Lord of the Flies Chapter 1 Summary
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As the novel opens, “the fair boy” makes his way out of a jungle and toward a lagoon
A red and yellow bird flashes upward with a witch-like cry (eerie, isn’t it?) just as another
youngster, “the fat boy” who is wearing “thick spectacles” follows behind.
The two boys meet and discuss the fact that, holy smokes, their plane has crashed.
The fat boy wonders where the man with the megaphone is, which we should all keep in mind for
the next few paragraphs.
Also, there are no grown-ups
Also, they can’t find the plane or the pilot. The fair boy concludes that both must have been
dragged out to sea by a storm. He makes the dire statement that “There must have been some
kids still in it,” “it” being the plane that went out to sea.
The fat boy (we’re not being judgmental – that’s what he’s called) asks the fair boy (again, that's
what he’s called) what his name is.
It is Ralph. He has no interest in learning the fat boy’s name.
But, the pair assumes others have survived and are around here somewhere, perhaps hiding in the
copious foliage or something.
The fat boy lags behind Ralph because of his “ass-mar,” which is probably “asthma.” Also, the fat
boy has to poo. (English major-y people called this kind of thing “realism.”)
Ralph races ahead to the water, and we get a detailed description of the shore, the palm trees,
the coarse grass, and the decaying coconuts. This is all in contrast to “the darkness of the forest.”
Ralph decides the thing to do is swim. So he gets naked. Many more naked boys to come, by the
way, so be prepared.
While we’re busy getting a description of Ralph, the fat boy shows up and joins in the nude
swimming fun. The water is “warmer than [their] blood [. . .] like swimming in a huge bath.”
We get a nice description of Ralph; he is twelve and has the build of maybe being a boxer
someday when he’s older, but you can also plainly see that there is “no devil” in him. Lastly, he has
“bright, excited eyes.”
The fat boy admits to Ralph that most people call him “Piggy,”and asks Ralph not to tell anyone.
Ralph is not the nicest guy to Piggy (“They call you PIGGY!?” sort of thing), but we’re holding out
judgment on him since he is, after all, a twelve year old boy.
Ralph claims that his dad, who is in the navy, is going to come rescue them.
Piggy, however, says the pilot told them (before the crash) that an atomic bomb had gone off and
everyone was dead.
This, combined with the earlier megaphone comment, suggests that perhaps the boys were being
evacuated, maybe even from some kind of war zone, when the plane crashed.
Anyway, Piggy asserts that they are probably going to have to “stay here till [they] die.”
On this cheerful note, they decide to put their clothes back on. In doing so, they find a large white
conch shell, which Piggy remembers is a faux, MacGyver-style megaphone.
Ralph makes several efforts before an amazing sound comes out of the shell, “a deep, harsh
boom.”
As you might expect, man has ruined the peaceful stillness of the virgin island.
Amidst the squawking birds and scurrying furry things, the other boys come out of the woodwork.
Some are small. Many are naked.
While Ralph continues to revel in the “violent pleasure” of blowing the conch, Piggy goes to great
lengths to ask and learn everyone’s name, among them a young child named Johnny and a pair of
twins named Sam and Eric.
Ralph sees a dark, fumbling creature, but concludes that it is only a group of boys wearing black
choir robes. There is a red-headed boy at the head of the pack “controlling them.”
The boy commands them all to stand in a line. We’re thinking it must be rather uncomfortable in
the sun to be wearing heavy, black cloaks, and our suspicions are confirmed when one of the boys
faints, face-first, in the sand.
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The boys ask the red-headed leader (Merridew) “But can’t we, Merridew…” which we think means
“Please let us take off these absurd cloaks.”
Merridew ignores the boy who’s fainted.
Piggy at first doesn’t ask names of this group, as he is intimidated. But he does remind everyone
that names are oh-so-important.
This is about the time Ralph tells everyone that Piggy’s name is Piggy.
And now we meet the rest of the cast. We’ve got Maurice, who smiles a lot; Jack Merridew, the
tyrant you already met and the largest of the choir boys; Roger who is “slight” and “furtive” and
has an “inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy”; Simon who has recovered from his fainting
spell; and those without much description: Bill, Robert, Harold, and Henry.
