$Unique_ID{bob01258}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Works of William Golding
Lord Of The Flies: Chapters 1 - 5}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Golding, William}
$Affiliation{Department Of English, Bard College}
$Subject{boys
ralph
jack
simon
island
jungle
fire
chapter
piggy
human
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{}
$Log{See The Conch Shell*0125801.scf
See Pig Head Impaled*0125802.scf
}
Title:       Works of William Golding
Book:        Lord of the Flies
Author:      Golding, William
Critic:      Dewsnap, Terence
Affiliation: Department Of English, Bard College

Lord Of The Flies: Chapters 1 - 5

Chapter 1 The Sound Of The Shell

     A group of boys evacuated from England during an atomic war have landed
on a tropical island in a "passenger tube" ejected from a flaming airplane.
At first we see only two boys, Ralph, who is tall and fair-haired, and Piggy,
his fat companion. But, when Ralph discovers a conch shell and blows it, a
number of others straggle out of the jungle and gather on the beach. An
election for chief is held, and Ralph wins over Jack, the leader of a group of
black-robed choirboys. Ralph invites Jack and Simon, one of the choirboys, to
join him in scaling a mountain. The view from the mountain fills the three
boys with joy; they are the sole masters of the isolated island.

Comment:

     A remote jungle setting is useful to the author who wants to avoid the
complexities of civilized society and focus' instead on simple issues (for
example, whether Tarzan's wholesomeness will protect him from the
machinations of the evil witch doctor). Similarly, the advantage of using
children as characters is that they are, supposedly, innocent and
unsophisticated human beings who make no attempt to hide their true selves. It
is ironic that while Golding does focus on such fundamental themes as the
conflict of good and evil and the passage from innocence to experience, he
discovers in this lonely island many of the complex problems that afflict
society in the great cities of the world. The cruelty with which the boys
taunt Piggy for his fatness, his glasses, and his lack of physical dexterity
is like the attitude of sophisticated society to the outsider. Pride,
pretense, and jealousy are other adult faults that lurk beneath the innocent
appearances of the boys.

     In addition to these flaws, the boys contain elements of the nobility and
heroism that have made positive contributions to the progress of western
civilization. Simon represents a mystical, Piggy an intellectual, and Ralph
a political hope for the lost boys. These leaders, along with the wielder of
physical power, Jack, are faced with the same problems of survival as those of
Defoe's Robinson Crusoe on his island. They must organize their lives to meet
the threat to survival. Their problems contribute to suspense. Will they be
able to make contact with other human beings? Will they be able to keep their
group intact? And, more immediately, will they be able to find food and
shelter?

     The island, with a scar cut across it by the passenger tube, is a replica
of the cities scarred by atomic warfare. That the atmosphere of violence
should extend to this remote region is an indication of Golding's belief in
the universality of evil.

     The conch shell becomes a symbol of authority. The large, spiral shaped
sea shell, its geometrical form created over a period of scores of years, is a
fitting substitute on the island for the slowly evolved laws of human society.
In Greek mythology Triton, the son of Neptune, uses the conch shell to stir or
calm the seas. Here, Ralph, following the instructions of Piggy, uses the
shell to subdue and control the animal spirits of the boys.

[See The Conch Shell: The conch shell, symbol of authority]

     The mountain signifies many things for many people but generally
represents the dignity of man as he aspires to spiritual freedom. To achieve
the top of the mountain is to destroy fear and superstition and to gain
mastery over nature.

     Rock is a symbol of brute force. When Jack discovers a loose boulder
while ascending the mountain, Ralph and Simon help him pry it loose. When the
rock plummets down, "the forest further down shook as with the passage of an
enraged monster. Wacco" shouts one boy. "Like a bomb!" cries another. With
this episode, the realm of childish innocence of games and slang is broken by
the intrusion of a destructive force. It is Jack who distracts the boys from
their purpose of climbing the mountain and, for no reason except to create a
make-believe "monster" or "bomb," causes them to release this violence. Jack's
identity is here established. He is a leader who, like reckless leaders in the
civilized world, prefers destruction to creation.

Notes:

     passenger tube - a removable compartment in the airliner of the future.

     wacco - splendid.

     wizard - excellent.

Character Analyses:

     Ralph - a representative type, the traditional fair-haired hero of
boyhood adventure stories. His handsomeness and athletic ability make him a
natural leader. For him the island seems to be the fulfillment of a schoolboy
dream of adventure. Unfortunately his dream of adventure and hope of romantic
rescue do not fit the reality of the difficult situation of the lost boys.

