KEY
After Jack and ralph come back, piggy can hardly believe that there really is a
beast up in the mountain. Jack meanly tells piggy to go check for himself,
hoping he will get hurt. ralph explains to piggy that no one could fight the beast.
He says that even jack would hide if the beast came after them. ralph goes on to
say that the hunters are nothing but boys with sticks and that they are no good
against the beast.
jack is insulted and takes the conch and calls a meeting. He first tells the boys
that they did see the beast. Then he tells them that ralph thinks the hunters are
cowards because they ran away from the boar and the beast. And third, he tells
the boys that Ralph says things like Piggy; therefore, he isn’t a proper chief.
jack then calls for a vote to see who thinks ralph shouldn’t be chief. No one
openly votes against Ralph. This hurts jack, and he says that he is no longer
going to play any longer.
After jack runs from the platform, Ralph and the rest behind sit depressed.
simon stands and suggests that they climb the mountain and face the beast.
The group basically ignores simon, and piggy suggests what Ralph should
suggest: keep the fire going. piggy says that they can keep the fire on the
beach so that they don’t have to go up the mountain.
After they build a fire, Ralph notices that Maurice, Bill, and roger are gone.
piggy says that they probably ran off with Jack when no one was looking. simon
also is missing, but he snuck off to his secret place in the forest.
jack declares himself chief and says that they should hunt. They come upon a
sow nursing her piglets. They decide to kill the helpless sow. After jack cuts the
pig’s throat, he laughs as he flicks the blood from his palms. He then wipes a
bunch of the blood on maurice’s cheeks. After he cleans the pig’s guts out, he
says that they will raid the beach for their fire. Before going they sharpen a stick
and post the pig’s head. This is meant as a gift for the beast.
When jack and his tribe raid the beach for fire, Jack is stark naked except for his
belt and paint. He invites the boys on the beach, including ralph, to have some
meat at their feast. This is very tempting to the boys.
simon comes out of his secret place and sees the pig’s head, which is referred
to as the Lord of the Flies. He hallucinates a conversation with the head, which
tells him that he is really the Beast. After the pig’s head threatens to kill simon,
he faints.