Biography of William Golding

Born in 1911 Saint Columb Minor in Cornwall, England, Sir William Gerald Golding was educated at the Marlborough Grammar School, where his father taught, and later at Brasenose College, Oxford. Although educated to be a scientist at the wishes of his father, he soon developed a great interest in literature, becoming first devoted to Anglo-Saxon and then writing poetry. At Oxford he studied English literature and philosophy. Following a short period of time in which he worked 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, but following the war he returned to Bishop Wordsworth's School, where he taught until the early sixties. 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 become 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, The 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 deal 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. As well as his novels and his early collection of poems, Golding also 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 novels 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, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today," and 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 deals with the fall of Hellenic culture and the rise of Roman civilization. This work was published posthumously in 1995.

Lord of the Flies was the first novel published by Sir William Golding after a number of years as a teacher and training as a scientist. Although Golding had published an anthology of poems nearly two decades before writing Lord of the Flies, this novel was his first extensive narrative work and is informed by his scientific training an academic background. In many ways Lord of the Flies is a hypothetical treatment of particular scientific concerns. It places a group of young English boys on a deserted island where they must develop their own society, in essence constructing a sociological experiment in which these boys must develop without any societal influences to shape them. In fact the beginning chapters of the novel parallel assumptions about human evolution, as the characters "discover" fire and form levels of political authority. However, what concerns Golding in Lord of the Flies is the nature of evil as demonstrated by the boys on the island. He concludes that the evil actions that the boys commit are inherent in human nature and can only be controlled by societal mores and rationality, as exemplified by the characters Piggy and Ralph.

Although the novel does not adhere to themes particular to one religious tradition, in Lord of the Flies Golding draws upon a great deal of religious symbolism updated to conform to more contemporary ideas of human psychology. The title Œcharacter,' the pig's head that Simon dubs the "lord of the flies" is a translation of the Hebrew word Ba'alzevuv, or its Greek equivalent Beelzebub. For Golding, this devil comes from within the human psyche rather than acting as an external force, as implied by Judeo-Christian teachings. Golding employs this religious reference in more Freudian terms. The devil that is the "lord of the flies" represents the Freudian conception of the Id, the driving amoral force that works solely to ensure its own survival. The "lord of the flies" directly confronts the most spiritually motivated character of the novel, Simon, who functions as a prophet-martyr for the other boys.

Lord of the Flies is firmly rooted in the sociopolitical concerns of its era. Published during the first decade of the Cold War, the novel contains obvious parallels to the struggle between liberal democracy and totalitarianism. Ralph represents the liberal tradition, while Jack, before he succumbs to total anarchism, can be interpreted as representing military dictatorship. In its structure as an adventure the novel further resembles the science-fiction genre that reemerged as a popular form of literature during the fifties. Although taking place among ostensibly realistic events, Lord of the Flies is an adventure story whose plot, which finds a small group of humans isolated on an alien landscape, correlates to this popular genre. Golding's next novel was a further step toward this genre. The Inheritors, heavily influenced by H.G. Wells' Outline of History, imagines life during the dawn of man.

Golding's novel remains significant for its depiction of the nature of human society and its musings on the nature of evil. Influenced by scientific teaching, Freudian psychology, religion and sociopolitical concerns, Lord of the Flies, like much of Golding's work, attempts to account for the evil inherent in human nature.

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 novel begins with the aftermath of the crash, once the boys have reached the island. 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 the boys 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 believes that one of them is already missing.

While Jack tries to hunt pigs, Ralph orchestrates the building of shelters for the boys. The littlest 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. However, Simon instead walks around the jungle alone, where he finds a serene open space with aromatic bushes and flowers.

The boys soon become accustomed to the progression of the day 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, while 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 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 how he had a nightmare and when he awoke saw something moving among the trees. Simon admits that Phil probably saw him, for he was walking in the jungle that night. The littluns begin to worry about the supposed beast, which they conceive to be perhaps a ghost or a squid. Piggy and Ralph fight once more, and when Ralph attempts to assert the rules of order, Jack asks rhetorically who 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. 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, the twins Sam and Eric are adding kindly to the fire when they see the pilot and believe him to be a beast. They scramble down the mountain and awake 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, and takes a swing at Ralph when he claims that Jack does not want 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 wishes 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 how the other boys think that he is insane. The pig's head claims that it is the beast, and mocks the idea that the beast could be hunted and killed. Simon falls down and loses consciousness.

Simon regains consciousness and wanders around. When he sees the dead pilot that the boys perceived to be the beast and realizes what it actually is, Simon rushes down the mountain to alert the other boys of what he has found. Ralph and Piggy play at the lagoon alone, and decide to find the other boys to make sure that nothing unfortunate happens while they play as 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. The boys descend on Simon, thinking that he is the beast, 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 attempt to justify their behavior as acting out of 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 the castle rock, Jack rules over the boys with the trappings of an idol. He has kept one boy tied up, and 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. That night, the hunters attack the four boys, who fight them off but still 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 Jack as civilized people. They groom themselves to appear presentable and dress themselves in normal 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. Jack declares himself chief and hurls his spear at Ralph, who runs away.

Ralph hides near the castle rock, where he can see the other boys, whom he no longer recognizes as civilized English boys but rather as savages. He crawls near the place where Sam and Eric are kept, and they give him some meat and tell 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 them, 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. Ralph finally reaches the beach, where a naval officer has arrived with his ship. He thinks that the boys have only been playing games, and 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 the end of the boys' innocence.

