Chapter 12: Cry of the Hunters

"The island was scorched up like dead wood- Simon was dead- and Jack had... The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body... 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." (p.202)

The reader is introduced at the beginning of the chapter to the fact that there is a hunting that is about to take place. Ralph has become an outcast and Jack's tribe intends to defeat him. Ralph hides himself in some ferns where he hopes the boys will not find him, but of course they do. First they throw boulders at him but ultimately resort to setting the island on fire, destroying their home. Ironically the fire does not lead to their demise but instead triumph.

Surprisingly this tragic story of how fast the sense of civilization can be lost has a positive outcome. In the midst of a full blown battle between Jack's tribe and Ralph, a naval officer arrives to rescue them. There had been a feeling of organization and rules at the beginning of the story as a result of the conch but overtime all order was lost as the boys began to give way to savage ideas. The boys had been very proper, but soon friends were lost and chaos pursued. Ralph is hinting at this towards the end of the story when he breaks down in sobs. When "civilization" arrives in the form of the boat there is a unanimous realization that things have clearly gotten out of hand and what the boys were "playing" was not a game but rather reality. Being put in a bad situation caused the evil to surface and and the boys to attack their friends without consequence. We realize that they are just kids and being put on this island is what caused them to act so horribly.

Ch. 11: Castle Rock (by Ben)

This chapter shows the valiant last stance of civilization trying to overcome savagery. After jack and his tribe raid the shelters with samneric and piggy and Ralph he took piggy’s glasses so that he could now have the power to make fire. Though through their best effort of trying to restore the fire, they fail,  Everything seems hopeless but then piggy tells Ralph to blow the conch for the final time and tells Ralph and samneric  that they should go up to the castle rock and demand jack that they give piggy his glasses back for they are rightfully his. Ralph decides to take the conch up to the rock in a desperate attempt to remind him what they once had, a civilized world.

 When they finally go up to the castle rock samneric go ahead of the rest of them  and end up captured. When Ralph and piggy go there jacks gang wont let them in. suddenly jack appears out of the forest and starts to immidietley fight with Ralph. The two duel for a long time then piggy comes in between them with the conch. He tries to tell both of them that they should stick to civilization and continue on with rules because it has now turned into pure savagery.

 While piggy was talking roger decides to end his rant and heaves a massive boulder striking piggy thus killing him and shatters the conch, at that one moment in the story all of the meanings of civilization have been crushed, piggy was the last connection with that way of life and the conch was the last symbol of that way of life.
- Ben M.

Chapter 11

“What d’you mean by it, eh?” Said the chief fiercely. “What d’you mean by coming with spears? What d’you mean by not joining my tribe” The prodding became rhythmic. (p. 182)

This quote is Jack talking to Sam and Eric about joining his tribe. After Ralph’s tribe confronted Jacks tribe about getting Piggy’s glasses back and fire. This confrontation turned into violence and eventually Piggy’s death. At this point in the book Jack is in full control of the island. He has almost all the boys who are stuck on the island in his tribe and is therefore respected by all of them. Jack has much control over his tribe and can easily make them do anything he asks promptly. As Jack realized the boys would do what he says he began to abuse this power. All of the young innocent boys have been turned into bloodthirsty savages. Since the boys have all seen what Jack is capable of they are scared of him and know that if they do not obey him their life is in jeopardy. As Jack recruits more boys to his tribe its is seen that he believes he can do anything he pleases including stealing Piggy’s glasses and Ralph’s fire. Jack becomes carried away by the fact that he can control everyone and shares that sense of power with his tribe leading to excessive violence started by his tribe. When Roger launches the large boulder over the cliff its out of shear anger and the feeling of great power. At the end of this chapter the author refers to Jack as “chief”. This further shows the complete power shift from Ralph to Jack. Throughout the book he slowly gains this control until he has received full recognition as chief of the islands.

In chapter 11 Ralph’s tribe is furious with Jack and his tribe. Jack has stolen the tribes fire and Piggy’s glasses and Ralph wants it all back because it was not the right thing for them to do. Ralph gathers his tribe and tells them to bring spears because of Jacks reputation with violence. When they arrive Jack and his tribe refuse to return what they have taken and Ralph and Jack get into a fight. As this occurs roger launches a boulder onto Piggy, who can barely see, ultimately killing him. Soon after Ralph, furious, leaves and Jack captures Sam and Eric trying to force them to come to his tribe.

