Chapter 7: Shadows and Tall Trees

As the boys make their way to the mountaintop, picking and eating fruit along the way, Ralph ponders the dishevelled unkempt state of them all and fantasises about having a proper bath. He looks at the sea and views it as an impenetrable barrier to their rescue. Simon, sensitive to Ralph’s inward focusing, voices hope that Ralph will one day return to his home.

The group notices pig droppings and Jack asserts that they need to eat meat even though they are still hunting for the beast. Ralph agrees as long as its heading towards the mountaintop and relinquishes leadership of the hunt to Jack. They soon come up on the pig rushing toward them and Ralph, finding himself caught up in the excitement, throws his sharpened stick at the pig, feeling pride that it had struck the pig and stayed in for a time. He boasts to the group of it, finding new respect, and starts to think hunting was a good thing after all. However, Jack outshines his achievement by showing everyone where the pig’s tusks had caused a bloody wound on his forearm, and the group’s attention shifts to him.

The pig escapes the group but the group has worked themselves into a frenzy from the hunt and are still excited so that they re-enact the hunt. When Robert pretends at being the pig, the group encircles him and almost kill him, especially Jack and Roger. Ralph even finds himself using his spear on Robert, a sign his instinct toward savagery is forming. Afterwards, the group agrees to play again but with Roger saying to use a real pig. Jack suggests they use one of the small children dressed up as a pig, which elicits laughs from some of the others.

Ralph reorients the group’s attention on reaching the mountain and they see another place that Jack has not yet explored. When they realise they will not be back to Piggy and the other’s until much later, Simon offers to return to let Piggy know, perhaps sensing that the group’s behaviour will further deteriorate over the course of the hunt. The competitiveness between Jack and Ralph is becoming more openly displayed now and this peaks the other boys’ interest, showing their growing lust for witnessing conflict. Jack challenges Ralph in setting up the mountain to look for the beast despite it already getting dark and, despite Ralph’s rational position of wanting to go in the morning when they will have light, he gives in to Jack’s manipulation in order to regain his position in the eyes of the group. Together with Ralph’s newfound interest in hunting, this is another weakness on Ralph’s part which results in a win for Jack in their ongoing struggle for leadership. Roger goes along with Jack and Ralph. Ralph sees the foolishness of their endeavour and partway up the climb, he and Roger wait while Jack zealously leaves them to head to the summit. Shortly afterwards, Jack emerges, shivering, saying he has found the beast. Ralph and Roger climb to the summit and find the dead parachutist, however, because it is dark and shadowy the man appears to the group as indeed a beast, distorted and ape-like.

Chapter 7: Shadows and Tall Trees Quotes

Ralph talked on, excitedly. ‘I hit him all right. The spear stuck in. I wounded him!’ He sunned himself in their new respect and felt that hunting was good after all. Chapter 7

All at once, Robert was screaming and struggling with the strength of frenzy. Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife. Behind him was Roger, fighting to get close. (Robert, pretending to be a pig) Chapter 7

Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering. Chapter 7

Ralph sighed, sensing the rising antagonism, understanding that this was how Jack felt as soon as he ceased to lead. Chapter 7

Ralph . . . would treat the day’s decisions as though he were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player. Chapter 7

Astonished, he heard his voice come out, cool and casual, so that the bitterness of Jack’s taunt fell powerless. (Ralph, acquiescing to Jack’s challenge to look for the beast in the dark) Chapter 7

Roger, uncommunicative by nature, said nothing. Chapter 7

Chapter 8: Gift for the Darkness

Ralph recounts the events on the mountaintop to Piggy, Jack by the suggestion that he would not be able to fight against the beast. Jack calls a meeting with the conch and proceeds to discredit Ralph to the group, calling him a coward and attempting to convince the group to vote Ralph out as leader. Noone sides with Jack, after which he defiantly announces he is starting his own group and, after inviting anyone who wants to hunt and eat meat with him to join him, heads into the forest.

Simon, conch in hand, attempts to encourage the group to confront the beast, however, he is unsuccessful in enlisting Piggy in his campaign and afterwards, disappears into his secret place. Piggy, wanting to deescalate the conflict, suggests everyone close to the platform and focus on building a signal fire on the beach. Some of the boys start collecting wood while many steal away and join Jack’s group. Piggy starts the fire with his glasses.

Jack declares himself chief of his new group and the hunters mercilessly kill a nursing sow. Roger is especially cruel, spearing one of her piglets. The group leave the sow’s head on a stake in the jungle as an offering of the beast, as though to appease it, then return to Ralph’s group to steal fire so they can cook the sow. Protected by his mask, Jack feels shameless and victoriously displays the meat to the group, which is convincing to some of the boys who are too fearful to find their own meat.