The novel begins in the aftermath of a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean during an unnamed war in which a group of English schoolboys are isolated on what they assume to be an island under no adult supervision. The pilot died in the crash and the plane has been swept to sea by a storm. Among the survivors are a young, fair-haired boy of twelve named Ralph and a pudgy boy referred to only by the derisive nickname from school that he dislikes: Piggy. Piggy insists that he can neither run nor swim well because of his asthma. Ralph insists that his father, a commander in the Navy, will come and rescue them. Both of Piggy's parents had already died. Piggy doubts that anybody will find them, and suggests that the boys should gather together. Ralph finds a conch shell, which Piggy tells him will make a loud noise. When Ralph blows the conch, several children make their way to Ralph and Piggy. There were several small children around six years old and a party of boys marching in step, dressed in eccentric clothing: black cloaks and black caps. One of the boys, Jack Merridew, leads the group, which he addresses as his choir. Piggy suggests that everyone state their names, and Jack insists on being called Merridew, for Jack is a kid's name. Jack, a tall thin boy with an ugly, freckled complexion and flaming red hair, insists that he be the leader because he's the head boy of his choir. They decide to vote for chief: although Jack seems the most obvious leader and Piggy the most obviously intelligent, Ralph has a sense of stillness and gravity. He is elected chief, but concedes that Jack can lead his choir, who will be hunters. Ralph decides that everyone should stay there while three boys will find out whether they are on an island. Ralph chooses one of the boys, Simon, while Jack insists that he comes along. When Piggy offers to go, Jack dismisses the idea, humiliating Piggy, who is still ashamed that Ralph revealed his hated nickname. The three boys 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 and determine that they are on an island, Ralph looks upon everything and says "this belongs to us." The three decide that they need food to eat, and find 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 could not stab the pig because of the great violence involved, but he vows that he would show no mercy next time.

From its beginning Lord of the Flies establishes itself as a story packed with allegorical meaning. The novel is a meditation on the nature of human political society, dealing with such concerns as the development of political systems and the clash in human nature between instinctual and learned behavior. In this manner, Golding establishes the deserted island as a clash between two different conceptions of pre-civilized humanity. In some respects, the island presents a Hobbesian situation in which the young schoolboys are thrown into a literal state of nature. At the beginning of the novel they have no society, no rules, and no concerns beyond personal survival. The narrative thrust of the novel is how the boys develop their own miniature society and the difficulties that inevitably arise.

Golding establishes immediately the contrast between the savage and the civilized that exists in this new environment for the boys. Freed from adult authority and the mores of society, Ralph plays in the beach naked, a practice commonly associated with Œuncivilized' cultures. Yet if this is an Œuncivilized' practice, it is also a reference to the second conception of pre-civilized life, that of an Eden; Ralph does not panic over the children's abandonment on the island, but rather approaches it as a paradise in which he can play happily. This raises the important question about what influence will cause his Eden to collapse.

The first sign of disturbance within the seemingly tranquil island is the appearance of Jack and his choir. Golding portrays Jack and his compatriots as militaristic and aggressive, with Jack's bold manner and the choir marching in step with one another. They are the first concrete entrance of civilization onto the island and a decidedly negative one. Jack seems a physical manifestation of evil: with his dark cloak and wild red hair, he gives a slightly Satanic impression. Jack is a decided military authoritarian. He orders 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 as hunters; he selects that task which is most violent and, in this society, most related to military values. However, 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 still constrained by societal rules that oppose this behavior; his authoritarian attitude has given him a predisposition to violence, but he must shed the lessons of society 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 inward qualities. Ralph is no great intellect and even behaves somewhat childish in his first encounter with Piggy, but otherwise he has a gravity and maturity beyond his years. He is a natural leader, a quality that the other boys 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 actually achieves it reluctantly by vote. Ralph therefore comes to represent a democratic ethos.

Piggy, in contrast, is the intellectual of the group. Although he is physically inept, clumsy and asthmatic, he has a quick wit 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 rational order. He has a particular interest in names, immediately asking Ralph for his and wishing that Ralph would reciprocate, as well as viewing that as the greatest concern when the boys assemble. The idea of naming is one of the first indications of an ordered society. For Piggy, there is a meaning in names, both as a communication tool and as a representation of one's person, as shown by his hatred of his own nickname.

The other major facet introduced indicating civilization is the establishment of property and the connotations of ownership. 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.

Ralph called another meeting that night. The sunburned children had put on clothing once more, while the choir was more disheveled, having abandoned their cloaks. Ralph announces that they are on an uninhabited island, but Jack interjects and insists that they need an army to hunt the pigs. Ralph sets the rules of order for the meeting: only the person who has the conch shell may speak. Jack relishes having rules, and even more so, having punishment for breaking them. Piggy reprimands Jack. He says that nobody knows where they are and that they may be there a long time. Ralph reassures them, telling them that the island is theirs, and until the grown-ups come they will have fun. A small boy is about to cry; he wonders what they will do about a snake-thing. Ralph suggests that they build a fire on the top of the mountain, for the smoke will signal their presence. Jack summons the boys to come build a fire, leaving only Piggy and Ralph. Piggy shows disgust at their childish behavior as Ralph catches up and helps them bring piles of wood to the top. Eventually it proves too difficult for some of the smaller boys, who lose interest and search for fruit to eat. When they gather enough wood, Ralph and Jack wonder how to start a fire. Piggy arrives, and Jack suggests that they use his glasses. Jack snatches them from Piggy, who can barely see without them. Eventually they use the glasses to reflect the rays of the sun, starting a fire. The boys are mesmerized by the fire, but it soon burns out. Ralph insists that they have rules, and Jack agrees, since they are English, and the English are the best at everything so must do the right things. Ralph says 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, telling the other boys how they should have listened to his orders to build shelters first and how a fire is a secondary consideration. Piggy worries that they still don't know exactly how many boys there are, and mentions the snakes. Suddenly, one of the trees catches on fire, and one of the boy screams about snakes. Piggy thinks that one of the boys is missing.

In this chapter, Golding uses the progress of the boys on the island as a chart of human development. The first achievement that the boys make 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 historical development of human society. The Œgovernment' of Ralph also develops during this chapter, as a society with rules begins to form on the island, with the procedure that only the person with the conch may speak during meetings. However, when Ralph develops these rules he, Jack and Piggy each take different perspectives on what particular use these rules will serve. Ralph takes a rational perspective based on ideas of justice: rules will allow the boys to live fairly among 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 it will contribute to their eventual rescue.