Guess which one is evil personified?
Jack says they should work out the getting rescued part.
Ralph’s response is “shut up.” He decides they need a chief.
Jack declares that, most sensibly, he should be chief because he’s the head boy of the choir and
can sing c-sharp, which everyone knows will come in handy later when negotiating with foreign
peoples.
Yet, because they are good, British boys who know how to follow parliamentary procedure, they
decide to vote. Amazingly, they pull this off without the aid of an electoral college, and Ralph
becomes chief (although the choir boys did vote for Jack out of obligation). Interestingly, Piggy
hesitated to vote for Ralph, probably because Ralph screwed him over with the whole name thing.
“But why was Ralph elected?” you ask. Actually, Golding tells us. He says Ralph has a stillness, is
attractive, and most importantly has the conch shell.
Ralph feels bad and gives Jack a consolation prize. No, not a useless vice presidency, but rather
control over the choir.
Jack decides his group will act as the hunters. Apparently, he’s power-hungry AND blood thirsty.
Ralph, Simon and Jack go off to explore the uninhabited island for the sole purpose of discovering
if it is, in fact, uninhabited and an island.
Piggy offers to go, but Jack tells him he’s not suited for a job like this (with all the walking and
such). He protests, but Ralph sends him back to take names.
They do find tracks and wonder aloud what made them. Ralph asks “Men?” and Jack answers
“animals.” Hmm!
Like all good exploring banter, their dialogue is filled with such British wonders as “wacco”,
“wizard” and “sucks to you!”
The boys find a large rock poised near the edge of the cliff and do the only thing that pre-teen
boys could be expected to do in such a circumstance: push it over the cliff. They do, and remark
that it falls “like a bomb.”
They finally climb to the top of this big mountain they’ve found and look all around at the island.
Ralph says “This belongs to us.”
They make some observations of the land, noting the large coral reef and the gash in the trees
where their plane hit.
On their way back to the lagoon, they find a small pig, tangled in the creepers. Jack raises his
knife to kill it, but can’t quite bring himself to, and the pig escapes.
Jack of course makes lots of excuses.
But he thinks, “Next time there [will] be no mercy.”
Lord of the Flies Chapter 2 Summary
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Ralph blows the conch and calls another meeting. By now, thank goodness, the choir boys have
removed their cloaks.
Using his authority as the newly elected chief, Ralph addresses the boys and tells them that they
need to get organized.
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Apparently that means rules. Now all boys have to raise their hand to talk. Oh, and no one can
speak unless they’re holding the conch.
The boys are excited about having rules, but mostly so that they can punish those who break them.
This notion elicits cries of “Whee-oh!” “Wacco!” “Bong!” and “Doink!”
Piggy takes the conch to raise a few points: 1) they might never get off this island and 2) assuming
they don’t, they should figure out how to go about the process of not dying.
Ralph agrees with the whole “we might be here until eternity” thing, but he declares quite clearly
that “this is a good island.” Go ahead and sticky-note this page.
(But in case you forget to sticky-note it, you have another chance several paragraphs later when
he again says “It’s a good island.”)
One small boy with a mulberry-colored birthmark, the reason for which will be shortly explained,
requests the conch and everyone laughs until Piggy demands he be allowed to speak.
The young child is too scared to talk in front of everyone, so Piggy listens and then tells the rest:
The child is fearful of a mysterious snake-thing in the jungle.
He describes it as a “beastie” and says it comes only in the dark. (We have concluded that the
boys must have been on the island for at least one night before they found each other and began
to organize.)
The other boys laugh and they decide that the beastie is just the ropey-looking creepers that hang
in the trees.
Jack says of course there isn’t a beast, but just in case they’re all going to go hunt for it anyway.
Ralph is forced to concede, and notes that he is “facing something ungraspable.”
Ralph insists that a signal fire must be made so that when his father comes to rescue them on a
ship, the men on board will see the smoke and know where to find them. Also, burning things is fun.