Ralph feels defeated and looks to the adult-like Piggy for advice. He struggles at speaking in the assembly so that Piggy has to prompt him as to the priority of the group being to be rescued.

Meanwhile, Simon, in his secret place, sees the sow’s head that Jack’s tribe has staked. As he watches the flies buzzing around the head, he hallucinates and hear the voice of the ‘Lord of the Flies’ speaking to him. The voice scoffs at him, and before Simon passes out, the head reveals to Simon what he already knows, that the beast is not something that can be hunted, something external, but that the beast actually exists within each of the boys themselves.

Chapter 8: Gift for the Darkness Quotes

Piggy was so full of delight and expanding liberty in Jack’s departure, so full of pride in his contribution to the good of society, that he helped to fetch wood. Chapter 8

One piglet, with a demented shriek, rushed into the sea trailing Roger’s spear behind it. Chapter 8

The afternoon wore on, hazy and dreadful with damp heat; the sow staggered her way ahead of them, bleeding and mad, and the hunters followed, wedded to her in lust, excited by the long chase and the dropped blood. Chapter 8

He was safe from shame or self-consciousness behind the mask of his paint and could look at each of them in turn. (Jack) Chapter 8

Ralph was puzzled by the shutter that flickered in his brain. There was something he wanted to say; then the shutter had come down. Chapter 8

‘There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast… Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! … You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?’ (The Lord of the Flies to Simon) Chapter 8

Chapter 9: A View to a Death

Simon awakens and staggers out of his secret place. He climbs the mountain in a daze and finds the dead figure of the parachutist, seeing it for what it is. He vomits at the sight then untangles the corpse from the parachute. Seeing that most of the boys are down on the beach at a new fire, he makes his way to them to tell them of his discovery.

Ralph and Piggy, seeing that most of the boys have gone with Jack, decide to go out of hunger. They see Jack seated on a throne-like log in the centre, ‘painted and garlanded … like an idol’, Evoking images of Kurtz from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. He has piles of food and drink arranged around him like offerings. Ralph and Piggy are allowed to eat but, afterwards, Jack makes each boy choose whether they want to remain in Ralph’s group or join his. Ralph reminds the boys of the first day in which they had elected him and announces he will call a meeting with the conch. Jack reminds the boys that he and his hunters are the providers of food and protection, the only things that really matter now, and discredits the conch, announcing that it holds no power on this part of the island.

A storm rains down on the party and Jack directs the group to do their tribal chanting dance. Roger pretends to be a pig again but then re-joins the dance as a hunter as they again work themselves into a frenzy calling out ‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’ The power dynamic on the island has shifted to Jack and his group. By creating the idea of a common enemy, he captures the allegiance of the group as their chief and protector and through the repetitive chanting, the boys are relieved of their responsibility for any consequences that are to follow.

At this point, Simon approaches the group, and in the dark appears beastly so that some of the smaller children yell out in fear. The circle of the group turns into a horseshoe shape as Simon enters and yells out about the dead man he has found on the hill. However, the boys do not recognise him and he cannot make himself heard over the chanting of the group. Driven by their frenzy, they attack Simon with their bare hands and teeth, like savage animals, and when he desperately tries to get away, they fall on him and kill him. The storm becomes fiercer and the wind picks up the parachute and carries the dead man off the mountain and into the sea as the frightened boys look on then run screaming for shelter. During the night, Simon’s body is claimed by the rising tide.

Chapter 9: A View to a Death Quotes

Before the party had started a great log had been dragged into the center of the lawn and Jack, painted and garlanded, sat there like an idol. Chapter 9

Power lay in the brown swell of his forearms: authority sat on his shoulder and chattered in his ear like an ape. (Jack) Chapter 9

Piggy and Ralph … found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable. Chapter 9

‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’ Chapter 9

… the complementary circles went round and round as though repetition would achieve safety of itself. There was the throb and stamp of a single organism. Chapter 9

At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws. (the murder of Simon) Chapter 9

Chapter 10: The Shell and the Glasses

It is the next day and Ralph and Piggy find only themselves, Sam and Eric, and a few little children are all that is left of their group. They contemplate what occurred the previous evening. Piggy rationalises Simon’s death to be an accident while Ralph comprehends it as murder and has finally come to the realisation that what is to be feared is themselves. He caresses the conch in a manner that mourns the loss of order and civilisation; once a symbol of power, the conch is now just a useless object. When Sam and Eric return from collecting wood, and the subject of last night comes up, each of the boys makes like they were either not at the dance or were outside of the dance, feigning ignorance of what occurred, unwilling or unable to accept the guilt of their participation in something so inhumane.