     Piggy - an intelligent but physically deficient fat boy. He is one kind
of modern man, a reader and thinker-not a doer. He longs for the authority and
tradition of the grown-ups and the protection of the civilized world. He is
out of place on the island because his asthma and constantly steamed glasses
prevent him from carrying out plans to gather fruit or to find the other boys.
He is a ready victim for any beast of prey and, as an outsider, an easy target
for the scorn of the other boys.

     Jack - a cruel and unpleasant looking bully. When he leads his choir out
of the jungle, he forces them to remain in marching columns until one boy,
Simon, faints. He constantly competes with Ralph for control of the boys. The
only boy who carries a knife, at the end of the chapter he attempts to kill a
piglet.

     Simon - a poetic, religiously sensitive boy, given to fainting spells.
Why does Ralph choose Simon for the expedition to the mountain? Possibly he
feels that in Simon he has an ally whom he can dominate. Later we learn that
Ralph is attracted to Simon because of his bright eyes which seem to indicate
a lively personality. Whatever Ralph's reason, it is clear that Golding sees
in Simon a view of life different from that of the other two boys. When the
boys are coming down the mountain, Simon responds to the beauty of some
strange bushes by describing them, "Like candles. Candle bushes. Candle buds."
His is a poetical and mystical response to the natural world.

     Sam and Eric - identical twins who later become Samneric.

     Maurice - the second largest choirboy, "broad and grinning all the time."

     Roger - a secretive, "slight, furtive boy."

Chapter 2 Fire On The Mountain

     Ralph, conducting an organizational meeting on a granite platform above
the beach, rules that anyone who wants to speak must first raise his hand, and
then wait for the conch. While Ralph and Jack are attempting to reduce the
worries of the boys by promising them a good time, a small boy shocks the
assembly by announcing that a "snake-thing," a "beastie,"nfrightened him in
the woods. Ralph channels the excitement of the boys into building a signal
fire on the mountain. But, at the end of the chapter, the flames have crept
into the forest, a fire is raging out of control, and the littl'un who saw the
snake is missing.

Comment:

     The chapter begins in an attempt at order, with Ralph and Jack forming
two branches of government. Ralph would make rules for the better conduct of
the community's business. Jack, whose choirboys have now become "hunters,"
would happily enforce the rules by beating up anyone who disobeyed. With the
establishment of a competitive relationship between the legislative and the
military, the traditional conflict between civil and military authorities is
prepared for.

     Golding indicates the falseness of the optimism of the boys. When Ralph
promises the boys a good time, "like in a book," the boys shout titles of
adventure stories, including Coral Island, a novel by R. M. Ballantyne that,
for generations, has been a favorite of English schoolboys. It tells of three
boys on a desert island who survive through courage and cleverness.
Ballantyne's characters, Ralph, the quiet, intelligent narrator, Jack, the
dashing hero, and the merry Peterkin are models for Golding's leading
characters, with both Piggy and Simon deriving from Peterkin. But, of course,
Golding is ridiculing the easy solutions of the adventure story. Similarly,
when Ralph promises that the boys will be rescued because the Queen has a room
containing maps of all the islands of the world, he betrays his ignorance. He
does not know that there are thousands of unmapped islands. He does not know
that the Queen is a mere figurehead. His appeal to authority, to the grown-up
world of Father, Navy, and Queen is in keeping with his storybook attitude to
life. By the end of the chapter the false appearance of orderliness has been
shattered. The movement from order to chaos is the pattern of the whole book
and of most of the chapters.

     The platform, raised above the danger and confusion of the jungle, and
shaded comfortably, is an ideal location for parliamentary discourse. It
represents a more rational level of human existence. In general, Golding uses
imagery of height to represent some kind of human aspiration or mastery.

     The snake, like the scar cut across the island by the "passenger tube"
and like the rock dropped from the mountain, is an intrusion of the monstrous
into the jungle paradise. Later we will learn that the snake is necessarily
present wherever there are human beings because the snake-as a representation
of evil-is part of man. This snake reminds us of another snake in another
paradise. The author of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, describes the
entrance of the Devil, in the form of a snake, into the Garden of Eden with
the subsequent fall of Adam into sin. The snake that intrudes here is not the
Devil, but represents a similar threat of evil. It injects fear and confusion
into the precariously balanced world of the boys. It is a symbol, then, of the
forces of disorder threatening society.