Ralph continues as a calming presence among the boys. A sense of fear begins to set in among the younger boys, and only Ralph has the presence to instill some sort of calm. Despite Piggy's clear thinking and appraisal of their situation, his contentious manner and rude dismissal of the younger boys causes his ideas to be unfortunately dismissed. Perhaps even more importantly, he is a cynic who can do nothing to comfort the others, instead instilling them with a sense of fatalism. Piggy, who carries himself with the bearing of a martyr, establishes himself 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 be, leads to dire consequences. The first example of this occurs when, at the end of this chapter, one of the boys seems to be missing. If the boys had heeded Piggy's advice and allowed him to keep track of the number of boys and what their names are, there would be no confusion over whether one is missing.

Despite the boys' dislike for Piggy, he does prove useful. His glasses are the key to starting the fire on the mountain. In particular, this makes him 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 he most supports building a fire, for it is an inherently destructive act. Golding also establishes Jack as a boy who tends to dominate. He takes the colonialist English position that, since he is English and thus superior to all others.

The immediate dangers that the boys face are few, for on the island there is fruit, and presumably pigs, to eat. However, Golding sets up their own sense of fear as 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.

Jack scans the oppressively silent forest. A bird startles him as he progresses along the trail. He raises his spear and hurls it at a group of pigs, driving them away. He eventually comes upon Ralph near the lagoon. Ralph complains that the boys are not working hard to build the shelters. The little ones are hopeless, spending most of their time bathing or eating. Jack says that Ralph is chief, so he should just order them to do so. Ralph admits that they could call a meeting, vow to build something, whether a hut or a submarine, start building it for five minutes then quit. Ralph tells Jack that most of his hunters spent the afternoon swimming. A madness comes to Ralph's eyes as he admits that he might kill something soon. Ralph insists that they need shelters more than anything. Ralph notices that the other boys are frightened. Jack says that when he is hunting he often feels as if he is being hunted, but admits that this is irrational. Only Simon has been helping Ralph, but he leaves, presumably to have a bath. Jack and Ralph go to the bathing pool, but do not find Simon there. Simon had followed Jack and Ralph, then turned into the forest with a sense of purpose. He is a tall, skinny boy with a coarse mop of black hair. He walks through the acres of fruit trees and finds fruit that the littlest boys cannot reach. He gives the boys fruit them goes 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.

Golding continues to develop Jack's preoccupation with hunting. For Jack it is not an instinctive talent, but rather a skill that he continues to develop as the story unfolds. His motives for hunting are disturbing. He hunts not for the ostensible purpose of gaining food to eat, but rather for his personal enjoyment. Golding indicates that there is something tremendously dangerous in Jack's obsession; he approaches madness when he speaks about his desire to kill. At this point in the story Jack is not sufficiently prepared to kill, but he is approaching the point at which he can inflict mortal violence upon another, whether a pig or a person. Ralph cannily realizes this trait when he reminds Jack that the most important thing that the boys must do is to build a shelter. He implicitly tells Jack that his obsession with hunting does not help the boys' chances for survival.

Although Ralph is the best leader for the boys, even he cannot control their behavior. The major burden that he faces is that he must deal with young children unprepared to care for themselves or demonstrate responsibility. Ralph cannot simply give them orders and expect them to be completed, as Jack automatically assumes. This sets up one of the major obstacles that the boys must overcome: they must behave beyond their years in order to survive and flourish until they are presumably saved.

The open space that Simon finds in the jungle is an indication that the boys do find themselves in an Edenic area. Simon views the jungle as a place of beauty and tranquillity, in comparison to Jack, who sees only the dangers that the boys face. In his excursion away from the boys, Simon shows himself to be the one character who has an affinity with nature. There are strong religious overtones to the area that Simon finds, which, with its candle-buds and serene stillness, resembles a place of worship.

The boys quickly become accustomed to the progression of the day on the island, including the strange point at midday when the sea would rise. Piggy discounts the midday illusions as mere mirages. The northern European tradition of work, play and food right through the day made it possible for the boys to adjust themselves to the new rhythm. The smaller boys were known by the generic title of "littluns," including Percival, the smallest boy on the island, who had stayed in a small shelter for two days and had only recently emerged, peaked, red-eyed and miserable. The littluns spend most of the day searching for fruit to eat, and since they choose it indiscriminately suffer from chronic diarrhea. They cry for their mothers less often than expected, and spend time with the older boys only during Ralph's assemblies. They build castles in the sand. One of the biggest of the littluns is Henry, a distant relative of the boy who disappeared. Two other boys, Roger and Maurice, come out of the forest for a swim and kick down the sand castles. Maurice, remembering how his mother chastised him, feels guilty when he gets sand in Percival's eye. Henry is fascinated by the small creatures on the beach. Roger picks up a stone to throw at Henry, but deliberately misses him, recalling the taboos of earlier life. Jack thinks about why he is still unsuccessful as a hunter. He thinks 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 himself. From behind the mask Jack seems liberated from shame and self-consciousness. Piggy thinks about making a sundial so that they can tell time, 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 cannot reach it in time. Their own fire is dead. Ralph screams for the ship to come back, but it passes without seeing them. Ralph finds that the hunters have found a pig, but Ralph admonishes them for letting the fire go out. Jack is overjoyed by their kill. Piggy begins to cry at their lost opportunity, and blames Jack for letting the fire go out. The two argue, and finally Jack punches Piggy in the stomach. Piggy's glasses fly off and break 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 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.

Golding begins the chapter establishing a sense of order among the boys in the island only to find it quickly fall apart. Even the littlest of the boys come to accept their fate on the island and overcome the anguish over their fate. The key to the tranquillity on the island is the customs of the society from which the boys come. The boys did not come to the island entirely bereft of societal influence, and whatever lessons their culture has instilled in them prove critical to maintaining some semblance of peace on the island. Golding notes several instances in which cultural influences of parents and authority figures determines the boys' behavior. They still obey notions of appropriate behavior without any real authority to determine what they can and cannot do; it is only when the boys transgress these civilized norms that they suffer.

It is Jack who first oversteps the boundaries of civilized society. His attempts to successfully hunt become, in effect, attempts to succumb to an animalistic nature. His painted face, reminiscent of hunter-gatherer societies, means to make 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 succumbs to his blood lust. 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; this goes beyond enjoyment to lust, as they cheer on the means by which they mutilate the pig.