Jack’s has established absolute rule at Castle Rock and metes out punishment without reasons. A boy named Wilfred is tied up for hours and then beaten. Jack reinforces the narrative that Ralph and his group are the enemy of their tribe and are dangerous. The group assimilates the narrative that what occurred the previous night was that Simon really had been the beast, that the beast had disguised himself and that they will need to continually guard against the beast who is not really dead. By keeping the group fearful of a devil-like entity, Jack is able to manipulate the group and retain their reliance on him as their protector. Textually, Jack is now referred to as ‘chief’ and his group members as ‘savages, indicating they have given up on being civilised.

Jack decides that they will hunt again tomorrow and that he, Maurice and Roger will steal fire from Ralph’s group with which to cook. In a change of plans, they come upon Ralph’s group in the dark, just as they have gone into their shelter, so as to catch them unaware, and steal Piggy’s glasses. The loss of Piggy’s glasses leaves him truly helpless and less of a competent advisor for Ralph, and sabotages the efforts of Ralph’s group to light and keep a signal fire alive, thus further weakening the group.

Chapter 10: The Shell and the Glasses Quotes

At length Ralph got up and went to the conch. He took the shell caressingly with both hands and knelt, leaning against the trunk. Chapter 10

‘What we going to do?’
Piggy nodded at the conch.
‘You could—’
‘Call an assembly?’ Ralph laughed sharply as he said the word and Piggy frowned. Chapter 10

‘I’m frightened. Of us. I want to go home. Oh God, I want to go home.’ (Ralph to Piggy) Chapter 10

The chief was sitting there, naked to the waist, his face blocked out in white and red. The tribe lay in a semicircle before him. (Jack) Chapter 10

‘He came—disguised. He may come again even though we gave him the head of our kill to eat. So watch; and be careful.’ (Jack) Chapter 10

‘We’d better keep on the right side of him, anyhow. You can’t tell what he might do.’ (Jack about the beast) Chapter 10

Ralph tried indignantly to remember. There was something good about a fire. Something overwhelmingly good.
‘Ralph’s told you often enough,’ said Piggy moodily. ‘How else are we going to be rescued?’ Chapter 10

Chapter 11: Castle Rock

Piggy, unable to see without his glasses, urges Ralph to call an assembly and it is decided that Ralph’s small group will approach Jack and urge him to see reason and return Piggy’s glasses. Sam and Eric suggest the need to take spears with them. Ralph agrees and reminds them of Simon’s murder. However, Piggy, relying on Jack to be civil and reasonable, believes he will be able to get Jack to see what’s ‘right’ by simply taking the conch. The group of four decide to go, Piggy having to be led by Ralph. Sam and Eric suggest they wear war paint, to blend in, however, Piggy and Ralph believe they will do better to clean themselves up and appear civil.

Ralph oddly calls out ‘smoke! We’ve got to have smoke’. Piggy realises from the way he delivered the announcement that Ralph cannot actually remember why they need the smoke. Piggy reminds him that the purpose is to be rescued, and Ralph becomes defensive. Sam and Eric look at Ralph, a 12 year old boy who is about to go up against a band of savage killers, as though seeing him for the first time.

The group encounters Roger guarding the entrance to Castle Rock. Ralph blows the conch and announces he is calling an assembly. Savages appear and Roger throws stones in the direction of Sam and Eric, ‘aiming to miss’. Jack and his hunters appear with a headless sow. Jack demands that Ralph keep to his side of the island while Ralph calls Jack out as a thief for taking Piggy’s glasses and announces he would have given him fire if he had only asked. Ralph reiterates the importance of being rescued but loses his power of speech because when he is ‘defeated by the silence and the painted anonymity’. Jack and Ralph fight. Ralph tries again to make Jack see the reasoning behind a signal fire but Jack ignores him and directs his hunters to tie up Sam and Eric. Ralph is furious and charges at Jack and the pair fight again.

Piggy interrupts, holding the conch, and demands to be heard. The savages boo him. He scolds them for becoming savages and tries to remind them about the value of rules and order. Roger, ‘with a sense of delirious abandonment’ and no longer restrained by the social discipline of causing no harm to others which has kept his rock-throwing playful until now, sees Ralph as ‘a shock of hair’ and Piggy as ‘a bag of fat’ and purposely releases a large boulder. Ralph, hearing the thud, is able to get out of the way. The rock strikes Piggy, shattering the conch, and sending him over the edge of the cliff to his death. Shortly after, as with Simon’s body, the tide slowly takes Piggy’s body out to sea.

