack for his negligence; in turn Jack smacks Piggy in the face, breaking one of the lenses of his glasses as they tumble to the ground. Simon appears from nowhere to retrieve them for him, acting kindly and selflessly as always.
Topic Tracking: Religion 3
Topic Tracking: Intellectual 3
Topic Tracking: Pig 3
Following this incident, the mountain's fire is lit this time not as a signal, but rather to roast the pig, which the children devour hungrily despite Ralph's lingering anger. The friendship between Ralph and Jack has officially "snapped and fastened elsewhere"--the "elsewhere" referring to Piggy.
Sensing this divide, Jack's resentment for Piggy increases as well, refusing to give him any meat until Simon gives up his own piece for him, much to Jack's frustration. He tosses a huge piece to Simon again to replace the one he had given up declaring, "'Eat! Damn you!'" His language continues to become more frantic: "'I painted my face--I stole up. Now you eat--all of you--and I---'" Chapter 4, pg. 67. As the chapter closes, the hunters retell the story of killing the pig with pleasure, going to the extreme of reenacting it in a strange ritual: Maurice taking on the part of the pig, surrounded by the other hunters who chant again: "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in." Ralph, gazing upon all of this, is greatly worried. Abruptly he announces, "I'm calling an assembly" and proceeds down to the platform to blow the conch with nothing else said. The rift between these two very different leaders becomes more defined than ever at this point. Only trouble and disagreement follow.
Topic Tracking: Government 5
Topic Tracking: Religion 4
Topic Tracking: Pig 4
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