Ch. 11 (by Brandi)

"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, pg. 164)

This quote occurs when Piggy is being beaten and killed with the conch. This was the point in the book I knew would end everything for everyone because that conch was important to everyone and with out it every thing and everyone would go down hill from there. Having that conch shell to me brought everyone together and let everyone know that they were all equal and that they all had a chance to get off the island alive. In this chapter Piggy called a meeting even though there is not that many people left on the island. The four boys talk about the problems on the island and how they should all be blamed on Jack. Ralph immediately stood up for Jack very defensively and attacked Piggy with the conch shell. Striking Piggy with the conch to me was unnecessary because all Piggy wanted to do was help everyone out and he was nothing but kind to everyone no matter how bad they treated him, talked about him and took advantage of him. Killing Piggy to me ruined the books plot because Piggy was someone who I thought could be a leader and would continue to stay a live and because of hate he was killed.

LOTF Chapter 10

The Shell and the Glasses

The death of Simon, especially the murder of Simon causes Piggy to be in such denial about how "it was an accident- coming in the dark he hadn't no business crawling like that out of the dark.". Piggy can't accept or believe for that matter that he participated in the murder of Simon. Chapter 10 is the chapter that comes right after Simon is killed and Piggy and Ralph feel grief because of it. Chapter 10 also highlites instances where evil is starting to emerge in the book. Jack, has finally become leader of his own tribe and he gets too much power. Jack orders for Wilfred to be tied to a tree for no reason some of his uncontrollable evil started showing when he beats him for no reason. I could also see evil starting to develop in the littl'uns and big'uns in Jack's tribe because they didn't think twice when they noticed what Jack was doing. Roger says "'He's [Wilfred] been' he giggled excitedly ' he's been tied up for hours'". When Roger talks to Ralph, it's almost in joy or pleasure thinking about Wilfred being beaten up. Jack has gotten authority, or power which he overuses when trying to get people to obey him. Also in the chapter, Jack realizes that he is in need of fire if he wants to survive. So he uses his new authority and power to set a new evil on Ralph, Samneric and especially Piggy, by steeling his glasses. Jack and his group invade Ralph's shelter and hurt them until they get the glasses and running off in rejoice. The tension between the two 'tribes' is made in this chapter, and is essentially the turning point to the evilness that is shown in this story.

L.O.T.F. Chapter 10

"At last Ralph stopped. He was shivering.

'Piggy'

'Uh?'

'That was Simon'

'You said that before'

'Piggy'

'Uh?'

'That was a murder'

'You stop it!' said Piggy, shrilly. 'What good're you doing talking like that?'" (Golding, 156)

This quote is Ralph and Piggy talking the morning after Simon was murdered. Piggy finds it impossible to accept any guilt for what happened. He tries to convince himself and Ralph that he was not a part of it whatsoever. Ralph does not accept Piggy's easy rationalization with the subject and insists that the death was in fact a murder. This reminds the reader how far the boys have come since their first day on the island. They went from proper English gentlemen (kind of) to bloodthirsty savages. Jack and Roger are leading the whole tribe and Simons death was mostly both of their faults.

The Chapter starts with Piggy and Ralph down by the beach talking. They both feel very guilty and ashamed about what happened the night before. Piggy tries to deny that anything ever happened because he doesn't know how to handle the guilt, but Ralph says it was a murder. Jack ruling at castle rock with absolute power. He beats kids for no reason at all except to make examples out of them. Jack warns his boys about Ralph and his tribe, saying they are danger to his tribe. Jack's tribe believed that Simon was the beast and that they should continue to guard their fort against the beast because the beast is never really dead. Maurice and Roger steal fire from Ralph and Piggy's camp. The next night, Jack and his tribe come to their camp during the night and raid it. They attack and steal Piggy's glasses, while they were fighting with San, Eric and Ralph. Ralph and the last of his tribe are badly beaten and assaulted.

Chapter 9- A View to a Death

"The beast struggled forward, broke the ring, and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore...Simon's dead body moved out towards the open sea.'

Chapter 9 displayed the growing brutality of the boys on the island, and the power of the mob. After feasting on the boar, the boys decide to do their dance, yelling and thumping their feet. "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" they chant. They are so blinded by the dance even Piggy and Ralph join in, and eventually kill Simon. When a creature crawls out of the woods, they didn't notice it was Simon, and they quickly attack and kill him.

William Golding clearly voiced his opinion that human nature is terribly brutal and evil. that the boys even enjoy pretending to kill an animal is disturbing, and goes against the grain of society. That they actually murder one of their own is horrendous. All Simon was trying to do was to tell them that there was no beast, and that it was actually just a dead pilot on the mountain. Simon was the one to think: What else is there to do other than go see if the beast on the mountain is real, while Ralph and Piggy go swimming when they have free time. And Jack? He runs around killing mother pigs and offering their heads to the "Beast". Simon was the one true hero in this story, and he is brutally murdered by the mob of children. By this time in the story one realizes that the events on the island are progressing from bad to worse. In my opinion, this chapter is when the actions of the children hit rock bottom.