Jack throws a spear at Ralph and his hunters join in. Ralph escapes into the jungle, leaving Sam and Eric to be taunted by Jack to join his group and to be tortured by the sadistic Roger. Sam and Eric’s unpainted faces allow the painted faces to see them as ‘other’, as different and as the enemy, and thus justify their cruelty against them.

Chapter 11: Castle Rock Quotes

‘… They stole it. We’d have given them fire if they’d asked. But they stole it and the signal’s out and we can’t ever be rescued… ‘ (Ralph) Chapter 11

‘…I don’t ask for my glasses back, not as a favor. I don’t ask you to be a sport, I’ll say, not because you’re strong, but because what’s right’s right. Give me my glasses, I’m going to say—you got to!’ (Piggy rehearsing what he will say to Jack) Chapter 11

‘Well, we won’t be painted,’ said Ralph, ‘because we aren’t savages.’ Chapter 11

The twins were examining Ralph curiously, as though they were seeing him for the first time. Chapter 11

Roger took up a small stone and flung it between the twins, aiming to miss. Chapter 11

The tribe of painted savages giggled and Ralph’s mind faltered. He pushed his hair up and gazed at the green and black mask before him, trying to remember what Jack looked like. Chapter 11

He paused, defeated by the silence and the painted anonymity of the group guarding the entry. (Ralph) Chapter 11

Now the painted group felt the otherness of Samneric, felt the power in their own hands. Chapter 11

‘Which is better—to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?’ (Piggy) Chapter 11

Someone was throwing stones: Roger was dropping them, his one hand still on the lever. Below him, Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of fat. Chapter 11

The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Chapter 11

This time the silence was complete. Ralph’s lips formed a word but no sound came. (after Piggy’s death) Chapter 11

Chapter 12: Cry of the Hunters

Ralph hides in the jungle and thinks about Simon and Piggy and realises that Jack will never leave him alone. He becomes aware that he cannot survive alone in the jungle and eventually decides to try and approach jack again, after they have eaten, ‘and rely on their common sense, their daylight sanity’. He stumbles across the pig’s head, the Lord of the Flies, which appears life-like to Ralph, and grinning. Ralph knocks the skull to the ground and takes the stake.

Approaching Castle Rock, Ralph hears chanting and finds Sam and Eric guarding the entrance. The pair give him food but do not allow him to enter, advising him that it is unsafe and divulging Jack’s plans to hunt him tomorrow. They tell him that Roger has ‘sharpened a stick at both ends’ in preparation, indicating that Roger is far more vicious than Jack.

Ralph hides in a thicket and falls asleep. In the morning, his hiding place is found, Sam and Eric having been tortured for the information. The tribe cannot get to him through the thick shrub so they try to flush him out by rolling boulders onto the shrub and setting it on fire. Ralph smells smoke and is on the run, the tribe relentlessly hunts him as the fire spreads across the island.

Ironically, the fire has signalled a ship and on the beach, and Ralph falls at the feet of a newly arrived British naval officer. The officer confirms that his ship will take them off the island. The rest of the boys appear and, at the incredulity of having been rescued, all start to cry. Ralph also breaks into sobs, weeping for all that has been lost. The officer turns around to look out at the sea, giving the boys a chance to compose themselves.

Chapter 12: Cry of the Hunters Quotes

But really, thought Ralph, this was not Bill. This was a savage whose image refused to blend with that ancient picture of a boy in shorts and shirt. Chapter 12

Samneric were savages like the rest; Piggy was dead, and the conch smashed to powder. Chapter 12

Memory of their new and shameful loyalty came to them. Eric was silent but Sam tried to do his duty. Chapter 12

‘Listen, Ralph. Never mind what’s sense. That’s gone—’ (Eric) Chapter 12

‘You don’t know Roger. He’s a terror.’
‘And the chief—they’re both—‘
‘—terrors—’
‘—only Roger—’ (SamnEric to Ralph) Chapter 12

Roger sharpened a stick at both ends. Ralph tried to attach a meaning to this but could not. He used all the bad words he could think of in a fit of temper that passed into yawning. Chapter 12

What was the sensible thing to do? There was no Piggy to talk sense. (Ralph) Chapter 12

The officer grinned cheerfully at Ralph. ‘We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?’ Ralph nodded. Chapter 12

‘I should have thought that a pack of British boys . . . would have been able to put up a better show than that.’ (naval officer) Chapter 12

‘Who’s boss here?’
‘I am,’ said Ralph loudly.
A little boy who wore the remains of an extraordinary black cap on his red hair and who carried the remains of a pair of spectacles at his waist, started forward, then changed his mind and stood still. (Jack) Chapter 12

… Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy. Chapter 12