Chapter Four: Painted Faces and Long Hair

Observations: "Piggy was a bore; his fat, his ass-mar, and his matter-of-fact ideas were dull, but there was always a little pleasure to be got out of pulling his leg, even if one did it by accident" (65). In my opinion, the group is definitely starting to fall apart and show signs of weakness. In the beginning, they developed a sort of social hierarchy, and that has turned into a social tyranny. This has gone as far as social groups being formed all the way to being mean to the littluns. The littluns are young, and not very helpful to group, but they are also the future of this civilization. Just because they are weaker then some of the boys is no reason to pick on them. While some members of the group like Ralph and Simon have been particularly nice to them, members like Jack, Roger are Maurice are cruel to the little boys, stomping on a sand castle and throwing rocks at a littlun. Along with being mean to the littluns, there is also a rivalry between Jack and Ralph starting to form. Ralph, the more reasonable side of the argument keeps complaining to Jack about his carelessness to things like keeping his signal fire going; their only chance of being rescued. There are signs that the boys are trying to resolve this rivalry but all efforts end in failure. Being alone obviously is something knew to them considering their excitement when realizing no parents were around. With no rules to control them they control themselves. With them controlling themselves they make unreasonable decisions for survival. With that, chaos is just waiting to be let loose. Through all the fighting there is one man keeping their logical side in tact: Piggy. Piggy is the only one not only still thinking about the long-term survival of group, but the overall fate of the island. When arriving on the island Piggy is the only one who thought to start thinking ahead when the others thought about doing whatever they wanted to do. Unfortunately, because of his fat and geeky appearance, Piggy is rejected and made fun of. Even when his ideas seem to be the only intellectual thing said all day, his is ignored and laughed at by even relatively nice people like Ralph. If after a few days of living freely there is some pretty serious fighting, then after a few weeks, even months, who knows how much it will escalate. If these boys don't start listening to Piggy, their not going to be able to live free much longer.