Looking more closely at Lord of the Flies
the first half
Characters are in italics; motifs and symbols are in bold; connections to the world off the island are underlined
Chapter One: “Sound of the Shell”
Discussion of context off the island & scar on the island
7 Discovery of conch. Ralph’s role. Piggy’s role
15-17 Introduction of other characters including Jack, Simon, Roger, littluns…
18-22 Exploration of island: rock as “monster” & “bomb”; Jack not killing the pig 31; how characters react to “candle buds” (the island itself) 30; Ralph: “this is our island” 29
Chapter Two: “Fire on the Mountain” (island’s appearance)
33 Conch = order, voice for voiceless (?)
35 Introduction of the beast concept by the littlun with the birthmark
40 Fire: Piggy’s glasses, first failure, second “success”: squirrel to panther (beast) 44; boy w/ birthmark missing 46
Chapter Three: “Huts on the Beach” (island’s appearance)
48-50 Jack “dog-like” “like a shadow under darkness of the tree and crouched” “compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up” / “not hunting, but—being hunted” (at meeting) > beast talk (52-53)
Simon considers beast “as if…the beastie…was real” (52); fruit to littluns 56; off by himself: “candle-like buds” and “scent spilled into the air and took possession of the island” (vs. this is our island)
Chapter Four: “Painted Faces and Long Hair”
60-62 Roger throws rocks around Henry (littlun) but doesn’t his because of “the taboo of the old life” (62) “protection of parents and school and policmen and the law” (62) in Roger’s head: “Roger’s arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.” (62)
63-64 Painted Faces/ “Mask” (the boys’ appearance) : Jack w/ Roger: “Like in the war”: “the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.” “The mask compelled them.” (64)
64 Piggy’s appearance “the only boy on the island whose hair never seemed to grow.” Long hair.
66+ Fire out; Pig caught. Ralph’s priority ignored; Jack’s priority indulged.
“link between him [Ralph] and Jack had been snapped…fastened elsewhere” (73) Where? (Jack & Roger???)
71 Jack attacks Piggy: breaks one lens of glasses
74 Simon provides pig for Piggy
74-75 Dance (circle) vs. Meeting (shell & triangle) 74-5
Chapter Five: “Beast from Water”
Ralph’s meeting (with conch) to re-estabilish logic/order devolves into beast talk (Percival, littlun: beast from sea):
Simon: “…maybe it’s [the beast is] only us” 89
Ralph: What are we? Humans? Or animals? 92 (contrast with what Simon says)
Jack: Bollocks to the rules! (i.e. shell) We’re strong—we hunt! 92
Chapter Six: “Beast from Air”
“a sign came down from the world of grown-ups” 96
Sam & Eric see the “beast” (i.e. the dead parachuter) 98
Explore the unexplored part of the island (Castle Rock???): Simon “incredulity” re: beast: “However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick” (103) Simon doesn’t believe in “beast” (105)
Boys (including Roger) roll rocks instead of tending to fire, says Ralph 107-08
Jack: seek beast instead of tending to fire (others do not answer “mutinously”) 108
Looking more closely at Lord of the Flies
the second half
Chapter Seven: “Shadows and Tall Trees” (island’s appearance)
111 Simon to Ralph: you’ll be saved; Ralph to Simon: you’re “batty”
113-115 Ralph attacks pig / Ralph participates in play hunt & dance
123 Ralph, Jack, Roger (ch 1 exploration Ralph, Jack, Simon) see beast / dead parachuter: “ruin of a face” (cf “civilization…in ruins” ch 4)
Chapter Eight: “Gift for the Darkness” (island’s appearance / beast)
127 Jack splits (cf. 73 and 108)
131 weather (island’s appearance) “in sympathy with great changes…”
135 sow rape leads to sacrifice (perverse new civilization w/ its own quasi-rituals quite different from the shell-ordered meetings)
140 Jack & mask; Ralph & fire; Piggy & shell (Samneric peer at edge of the forest)
137-8 & 143-4 Simon talks w/ pig’s head (which is the “lord of the flies” & another form of beast); Simon falls into the blackness of its mouth.
Note “sea” “air” “tall trees” “shadows” “darkness” What’s the common thread in the chapter titles 5-8?
Chapter Nine: “A View to a Death”
146 Simon learns truth about “beast” / dead parachuter
150-153
Ralph & Piggy join Jack’s band for protection from weather / island and to eat pig;
the boys play dance in circle around Roger-as-pig (contrast w/ conch meetings); Roger leaves center which “yawned emptily” (mouth!!! Of a beast???) & boys chant (mouth!!!);
Simon / “the beast” appears from the forest; circle becomes horseshoe which Simon / beast enters; “mouth of new circle crunched & screamed” then “tearing of teeth and claws”
Storm (island’s appearance)
Parachuter / beast blown away
Simon’s body taken by sea
Chapter Ten: The Shell and the Glasses
157 Ralph & Piggy talk about beast / Simon: face what they did? Or forget it?
163 Sam & Eric’s role?
168 glasses not shell
Chapter 11: “Castle Rock” (Castle hmm… what kind of government?)
172 paint (boys’ appearance)
173 Sam & Eric’s role?
181 Piggy & shell; Roger & rock; Ralph v. Jack
Chapter 12: “Cry of the Hunters” (Is that a pun on “cry”?)
185 Ralph & the pig’s skull (cf Simon & pig’s head 143-4)
190 Sam & Eric’s role? Give pig to Ralph to eat. “stick sharpened at both ends” (cf pig’s skull)
192-3 Sam & Eric’s role? Twins split; one reveals Ralph to Jack & Roger; attack Ralph with destructive rock
200-2 Jack, Roger, etc. hunt Ralph; island on fire; naval officer arrives, wonders why the boys’ haven’t done better (Does the office have “an appalling ignorance of [man's] own nature”?); Ralph ("end of innocence"; end of "ignorance"?) cries (see chapter title? hunters also "cry"; that's what "ululation" means) for the death & savagery
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