Maurice's impression of the pig during the dance obscures the line between violence directed at the animals on the island and violence directed on one another. Significantly, this chapter contains the first instance of aggression between the two boys. Jack, now accustomed to harming others by his recent kill, punches Piggy, who remains an outsider among the boys. The chapter further sets up Piggy as a martyr figure. He has the most grounded concerns, making the reasonable proposal that they construct a sundial, but he is also loathed by the other boys. Only Ralph, the most mature and grounded of the characters, begins to sympathize 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 exists altogether as a member of civilized society. His hair does not even seem to grow, thus he retains the appearance of a normal English schoolboy as the others grow more disheveled and unkempt.

The concurrent sighting of the ship and the killing of the pig contribute to the downfall of 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 and renews the possibility that they may eventually escape the island, while the killing of the pig is an example of their descent from civilized behavior into animalistic urges. 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 abandonment of civilization. This conflict between the two forces at work among the boys on the island will provide much of the narrative thrust of the novel

Ralph goes to the beach because he needs a place to think and is overcome with astonishment. He understands the weariness of life, where everything requires improvisation. He calls a meeting near the bathing pool, realizing that he must think and must make a decision but that he lacks Piggy's ability to think. 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, and 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 makes the rule that the only place where they will have a fire is on the mountain. Ralph then speaks on their fear. He admits that he is frightened himself, but their fear is unfounded. Jack stands up, takes the conch, and yells 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 is no beasts and there is no real fear, unless they get frightened of people. A littlun, Phil, tells how he had a nightmare and, when he awoke, how he 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 causes him to break out into tears. All of the littluns join him. Percival claims that the beast comes out of the sea, and tells them about squids. Simon says that maybe there is a beast, and the boys speak about ghosts. Piggy says he does not believe in ghosts, but Jack attempts to start a fight again. Ralph stops the fight, and asks the boys how many of them believe in ghosts. Piggy yells at the boys, asking whether they are humans or animals or savages. Jack threatens him 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 they will hunt the beast down. 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 does ask Piggy whether there are ghosts or beasts, but Piggy reassures him. Piggy warns him that if Ralph steps down as chief Jack will do nothing but hunt, and they will never be rescued. The three reminisce on the majesty of adult life. The three hear Percival still sobbing his address.

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 come to nothing. Golding develops Ralph's particular concerns and insecurities in this chapter. Although he demonstrates a more than sufficient intellect, he worries that he lacks Piggy's genius; his one consolation is that he realizes that it is his abilities as a thinker that allow him to recognize the same in Piggy. Ralph has a strong sense of self-doubt. He is not immune to fear, which he admits to the boys, and even feels it necessary to ask Piggy whether there might actually be a ghost on the island. Golding presents Ralph as a reluctant leader. His 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 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 characters during the assembly and afterward. Piggy is the only character who completely dismisses the idea of a beast on the island, and 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, and even this fear proves no actual threat to them. However, 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 consistently ignored. He raises the important question whether the boys will act like humans, savages or animals. Ralph and Piggy exemplify human behavior, while Jack represents savagery that may even descend into animalistic instinct.

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 continues to physically threaten Piggy, foreshadowing an eventual great conflict between the two, and he even manipulates the young boys' fear of a possible beast. 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 assumes leadership for his calm demeanor and rationality, Jack gains his authority from irrationality and instinctual fear; he manipulates the boys into thinking that there may a danger that they should hunt. Golding clearly portrays Jack's behavior as dangerous; Ralph concludes that a focus on hunting will prevent them from ever leaving the island and thus becoming little more than animals on this deserted island.

Golding constructs the assembly to show how fear foments and spreads among the young boys. The littluns begin with a concrete example of fear that is soon easily explained, but the idea of something sinister on the island breaks out among the boys. The terrors that the boys imagine become progressively more abstract and threatening. Percival uses concrete facts about squids to come to an illogical conclusion that a squid may come from the sea to harm them. This then proceeds to the completely unfounded and supernatural rumors that there may be actual ghosts on the island.

With the anarchy incited by Jack and the panic among the littluns, only vestiges of civilization remain on the island. Percival's repetition of his address is a stark reminder that they no longer reside in civilized culture, while the musings on adulthood by Ralph, Piggy and Simon portray adult society as sufficiently rational and organized to solve the problems that they face on the island.

Ralph and Simon pick up Percival and carry him to a shelter. That night, over the horizon, there is an aerial battle. A pilot drops from a parachute, sweeping across the reef toward the mountain. The dead pilot sits on the mountain-top. Early the next morning, there are noises by a rock down the side of the mountain. The twins Sam and Eric, the two boys on duty at the fire, awake and add kindling to the fire. Just then they spot something at the top of the mountain and crouch in fear. They scramble down the mountain and wake Ralph. They claim that they saw the beast. Eric tells the boys that they saw the beast, which has teeth and claws and even followed them. Jack calls for a hunt, but Piggy says that they should stay there, for the beast may not come near them. When Piggy says that he has the right to speak because of the conch, Jack says that they don't need the conch anymore. Ralph becomes exasperated at Jack, accusing him of not wanting to be rescued, and Jack takes a swing at him. Ralph decides that he will go with the hunters to search for the beast, which may be around a rocky area of the mountain. Simon, wanting to show that he is accepted, travels with Ralph, who wishes only for solitude. Jack gets the hunters lost on the way around the mountain. They continue along a narrow wall of rocks that forms a bridge between parts of the island, reaching the open sea. As some of the boys spend time rolling rocks around the bridge, Ralph decides that it would be better to climb the mountain and rekindle the fire, but Jack wishes to stay where they can build a fort.

The landing of the dead pilot on the mountain is a pivotal event in Lord of the Flies, for it serves as an actual manifestation of the beast which the boys fear. None of the boys are immune to this: even Piggy, faced with some evidence that a beast actually exists, considers measures that they should take to protect themselves. This beast from air is a concrete object that the boys can fear rather than abstract ideas concerning squids and ghosts with which the boys were previously preoccupied. Significantly, this beast from air proves no threat to the boys. The dead body is nothing more than an object left to be interpreted in vastly different ways by the various boys.

