Chapter 7: Shadows and Tall Trees

"'You want a real pig,' said Robert, still caressing his rump, 'because you'vegot to kill him'
'Use a littleun,' said Jack, and everybody laughed"

In chapter seven the boys on the island first see "the beast". We all know the beast here is just really a dead skydiver on top of the mountain. Before Jack, Roger and Ralph go up to the mountain, a hunt takes place. The boys together kill a pig. Even Ralph becomes excited when he stabs the pig in the face. What was once a savage act at the beggining of their time here, now becomes a source of excitement. After the boys kill the pig they begin to chant. They repeat the phrase. "Kill the Pig! Cut his throat! Kill the Pig! Bash him in!". The boys have now become very uncivilized. It gets even worse after that. Now part of their ritual is them renacting them killing the pig. The group of boys would gather in a circle with one boy in the middle. A boy named Robert goes into the middle first. All the other boys stab him with sticks, nearly killing him. The young boys get so exited about violence that they almost kill a human. But they have not gotten to that stage of barbarism yet. One quote that stands out to me was said by Jack. This is the quote I put on the top of the post. Jack says this after they stop beating Robert. Robert brings up that they should actually kill a real pig for the ritual. Jack takes that idea one step further and suggests that they kill one of the little kids. The little ones are never really identified in this book. We never even know how many there are on the island. What Jack says is one of the major signs that this civilization is not going to work out. Jack is not the only person at fault in this quote. After he says that, the book tells us that everyone laughed about it. Someone could have said something that may have changed Jack's outlook on the island, but everyone just stood as bystanders. People positively reacting to Jack's cruel joke may have been what fueled Jack to act more cruel. If someone stood up to him he would not have been such an issue on the island. Since Jack was only getting positive feedback from his meaness, this made Jack think that it was okay to be awful to people, that the others really enjoyed it.
This chapter marks one of the red flags coming up in this society. The people on this island are starting to think that it is okay to be violent and savage to others.