     The fire often appears in opposition to the snake. The snake is a
reminder of the limits of man. Sliding under rocks and through slime, it
suggests the dark places of human experience. The fire is usually a symbol of
the best in man. It represents the hopes of the human spirit as it flickers
upward. For Ralph, who instigates confident of rescue because he believes that
society still exists and that society takes an interest in him. In ancient
Greek the making of the fire, it represents a faith in society. He is
mythology, Prometheus, the son of a Titan, gave man fire. Ralph, in his
eagerness to bring fire to the boys, is a modern Prometheus. When the fire
rages out of control, it represents a different meaning. Piggy appropriately
compares the fire at the end of the chapter to the fire of hell. What began as
a cooperative effort has degenerated into a chaos of competitive bickering.
Rational control was insufficient to withstand the impulses of the moment. If
the leaders had been able to make use of Piggy's wisdom, they might have
achieved some stability. But they are too reckless and unthinking. They are
too interested in a momentary splurge of firelight, rather than the steady
glow of reason, and the result is a destructive conflagration.

     Piggy's glasses, which are snatched by the boys to light a fire, are
representative of his intellectualism. He might be occasionally useful to the
boys, but he will never have their respect. The author, by the way, has made
a mistake in having the boys use Piggy's glasses to start a fire. The
prescription for Piggy's myopia would be a concave lens, which scatters rather
than concentrates the rays of light on a single point.

     To reinforce the idea of evil lurking amid innocence, Golding uses a
"running image," that is, a picture repeated several times in different places
in the novel and usually acquiring symbolic significance. Here, the creeper,
or jungle vine, is a "running image." On the first page of the novel Piggy is
almost unable to move because he is tangled in creepers. Going up the
mountain, the boys have difficulty getting through the creepers. When the
small boys tells of the snake, one of the others suggests that it was only the
creepers. In the fire that burns at the end of Chapter 2, a tree explodes and
creepers shoot into the air. The little boys scream: "Snakes! Snakes! Look at
the snakes!" The creepers suggest the same power of disorder present in the
snake and released in the ravaging fire. They represent whatever impedes the
progress of reason.

Notes:

     coign - a corner.

     doink - probably the sound of striking a skull.

Character Analyses:

     The Little 'Uns - the mass of small boys, about six years old, who later
are called Littluns. The "little 'un" who saw the "snake-thing" is
distinguished by a large purple birthmark on the side of his face. Only a few
of the "little 'uns" acquire distinct personalities.

Chapter 3 Huts On The Beach

     Several weeks have passed. Jack, almost naked, is crawling through the
underbrush armed with a sharp stick. After a pig eludes him, he returns to the
beach where Ralph and Simon are erecting precarious huts of palm leaves. When
Simon disappears, Ralph and Jack agree that there is something "queer" about
him. We see Simon pause to distribute fruit to the littluns, then slip into
the depths of the jungle where, as evening approaches, he listens to the cries
of jungle birds and gulls and to the sound of the surf.

Comment:

     The different purposes of the boys draw them apart, weakening the unity
of the island society. Jack indulges his hunting instinct. Ralph accepts the
responsibility of building housing for the boys. Simon finds fulfillment in a
natural cell in the jungle. The society is also threatened by a demoralizing
fear. The littluns scream in the night in terror of the snake-thing. And Jack
admits that, at times when he is hunting, he senses something behind him in
the jungle hunting him. Both fears are manifestations of a power within the
boys that can destroy them. The dark terrors of the jungle reflect the dark
parts of the human mind.

     Notice especially, in this chapter, Golding's use of point of view-the
outlook that an author assumes in narrating a story.

     An author may select a character who refers to himself as "I" to tell the
story. If so, the author must confine himself to things seen, heard, felt, and
thought by that "I". Depending on whether the narrator is the main character
or some minor character, this point of view is called "first person
protagonist" or "first person witness." A story may be told by an author who
looks at everything from the point of view of one character who is referred to
as he or is identified by a proper name. This is the "third person" or
"limited omniscient author" point of view. Or an author may allow himself to
go into anyone's mind and to make what editorial comments he likes. This is
the "omniscient author" point of view. This is Golding's point of view.
Although he differs from some omniscient authors, for example Dickens,
in that he seldom makes comments of his own, but rather chooses to see events
through the eyes of his characters, he allows himself the omniscient author's
freedom to move from person to person. Thus, in this chapter he is able to
explore the thicket with Jack, report the conversation on the beach between
Ralph, Simon, and Jack, and, finally, follow Simon on his solitary pilgrimage.
Read the chapter closely, noticing how he observes the actions of Jack and the
dialogue of the boys mostly from the outside, and then goes inside the mind of
Simon in the jungle, seeing, hearing, and feeling the same things that he
does. We tend to respond more sympathetically to a character whose mind we
enter.