It is of no surprise that Jack interprets the appearance of the beast from air as a cause for war. The possibility of some danger is the key that Jack requires to gain authority over the other boys, for it gives them a focus for their violence and anger. Jack thus continues his authoritarian attitude with a strong sense of demagoguery. Jack requires a concrete enemy to assume authority and 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.

Among the boys, Jack has a clear enemy in 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. Although previously committed to the rules of order which would allow him to punish others, Jack accepts anarchy when it serves his purposes.

Jack's efforts isolate 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. Golding continues to develop this rift between the more mature Ralph and the other boys. Ralph instead 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 pure survival (killing the beast) and satisfying desires (playing as hunters), these three boys represent three facets of distinctly human thought. Ralph, who strives to balance priorities successfully, represents human reason and judgment. Piggy the problem-solver represents pure human intellect. Simon, in contrast, is a spiritual thinker who demonstrates the human ability to think beyond narrow personal interests.

Ralph notices how long his hair is and how dirty and unclean he has become. He had followed the hunters across the island. On this other side of the island, the view is utterly different. The horizon is hard, clipped blue and the sea crashes against the rocks. Simon and Ralph watch the sea, and Simon reassures him that they will leave the island eventually. Ralph is somewhat doubtful, but Simon says that it is simply his opinion. Roger calls for Ralph, telling him that they need to continue hunting. A boar appears; Jack stabs it with a spear, but the boar escapes. Jack is wounded on his left forearm, so Simon tells him he should suck the wound. The hunters go into a frenzy once more, chanting "kill the pig" again. Roger and Jack talk about their chanting, and Jack says that someone should dress up as a pig and pretend to knock him over. Robert says that Jack wants a real pig so that he can actually kill, but Jack says that he could just use a littlun. The boys start climbing up the mountain once more, but Ralph realizes that they cannot leave the littluns alone with Piggy all night. Jack mocks Ralph for his concern for Piggy. Simon says that he can go back himself. Ralph tells Jack that there isn't enough light to go hunting for pigs. Out of the new understanding that Piggy has given him, Ralph asks Jack why he hates him. Jack has no answer. The boys are tired and afraid, but 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, claiming that he is afraid. Jack claims he saw something bulge on the mountain. Since Jack seems for the first time somewhat afraid, Ralph says that they will look for it then. The boys see a rock-like hump and something like a great ape sitting asleep with its head between its knees. At its sight, the boys run off.

In this chapter, Golding develops themes considered 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 assumes political overtones in this chapter, as the two engage in a power struggle for authority over the other boys. The concerns of Ralph and Jack have been previously established: the former focuses on survival and escape, while the latter focuses on hunting and playing. However, in this chapter Golding focuses on the tactics each uses to assert himself. Jack uses his bravado as a sign of strength and dominance, mocking Ralph for supposed cowardice, while Ralph is straightforward and direct. He challenges Jack's overblown self-confidence and honestly notes that Jack is motivated by hatred.

Golding continues to portray the descent of the boys into animalistic behavior. The line between the boys and the animals becomes blurred in this chapter, particularly during the hunting chant, in which one of the boys pretends to be a pig while the other boys pretend to kill him. This indicates that the point at which the boys direct their violence at another boy is approaching; Jack even jokes that they could kill a littlun in place of a pig, once again demonstrating his blatant disregard for human life. Jack, who previously needed to prepare himself to kill even a pig, is now capable of killing without remorse.

When Ralph tells Piggy what they saw, he is quite skeptical. Ralph tells him that the beast had teeth and big black eyes. Jack says that his hunters can defeat the beast, but Ralph dismisses them as boys with sticks. Jack tells the other boys that the beast is a hunter, and says that Ralph thinks that the boys are cowards. Jack says that Ralph isn't a proper chief, for he is a coward himself. Jack asks the boys who wants Ralph not to be chief. Nobody agrees with Jack, so he runs off in tears. He says that he is not going to be part of Ralph's lot. Jack leaves them. Piggy says that they can do without Jack, 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 then suggests that they start a fire down by the beach. Piggy organizes the new fire by the beach. Ralph notices that several of the boys are missing. Piggy says that they will do well enough if they behave with common sense, and proposes a feast. They wonder where Simon has gone; he might be climbing the mountain. Simon had left to sit in the open space he had found earlier. Far off along the beach, Jack says that he will be chief of the hunters, and will forget the beast. He says that they might go later to the castle rock, but now will kill a pig and give a feast. They find a group of pigs and kill a large sow. Jack rubs the blood over Maurice's cheeks, while Roger laughs that the fatal blow against the sow was up her ass. They cut off the pig's head and leave it on a stick as a gift for the beast at the mountain-top. Simon sees the head, with flies buzzing around it. Ralph worries that the boys will die if they are not rescued soon. Ralph and Piggy realize that it is Jack who causes things to break up. The forest near them suddenly bursts into uproar. The littluns run off as Jack approaches, naked except for paint and a belt, while hunters take burning branches from the fire. Jack tells them 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 holds as a symbol of ritual and order. They reiterate that the fire is the most important thing, but Bill 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, calling him a silly little boy. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon that he'd better 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 laughs at the idea that the Beast is something that could be hunted and killed. Simon falls down and loses consciousness.

Piggy remains the lone skeptic among the boys, still unsure of the presence of the beast, which continues to be the focus for Jack and his hunters. Even Ralph, succumbing to fear and suspicion, believes that there is a beast on the island. Although Ralph is the clear protagonist of the story and the character for whom Golding has the most affection, he is still susceptible to the childish passions and irrationality that mark the other boys to a lesser extent. This point is not insignificant: Ralph may be more mature and rational than Jack and his hunters, but given the right circumstances he can submit to the same passions, an aspect of his character that foreshadows future events.

