References are frequently made to the uncontrolled state the boys’ are in, the way they ‘stumbled’ and ‘blundered about.’ The chant the boys’ had started ‘lost its first superficial excitement’ – another reference to how the situation has grown into a more frenzied state of something more dark, and serious.
This contrasts to the boys’ state in chapter eleven, before Piggy’s death. Though Jack and Ralph are yelling frantically we can tell the boys’ are still in control of themselves, they at least have the ability of speech. The exception is Roger, the boy who actually kills Piggy. He is described similarly to that of the frenzied state of the boys in Piggy’s death. Roger kills Piggy with a sense of ‘delirious abandonment.’
Again in chapter eleven, the weather corresponds with Roger’s actions, with ‘the storm of sound’ that beat at them, ‘like an incantation of hatred.’
The word ‘incantation’ is a word associated with evil spirits, even the devil, which can be cross referenced to the hellish description of the weather like ‘a sulphurous explosion’.
In both situations, the boys’ seem to have no identity, and each boy has no responsibility for what occurs. They are described in chapter nine as ‘brown backs of fence’ and in chapter eleven as ‘a solid mass of menace’. They are ‘one single organism’, devoid of feelings, morals, and therefore accountability for the deaths.
The ‘delirious abandonment’ of Roger, before he kills Piggy, shows how carried away he is in the moment, in exactly the same way all the boys are before Simon’s death. As they lose control, they begin a monosyllabic chant; ‘Kill the beat! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!’ This is violent, threatening, without direction or sense. Their ability to reason is impaired also, as they begin to attack Simon, seeing him as an animal, a thing. We know this because of Golding’s use of the word ‘it’, which refers to the way the boys see him, as something inhuman. The boys, caught up in their highly frenzied state, ‘struck, bit and tore’.
The weather begins to imitate the boys’ behaviour as ‘the clouds opened and let down the rain like a water fall.’ At the point where Simon is killed, the rain begins, almost as a release of tension. It becomes destructive, again as if wreaking revenge on the boys, as the water ‘tore leaves and branches from the trees’ and ‘poured like a cold shower.’
After Simon dies, the relationship he has with nature is shown as everything returns calmly back to normal, with an evident sense of peace. ‘The air was moist, cool and clear’ and the water ‘was still’. This symbolises how nothing is left obscured as now Simon is known to be Simon, and not the beast. Simon is now elevated to an almost saintly level by the beautiful descriptions and colours, - ‘the line of his silvered cheek’, and ‘the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble.’ Simons body ‘moved out towards the open sea’, gently, and respectfully. Because of the goodness of Simon, nature deals with his body in this way, which also explains the personified ‘anger’ of the weather when the boys’ are harming him. Simon’s character is peaceful, kind, and is above mere humans which is reflected in the treatment of his body after he dies.
Simon’s accidental death contrasts sharply to Piggy’s pre meditated death.
Piggy’s character is also reflected in his death, and this compares harshly to Simon’s. When Piggy dies his head opens and ‘stuff came out’. This undignified explanation mirrors how Piggy has been treated throughout the novel. Piggy dies saying nothing, ‘without even time for a grunt.’ Even in death, Golding still refers to Piggy in the demeaning way the boys did, as an animal, a pig. He falls, and the water ‘boiled’ over the rock, ‘sucking ‘ the body of Piggy into the sea. Nature acts harshly towards Piggy, giving no reverence for him even in death.
With Piggy dead, so is the last piece of civilisation and democracy on the island, the conch, everything he stood for.
After Simon dies, the boys leave, and so time is given for the reader also to meditate on what has happened, giving Simon a dignified death. After Piggy dies, Jack interrupts the silence and prevents it from being sustained, almost as if he wants to prevent time for though and reflection, as he deems himself and the others as completely blameless. It is now, after the death that he becomes demonic, possessed, ‘screaming wildly.’
He hurls his spear at Ralph, ‘viciously, full of intention’. During this chapter, lots of premeditated, fully intentional violence is evident. This shows how the boys have descended lower into savagery as near the beginning of the book when the boys first arrive on the island, Roger throws stones at the younger children, but does not intend to hit any of them.
In both chapters nine and eleven, the language used relates back to both the characters of Simon and Piggy and of events that are about to take place. It can be seen that Piggy and Simon suffer contrasting deaths but both as a result of the boys’ violence.
Hannah Athauda