     The huts that Ralph is constructing are necessary to survival. But
although in adventure stories the hero is able to whip together sturdy
shelters of palm leaves, such huts are actually difficult architectural
projects requiring more than the haphazard efforts of adventuresome boys. The
collapsing of the hut represents the failure of civilization on the island.

Notes:

     crackers - crazy.

     node - the raised joint where the tendril attaches to the vine.

     sepals - the green leaves that constitute the external part of a flower.

     susurration - whispering sound.

     tendril - the string-like projections of a vine that grip supporting
objects.

     trotters - feet.

Character Analyses:

     Ralph - Although he criticizes the others for their lack of cooperation,
Ralph himself must bear a large part of the responsibility for failure. Though
he has the desire to bring civilization to the island, he lacks the competence
of an effective organizer. His difficulties with the huts are a result of his
simplifying and romanticizing the role of architect. His leadership weakens
because he holds too idealized a view of life on the island.

     Jack - has degenerated from a civilized English schoolboy to a primitive
creature obsessed with the hunt. The methods of the chase come to him as
naturally as to an animal as he sniffs the air for the scent of his prey. The
urge to kill takes over his personality. Yet, he has not killed a single
animal. He is finding a great difference between imagining oneself a hunter
and actually killing a living creature. The act of violence demands a
complete commitment.

     Simon - His cheerfulness and loyalty are apparent when he helps Ralph and
when he feeds the littluns. But his glittering black eyes hold more than
youthful gaiety. His visit to the hut in the jungle where the beauty of
nature is a symbol of the beauty of the spirit is like the journey of a
religious man to a forest hermitage. He is a mystic as well as a poet, and he
finds in the natural hut a security that he could not find in Ralph's huts on
the beach. His admiration for the beautiful candle-like bushes and his sudden
disappearance show him to be unlike the other boys and hence, from their point
of view, "queer." In a practical society the love of beauty and solitude seem
"queer." But later Simon is to derive from his meditations the strength to
face the "beast" that menaces the island.

Chapter 4 Painted Faces And Long Hair

     After he and Maurice have kicked over the sand castles of the littluns,
Roger stalks one of the littluns and throws stones in his direction. Then
the scene changes to another part of the jungle where Jack is painting his
face with red and white clay and black charcoal. After Jack has led his
hunters off into the jungle, Ralph sights smoke on the horizon. To his horror
he discovers that the signal fire, which Jack's group had promised to tend,
has gone out. When Jack and his hunters return triumphantly carrying a pig on
a stake, Ralph and Piggy berate them until Jack turns on Piggy, knocking
him down and breaking one of the lenses in his glasses. Finally, Ralph calls
a meeting.

Comment:

     The smashing of the sand castles is a manifestation of the violence that
can become the rule of the island. The older boys, instead of aiding the
young, crush their castles, and with them their dreams of kings, queens, and
noble knights. The older boys are not yet completely uncivilized though.
Maurice feels guilty and runs away. Roger, when he pursues one of the
littluns, is unable to throw rocks directly at him because the laws of school,
church, and home restrain him. To throw rocks at a fellow human being is to
return to an age when the law of survival was the only law governing brute
man. Yet, under the layers of civilization, in the English schoolboy throbs
the same instinct to kill that flourished in prehistoric times. And with the
nourishing of this instinct, the civilization of the boys fails. The signal
fire is allowed to die. A chance of rescue is lost. The energies of the boys
are channeled into the one activity of hunting.

     As the primitivism of the boys becomes more prevalent, as Jack turns on
his fellow human being, Piggy, the cause of rationality seems doomed. The
leadership of Ralph gives way to that of Jack. Ralph's success depends on his
sensible response to the advice of Piggy and on his ability to make his
image of the romantic hero attractive to the boys. If the boys become a tribe
of frenzied savages, they will find the civilized manner of Ralph
antagonistic. At the end of the chapter he calls a meeting to stave off Jack's
threat to his leadership. But will the rules of parliamentary procedure be
sufficient to check a revolution?