Everyone tears off, and Piggy remarks that they’re all acting “like a bunch of kids.”
Everyone excitedly piles up the wood before realizing…they have no way of starting the fire.
Jack very helpfully mumbles something about rubbing two sticks together (Eagle Scout Lesson #2,
if you’ve been counting.)
They use Piggy’s glasses to start the fire after many hurrahs and much gathering of wood.
Piggy is not happy about the use of his glasses for this purpose. What we mean is: “[Piggy’s] voice
rose to a shriek of terror as Jack snatched the glasses off his face.”
Ralph says that they need to choose certain, responsible people to keep the fire going at all times
– in case a ship passes by.
Jack declares: “We’re English, and the English are best at everything.”
Piggy, rather blind without his glasses, grabs the conch from Ralph and complains about how no
one pays attention to his ideas.
While the boys argue, the fire spreads…like wildfire.
As the smoke drifts through the air, Piggy rants about all these things they should have done, like
build shelters and show him some respect. Then, most likely because of the smoke, his asthma flairs
up and he can’t breathe.
Yet, it seems he has enough breath to point out that the small children, a.k.a. “the littluns” seem to
be missing, especially that one who complained about “the beastie” and had a mulberry-colored
birthmark, the better to distinguish him by when he’s gone. He seems to be the most missing of all.
Lord of the Flies Chapter 3 Summary
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Time has passed, and as Chapter Three opens, we see Jack, his bare back a “mass of dark
freckles and peeling sunburn.” He is naked (what do you know) except for a pair of tattered
shorts.
Jack has become obsessed with killing a pig. Obsessed to the point of tracking down pig’s
droppings.
Based on his sniffing the air all the time, it seems that Jack is now a lot like an animal himself, or at
the least a primitive form of man.
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Jack fails to catch a pig, yet again.
He tries to take it out on someone else, meaning Ralph and Simon, who are trying to build shelters
out of leaves.
It’s not going so well, as you might have expected.
So Ralph and Jack do what they always do together: argue. Jack thinks it’s more important to kill
things, while Ralph thinks it’s more important to not die of exposure.
Ralph makes the argument that everyone is still scared of the beastie.
He says that the children are scared “As if it wasn’t a good island.” This is an interesting line to
sticky-note along with that earlier one.
Jack, too, admits he gets a little scared when he’s in the jungle alone.
Despite all this, Ralph is still mostly concerned with the hunting.
Jack suggests they could paint their faces. We suggest you flip back to that part about the
brightly-colored bird.
And the point of painting faces is that they could sneak up on the pigs while they’re sleeping.
Piggy lies on his stomach and stares at the water. But he does point out that Simon is the one
helpful guy, whenever he’s not missing, which he tends to be quite frequently.
OK, camera swivel; now we’re looking at Simon as he walks into the forest “with an air of
purpose.” We are told that his “bright eyes” made Ralph think he was “delightfully gay and
wicked,” when in fact he is not. He is also tan, barefoot, and has “a coarse mop of black hair.”
The littluns follow after him, and he helps them pick fruit too tall for them to reach before heading
deeper into the jungle by himself.
Simon comes to a place where “the creepers had woven a great mat that hung at the side of an
open space in the jungle.”
He crawls inside this space (we cannot imagine why) and chills out there while evening approaches,
musing non-specifically.
Lord of the Flies Chapter 4 Summary
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More unspecified time has passed. The boys have developed a sort of rhythm in their lives that
involves the littluns playing together, the biguns (Jack and the choir boys) still hunting pigs, and the
other boys (Ralph, Simon, and Piggy) trying to build shelter and keep the signal fire going.
We are reminded that there are sharks in the water beyond the reef.
One littlun named Percival cries all the time and everyone thinks he’s a little crazy.
The biguns and littluns have become rather separate groups, although Simon, Maurice, and Robert
are walking a fine line because of their size (in general, though, it seems they are considered
biguns). Being a littlun is terrible, as there’s no one to really take care of them. They have built and
decorated sandcastles near the little river, which has become their play and general dwelling
area.