The political subtext of previous chapters becomes more overt in this chapter, as Jack attempts to stage an overthrow of Ralph as chief. Although Ralph successfully defends himself against Jack's critiques by revealing Jack's own absurdity 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 essentially takes a position that, if he cannot set the rules to the game, he refuses to play at all. This builds to the later events of the chapter in which Jack, realizing that he cannot take authority directly away from Ralph, forms a separate authority for himself. Two Œgovernments' therefore emerge on the island. Ralph presides over what roughly resembles a liberal democracy, while Jack forms an approximation of a military dictatorship.

Golding continues to construct Piggy as the sensible and in some respects the most essential character for the survival of the boys on the island. The abrasive edge that Piggy demonstrated upon their arrival to the island now becomes secondary to his practical wisdom and ability to adapt to situations. Among the major characters, Piggy is the only one who does not have a predictable emotional arc. While Jack and Simon descend into their respective forms of madness and Ralph remains sensible but increasingly cynical, Piggy confounds expectations; he assumes a particular authority among the boys despite his off-putting appearance and refined tastes as Ralph defers to his judgment and resolve.

Jack and his hunters continue to descend into savagery in this chapter. They continue to indulge in stereotypical Œnative' behavior that focuses on the use of violence. For these boys the actions are little more than a game; when Jack invites the other boys to join his tribe, he even states that the point of this new tribe is solely to have fun. The boys see their behavior as savages as part of an elaborate game, even as it takes on more dangerous and violent undertones. This foreshadows the point at which the boys acting as Œnatives' moves from mere game to actual savagery.

The Lord of the Flies, as Simon dubs the pig's head, is the symbol of that descent from civilized behavior to animalistic savagery. For Simon it is the final revelation that nature can be brutal and horrifying, an idea that clashes with his previous affinity with nature and the spirituality inherent in it. Simon frames nature in terms of its Edenic qualities, but the Lord of the Flies is a direct contradiction of that view. Instead, it is a Hobbesian reminder that life in the most basic state of nature is in fact nasty, brutish and short. 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 this devil is not an external force, but rather an internal evil created by the boys themselves.

Simon's fit passes into the weariness of sleep. Simon speaks aloud to himself, asking "What else is there to do?" Simon sees the Beast the body of the soldier who parachuted onto the island and realizes what it actually is. He staggers down the mountain 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 remark that they are with the hunters for the fun of pretending to be a tribe and putting on war paint. They decide that they should find them to make sure that nothing happens. They find the other boys grouped together, laughing and eating. Jack sits on a great log, painted and garlanded as an idol. Jack orders the boys to give Ralph and Piggy some eat, then orders a boy to give him a drink. Jack asks all of the boys who will join his tribe, for he gave them food and his hunters will protect them. Ralph and Jack argue over who will be chief. Ralph says that he has the conch, but Jack says that it doesn't count on this side of the island. Piggy tells Ralph that they should go before there is trouble. Ralph warns them that a storm is coming and asks where there shelters are. The littluns are frightened, so Jack says that they should do their pig dance. As the storm begins, Simon rushes from the jungle, crying out about the dead body on the mountain. The boys rush after him, striking him and killing him. Meanwhile, on the mountain, the storm blows the parachute and the body attached to it into the sea. That night, Simon's body washes out to sea.

Ralph finally loses his leadership over the other boys in this chapter when it seems as if his keen judgment and practicality are most necessary. With the exception of Piggy, all of the boys desert Ralph in favor of Jack, who promises them meat without the responsibilities that Ralph has demanded. 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.

Jack's authority over the other boys continues to assume disturbing overtones. When Ralph finds Jack, he is painted and garlanded, sitting on a log like an idol. This is a deliberately pagan image at odds with the ordered society from which Jack comes and the final manifestation of his descent from civilization. Jack totally disregards the rules established for the island, claiming that the conch yields no authority when Ralph attempts to cite precedent.

Significantly, it is Simon who reveals the truth about the beast. The character whom most consider to be crazy is the first to discover the rational truth about the supposed beast. However, Simon becomes a martyr for speaking the truth. When he arrives to shatter the illusions the boys have about the beast, they perceive Simon to be the beast himself. This killing is a culmination of the violence 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 descent from civilization and a further step toward complete and premeditated violence against one another.

Back on the other side of the island, Ralph and Piggy discuss Simon, and Piggy reminds him that he is still chief, or at least chief over them. Piggy tries to stop Ralph from talking about Simon's murder. Piggy says that he took part in the murder because he was scared, but Ralph says that he wasn't scared. He doesn't know what came over him. They try to justify the death as an accident caused by Simon's crazy behavior. Piggy asks Ralph not to reveal to Sam and Eric that they were in on the killing. Sam and Eric return, dragging a long out of the forest. All four appear nervous as they discuss where they have been, trying to avoid the subject of Simon's murder. Roger arrives at castle rock, where Robert makes him declare himself before he can enter. The boys have set a log so they can easily cause a rock to tumble down. Roger and Robert discuss how Jack had Wilfred tied up for no apparent reason. Jack sits on a log, nearly naked with a painted face. He declares that tomorrow they will hunt again. He warns them about the beast and about intruders. Bill asks what they will use to light the fire, and Jack blushes. He finally answers that they shall take fire from the others. Piggy gives Ralph his glasses to start the fire. They wish that they could make a radio or a boat, but Ralph says that they might be captured by the Reds. Eric stops himself before he admits that it would be better than being captured by Jack's hunters. Ralph wonders about what Simon said about a dead man. The boys become tired by pulling wood for the fire, but Ralph resolves that they must keep it going. Ralph nearly forgets what their objective is for the fire, and they realize that two people are needed to keep the fire burning at all times. This would require that they each spend twelve hours a day devoted to it. They finally give up the fire for the night. Ralph reminisces about the safety of home, and he and Piggy conclude that they will go insane. They laugh at a small joke that Piggy makes. Jack and his hunters arrive and attack the shelter where Ralph, Piggy and the twins are. They fight them off, but still suffer considerable injuries. Piggy thought that they wanted the conch, but realizes that they came for something else. Instead, Jack had come for Piggy's broken glasses.