     The pig dance is a symbol of the new way of life which is replacing the
organized society of Ralph. The hunters have finally made their first kill.
Beneath the excitement and jubilation runs an undercurrent of fear at the
enormity of the deed. As if to compensate for the fear, there is the beginning
of a primitive ritual designed to protect the individual from
self-consciousness. The chants and ceremonial ring are like the mask worn
by Jack to lose identity. The details of the ritual allow the boys to forget
themselves and to become killers.

[See Pig Head Impaled: The impaled pig]

Notes:

     bloody - the worst word that Ralph knows, and a word peculiarly offensive
to English ears.

     dazzle paint - camouflage.

     ha'porth - the value of an English halfpenny.

     lashings - large amounts.

     opalescence - reflections of shimmering rainbow colors.

Character Analyses:

     Piggy - As civilized as ever, he suggests making a sundial-to keep time
in civilized fashion rather than submit to the rhythms of jungle life. While
the hair of the other boys becomes long and shaggy as any savages', his
remains thin and wispy. The breaking of his glasses stands for partial
destruction of his role as intellectual. So far many of his suggestions have
been put into effect by Ralph. But as the community becomesymore savage, the
intellect is further out of place, and Piggy becomes more of an outsider. He
is no longer a refining influence but an isolated figure who has lost his
relationship to the group.

     Jack - When Jack streaks his face with clay, he looks into water at his
reflection and is astonished at the change. He dances about, his laughter
turning into a bloodthirsty snarl that sends Bill running into the jungle
in terror. He discovers that the colors on his face provide a mask behind
which he can lose self-consciousness and social inhibitions and become a
complete savage. He enjoys the same anonymity as the masked executioner or
the masked child at Halloween. The restraining bonds of civilization drop
away. He can forget who he is and let his primitive obsession with the hunt
take over.

     Roger - possesses a natural appetite for cruelty.

     Maurice - easily led and easily embarrassed.

     Henry - a leader among the littluns.

     Percival - a sickly littlun.

     Johnny - a healthy and naturally belligerent littlun.

Chapter 5 Beast From Water

     At the meeting, Ralph gives a lengthy description of the group's
failures. He is interrupted by jokes and laughter, and finally Jack leaps up
to grab the shell. Ralph makes one last point: there is too much fear on the
island. But, though Jack and Piggy agree with Ralph that the fear is
groundless, the boys are still disturbed. A littlun comes forward to describe
a horrible form that moved in the trees at night. Another, Percival, pushed
forward before the assembly, whispers that "the beast comes out of the sea."
In the turbulence that follows, Ralph calls for a vote on whether ghosts
really exist. The boys vote yes. The meeting ends with the big boys chanting
and dancing in a circle while littluns howl.

Comment:

     For Ralph the island is no longer a storybook kingdom. The dirt on
his clothes and body distresses him. His analysis of the ills of the boys
is systematic and businesslike. But the nighttime meeting that begins as an
attempt to reorganize the lives of the boys creates further chaos. Not only
are the boys totally disorganized and more fearful than before, but they seek
to forget their fears in savage behavior. The leadership of Ralph, which he
sought to strengthen, has deteriorated. At the beginning, the scene on the
platform had some semblance of order. Log benches had been carefully arranged
before the chief's pplace. Ralph was careful to deliver his speech in ABC
order. But he cannot handle the fearful boys. His faith in democratic process
reaches ludicrous heights as he relies on a majority vote to decide on the
authenticity of ghosts. This is the climax of a series of futile attempts to
legislate fear. If he has learned anything from his experience, he should
know that no law can control the turmoil of the human imagination. By the end
of the meeting the boys are a howling mob of savages.

     In this chapter the darkness of night becomes a symbol of the confused
and irrational impulses of the boys. When Piggy and Simon say that the object
to fear is inside man, they approach the insight expressed by Joseph Conrad in
Heart of Darkness, that a darkness existing in man can destroy him if not
checked by imagination and reason. Conrad, too, used the jungle setting to
represent the dark side of human nature, the mysterious depths of unreason and
immorality. This, like Conrad's novel, is a tale of the discovery of the evil
powers that lurk beneath the surface of civilized behavior.

Notes:

     bollocks - testicles.

     orgasm - a climax of excitement or action.

     slug - a slow-moving snail-like bug.