We see Henry, the biggest of the littluns, hanging out with the smallest (Percival and Johnny). The
children are “at peace” until Roger and Maurice come along and step on their sandcastles, with
Roger in the lead and Maurice feeling a little guilty.
Once again, can you guess which one will end up being evil personified?
Roger follows Henry as he wanders off to an overlook; below, Ralph, Simon, Piggy, and Maurice
are splashing in the pool (the small and naturally-occurring kind, not the cabana kind).
Roger starts throwing stones at Henry, but missing on purpose because he still has some semblance
of decency left, at least for the time being.
Jack calls to Roger; he’s with Sam, Eric, and Bill and still on this pig-hunting kick.
Jack refers to the twins as “Samneric.”
After going through with the face painting plan, using white and red clay and a stick of charcoal,
Jack looks at his reflection in a coconut shell full of water and is astonished to see an “awesome
stranger” looking back at him. He begins to dance, and it seems that the mask is a “thing on its
own, behind which Jack hid.”
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When he orders the boys to come with him, it is “the mask” that “compel[s] them,” not Jack. Creepy
stuff.
Meanwhile, back at the lagoon, Ralph, Simon and Piggy are still swimming with Maurice.
Piggy suggests that they should make a sundial but, as has become general habit, no one takes his
suggestions seriously.
Suddenly, Ralph spots a ship.
Much excitement follows.
Piggy is immediately frantic as to whether or not the signal fire is still lit. Ralph dashes up the
mountain to see, “doing desperate violence to his naked body among the rasping creepers so that
blood was sliding over him.” (Yes – still naked.)
But before he goes, Simon seems to know what’s up. He “crie[s] out as though he [has] hurt himself”
and tries to touch Ralph’s face. Interesting!
As you might have guessed, the signal fire has indeed gone out.
By the time they stop panicking, the ship has disappeared.
Now WHERE, everyone wants to know, are the (former) choirboys who were supposed to be
tending the fire?
Everyone looks down from the mountain and sees a procession of choir boys who have finally
ditched the black robes and joined in the public nudity. But, they’re still ominously wearing their
black caps.
They are also, equally ominously, led by Jack, carrying a dead pig on a stake, and chanting: “Kill
the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.”
Jack and his posse tell the tale of how they killed the pig.
Ralph stares at them, expressionless, and finally says, “You let the fire go out.”
Jack and Co. experience that “oops” feeling, accompanied by a side of intense guilt.
Piggy rails on them for being irresponsible; in a moment of twelve-year-old-boy-ness, Jack
punches Piggy in the face.
Simon finds the glasses and reveals that a lens is broken, which leaves Piggy with vision in just one
eye.
Finally, Jack breaks down and apologizes.
Standing still and stoic, Ralph very simply commands them to rebuild the fire. In this, we are told,
he reasserts his chieftainship; the choir boys are forced to rebuild the fire away from where Ralph
stands, unmoving, which is a hell of a lot of work for them. He finally has to move to help them
light the fire, using Piggy’s glasses.
Piggy is obviously not comfortable with his only means to sight being used this way; he snatches
the “specs” back immediately, as the boys begin to roast the pig they killed, ripping off hunks of
meat and devouring it like wolves.
In his attempt to be indignant and above everyone, Ralph tries to not eat any of the meat Jack is
roasting. That lasts about two seconds once the smell reaches his nose; remember, they’ve been
eating fruit and plants since they got to the island.
No one hands Piggy any meat, and when Jack gives him a hard time about his not helping with the
hunt, Simon gives his own food to Piggy.
Jack is furious, and yells at Simon to “Eat! Damn you!” He basically realizes he has no power over
the boys unless they eat the meat he got for them all.
The hunters describe their kill again in gory detail, and continue their chant of “Kill the pig. Cut her
throat. Bash her in.”
This is pretty bad, as you can tell. The boys are becoming violent barbarians and fast.
Ralph decides to call another meeting and walks down the mountain.
*All summaries adapted from http://www.shmoop.com/lord-of-the-flies/summary.html.