The horror of Simon's death is not the event in itself, but the role of Piggy and Ralph in the murder. The two attempt to justify their role in the death: 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. However, the involvement of Piggy and Ralph makes it clear that even these two, the paragons of rationality and maturity among the island, are susceptible to the same forces that motivate Jack and his hunters. Golding obscures the once-clear dichotomy between Œgood' Ralph and Œevil' Jack, for Ralph and even Piggy are guilty of similar mistakes.

Golding does leave one major qualification separating Ralph and Piggy from Jack. Ralph and Piggy still possess a moral sensibility; they realize that their actions are wrong and thus need to find some justification for their part 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 are unsuccessful in their rationalizations, the very fact that they need to find some reason for their behavior shows that they have an understanding of moral principles.

As the new leader of the boys, Jack bases his authority on fear and suspicion. Even faced with information that the figure on the mountain is not harmful, Jack continues to promote fear of the dreaded beast. His rule makes clear distinctions between insiders and outsiders in the attempt to create the idea of a common enemy where none exists. His methods of rule are exclusionary without any foundation in safety considerations; the formal declaration of the guard that visitors must announce their presence does nothing to preserve the boys' safety, but does promote the idea that some of the boys are excluded from Jack's tribe.

The weakness of Jack's rule is clear even to Jack himself; intent on pleasing the boys with games and hunting, he does nothing to focus on practical matters. His only solution to the problems that the boys face is to steal from the boys who maintain some sense of responsibility. Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric must therefore face a considerable burden. Without help from the other boys who are content to play as savages, these four must devote their energy solely to the fire, a nearly unfeasible duty. The strain on these boys is obvious; Ralph and Piggy even muse that they may go insane if they are not rescued soon.

A more immediate danger to Ralph and Piggy comes from Jack and his followers. The attack on Ralph and Piggy signals yet another movement away from civilized behavior. The murder of Simon stemmed from a sense of instinct and panic. Here the violence used to gain Piggy's glasses, even if it is not fatal, is intentional. Golding further foreshadows a premeditated murder with 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 which boy will suffer this fate.

The four boys gather around where the fire had been, bloody and wounded. Ralph calls a meeting for the boys who remain with them, and Piggy asks Ralph to tell them what could be done. Ralph says that all they need is a fire, and if they had kept the fire burning they might have been rescued already. Ralph, Sam and Eric think that they should go to the Castle Rock with spears, but Piggy refuses to take one. Piggy says that he's going to go find Jack himself. Piggy says that he will appeal to a sense of justice. A tear falls down his cheek as he speaks. Ralph says that they should make themselves look presentable, with clothes, to not look like savages. They set off along the beach, limping. When they approach the Castle Rock, Ralph blows the conch. He approaches the other boys tentatively, and Sam and Eric rush near him, leaving Piggy alone. Jack arrives from hunting, and tells Ralph to leave them alone. Ralph finally calls Jack a thief, and Jack responds by trying to stab Ralph with his spear, which Ralph deflects. They fight each other while Piggy reminds Ralph what they came to do. Ralph stops fighting and says that they have to give back Piggy's glasses and reminds them about the fire. He calls them painted fools. Jack orders the boys to grab Sam and Eric. They take the spears from the twins and Jack orders them to be tied up. Ralph screams at Jack, calling him a beast and a swine and a thief. They fight again, but Piggy asks to speak as the other boys jeer. Piggy asks them whether it is better to be a pack of painted Indians or to be sensible like Ralph, to have rules and agree or to hunt and kill. Roger leans his weight on the lever, causing a great rock to crash down on Piggy, crushing the conch and sending Piggy down a cliff, where he lands on the beach, killing him. Jack declares himself chief, and hurls his spear at Ralph, which tears the skin and flesh over his ribs, then shears off and falls into the water. Ralph turns and runs, but Sam and Eric remain. Jack orders them to join the tribe, but when they only wish to be let go he pokes them in the ribs with a spear.

Golding sets up the conflict between Jack and Ralph as an explicit struggle between savagery and civilization. The two continue to clash over previously developed points: Ralph criticizes Jack for his lack of responsibility and his ambivalence to rules of order and justice. However, these points are no longer debatable, for they presume that Jack and the other boys exist as members of a society with moral codes and regulations. The change 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. However, with Jack's repudiation of any rational system the two struggle over whether there should be any ordered society at all on the island.

The final confrontation in which Ralph and Piggy face Jack and the other boys clearly delineates the divide between civilization and animalistic savagery. Before they face Jack, Ralph and Piggy readopt the manners and customs of English society, grooming themselves and dressing themselves as proper English boys, a stark contrast to the hunters, who wear little if any clothing and adorn themselves with Œnative' makeup. When Piggy speaks to the boys, he explicitly proposes the major theme of the novel, asking whether it is better to live sensibly according to rules and standards of behavior or to live in a state of anarchy.

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. Roger has a clear conception of his actions when he tips the rock that kills Piggy. This completes the progression of behavior that has been developed in the previous two chapters: the boys move from unintentional violence to completely premeditated murder.

Ralph hides, wondering about his wounds. He is not far from the Castle Rock. He thinks he sees Bill in the distance, but realizes that it is not actually Bill anymore, for he is now a savage and not the boy in shorts and shirt he once knew. He concludes that Jack will never leave Ralph alone. Ralph can see the Lord of the Flies, now a skull with the skin and meat eaten away. Ralph can still hear the chant "Kill the beast. Cut his throat. Spill his blood." He crawls to the lookout near Castle Rock and calls to Sam and Eric. Sam gives him a chunk of meat and tells him to leave. They tell him that Roger has sharpened a stick at both ends, but Ralph cannot attach a meaning to this. Ralph crawls away to a slope where he can safely sleep. When he awakes he can hear Jack and Roger outside the thicket where he hides. They are trying to find out where Ralph is hiding. The other boys are rolling rocks down the mountain. Ralph finally runs away, not knowing what he should do. He decides to hide again, then realizes that Jack and his boys were sitting the island on fire to smoke Ralph out, a move that would destroy whatever fruit was left on the island. Ralph rushes toward the beach, where he finds a naval officer. His ship saw the smoke and came to the island. The officer thinks that the boys have been only playing games. The other boys begin to appear from the forest. Percival tries to announce his name and address, but cannot say what was once so natural. Ralph says that he is boss, and the officer asks how many there are. He scolds them for not knowing exactly how many there are and for not being organized, as the British are supposed to be. Ralph says that they were like that at first. Ralph begins to weep for the first time on the island. He weeps for the end of innocence and the darkness of man's heart, and for the fall of Piggy. The officer turns away, embarrassed, while the other boys await the cruiser in the distance.

