Chapter four: Painted Faces and Long Hair

I think that this chapter becomes the turning point in the book where the boys lose their civilization and become animals. Living on the island becomes routine as they adjust. However, they do not adjust to make their lives on the island just like their former lives. Instead, they begin a downward spiral of sanitation and health. The smaller children are not seen as equals to the older boys, so they separate and stay together in a group. They are also dehumanized by surrendering their names, and are referred to as “littleuns”. Eventually, the Littluns are thought of a species of animal, instead of human beings. An example of this discrimination occurs on the beach where three of the littluns are playing with their sandcastles. “Roger and Maurice came out of the forest. They were relieved from duty at the fire and had come down for a swim. Roger led the way straight through the castles, kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones. Maurice followed, laughing, and added to the destruction.” (60). Although the older boys are being mean, they are still not cruel enough to physically harm the boys. When Roger throws the stones at Henry, he “threw it to miss”, for there “was the taboo of the old life.” (62). As the title of the chapter suggests, some of the older boys paint their faces for hunting. Under this mask of anonymity, Jack swings around like an animal, compelled by the mask, not his mind.

There is a chaotic situation when the boys see a ship, but with sinking hearts they see that the fire has gone out, so they cannot use it as a signal. The boys become bitter towards Jack and his hunters when they realize that they were in charge of this fire. Jack brings a pig for them to eat, but it doesn’t compare to being rescued. As usual, piggy is made fun of and put on the spot as an effort to lighten the mood. It only works for a minute though, before the attention is put on Jack again. Only when he apologizes does Ralph agree to put the situation behind them.

At dinner, piggy is excluded again when Jack refuses to give him meat. Everybody knows that this is completely unfair, but they decide not to argue against Jack’s authority. In a way, this is similar to the Milgram experiment also, because they look the other way when somebody with a higher ranking than them does something mean. Only Simon decides to be a good person, and gives piggy his meat. Furious, Jack cuts a piece off for Simon and tells him to eat. He is angry that he lost his power.