The dynamic of interaction between Ralph and the other boys changes in the final chapter. Ralph is now an object to be pursued by the other boys, who seem no longer able to make the distinction between hunting pigs and hunting each other. For Ralph, the other boys on the island bear no resemblance to the English schoolboys first stranded there; they are complete savages without either a moral or a rational sensibility. They cease to exhibit those qualities that define them as civilized human beings. This change even has its effects on Ralph. Since he is no longer considered to be human by the other boys, he must rely on his instincts to escape the hunters. Because Ralph can no longer defend himself through any sense of justice or morality, he must use animalistic qualities to survive.

The final chapter demonstrates the self-destructive quality of the boys actions. Golding indicates that the boys are not only destructive to their enemies but to themselves. Images of decay permeate this chapter, such as the Lord of the Flies, which has decayed until it remains only a hollow skull. The spear with two ends serves as prominent example of the dangers the boys create for themselves. This spear simultaneously points at the one who wields it and the one at whom it is directed, capable of harming both equally. The symbolism of the double-edged spear becomes manifest in the boys' hunt for Ralph; in order to hunt down Ralph, the boys start a fire that might overwhelm them and destroy the fruit that is essential for their survival.

However, Golding does not follow through on the implications of the boys' actions. The appearance of the naval officer at the beach mitigates the effects of the boys' aggression; the officer is a deus ex machina whose arrival on the island frees Golding from the implications of the hunters' suicidal attack on Ralph. The boys are saved from the consequences of the fire through pure chance.

The naval officer reiterates the lessons that Ralph and Piggy attempted to impart to the other boys. He emphasizes the importance of order just as Ralph and Piggy had done, thus emphasizing 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.

If Golding does introduce the naval officer to save the boys from their self-destruction, he does indicate the emotional toll that their behavior has had on themselves. With the obvious exception of Ralph, the boys are no longer accustomed to the society from which they came. Golding emphasizes this through Percival's inability to state his name and address as he did when the boys first arrived. More importantly, for Ralph the experience on the island is an end of innocence. He has witnessed the overthrow of rational society as represented by Piggy in favor of the barbarism and anarchy of Jack. This completes the inversion of the Eden myth that Golding has constructed. The paradise of the island comes to an end when the boys choose nature and instinct over rationality and awareness. Ralph loses his innocence when he realizes that the violence and sin inherent in humanity is part of instinct, barely controlled by the constraints of order and morality that civilization constructs.

Ralph : The protagonist of the story, Ralph is one of the oldest boys on the island and becomes the boys' leader. Golding describes Ralph as tall for his age and handsome, and he seems to preside over the other boys by a natural sense of authority. Although he lacks Piggy's overt intellect, Ralph is calm and rational, with sound judgment and a strong moral sensibility. He is susceptible to the same instinctual influences that affect the other boys, as demonstrated as Ralph's role in Simon's death, but Ralph remains the one character who remains civilized through the entire novel. With his attention to justice and equality, Ralph represents the liberal democratic tradition as chief.

Piggy : Although pudgy, brusque and averse to physical labor because he suffers from asthma, Piggy, a nickname that he dislikes intensely, is the intellectual on the island. Piggy is an outsider among the other boys, accepted only grudgingly because his glasses are the key to starting fires. However, his clear thinking and ideas soon endear him to Ralph, who comes to admire and respect him for his clear focus on the main objective of securing their rescue from the island. Piggy has a clear concern for remaining civilized and consistently reprimands the other boys for behaving as savages. Roger murders Piggy by dropping a rock on him.

Jack Merridew : The leader of a choir of boys, Jack exemplifies is military mindset with clear authoritarian implications. Even in his sinister appearance, Jack represents a traditional villainy. He is cruel and sadistic, preoccupied with hunting and killing pigs, but his sadism extends as the book progresses to include cruelty toward the other boys. Jack feigns an interest in the rules of order established on the island, but enjoys them only if they imply a possibility for inflicting punishment. Instead, he comes to represent anarchy, overthrowing Ralph's ordered rule for an anarchic state based on pure fulfillment of self-interest.

Simon : The most obviously introspective character in the novel, Simon has a deep affinity with nature and often walks alone in the jungle. While Piggy represents the intellectual and Ralph the moral aspects of humanity, Simon represents the spiritual side of human nature. Like Piggy, he is an outcast, for the other boys think of him as odd and perhaps insane. It is Simon who finds the beast and realizes that it is only a dead pilot, but when he attempts to tell the other boys they think that he is the beast himself and murder him in panic.

Sam and Eric : (Samneric): These two twins are the only boys who remain with Ralph and Piggy to tend the fire after the others abandon Ralph for Jack's tribe. The two twins are thought of as a single individual, and even their names become blurred into one (Samneric).

Roger : One of the hunters and the guard at the castle rock fortress, Roger is Jack's equal in cruelty. Even before the hunters descend into savagery, Roger is boorish and crude, kicking down sand castles and throwing sand at others. When the other boys do lose all sense of civilized behavior, 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.

Percival : One of the littlest boys on the island, Percival attempts to comfort himself by repeating his name and address as a sign of home life. He falls into hysterics during the course of the novel and requires comforting by the older boys. At the end of the novel, as the boys are rescued, Percival finds himself unable to repeat his name and address.

Phil : This "littlun" claims that, after awaking from a nightmare, he saw a beast walking around the jungle at night, mistakenly identifying Simon as the beast.

Bill : One of Jack's hunters, he searches for Ralph after Piggy's murder. Ralph notices how he no longer resembles the civilized English boy in short pants that Ralph once knew.

Henry : One of the younger boys on the island, he plays in the beach, building sand castles with Percival.

Wilfred : Roger discusses how Jack orders that this boy be tied up for no apparent reason.