In later chapters, people started to disrespect the conch, and didn’t care about rules.
‘… shouted Ralph, “you’re breaking the rules!” ’ ‘“Who cares?”…“Bollocks to the rules!...”’ page 99 chapter 5.
This is showing that people are arguing against civilisation, and really don’t care about the rules that they made up.
But Ralph who is still a little civilised is constantly reminding them of these things, but he couldn’t control them for that long.
‘ “If I blow the conch and they don’t come back; then we’ve had it.” ’page 99 chapter 5.
This is showing that at that moment they won’t really care about what the conch symbolises. They would only want to get on with being savage and chanting.
When the boys first arrived on the island they were all in their smart school uniform and their hair was short. But the choir boys were the smartest people their when they first arrived.
‘…each boy wore a square black cap with a silver badge in it. Their bodies, from throat to ankle, were hidden by black cloaks…’ page 15 chapter 1.
This shows that the choir boys were extremely strict about their clothing and uniform, because they didn’t take off any of their clothes while being on the island.
But the longer they have been living on the island the shorter and less smart their clothes have become.
‘Maurice’s trousers gave way with a sigh and he abandoned them as a wreck,’ page 69 chapter 4.
Maurice, being one of the choir boys wouldn’t be expected to have such a wreck of clothes, because he was dressed so smartly at the beginning.
The ‘biguns’, bigger children, on the island started to bully the ‘littluns’, the smaller children. They feel they can do anything, just because there are no parents around.
‘Roger led the way straight through the castles, kicking them over, … Only Percival began to whimper with an eyeful of sand.’
As there are no grown-ups, the bigger boys have a duty of looking after the smaller ones, but instead they start bullying them, and make them cry. But even though they don’t exactly look after them, they still get the guilt feeling.
‘….there was no parent to let fall a heavy hand, Maurice still felt the unease of wrong-doing.’ page 63 chapter 4.
He felt this guilt because he knew he did wrong and he was still a little more civilised than others.
Jack at the beginning of the book is the smartest looking boy on the whole island.
‘The boy who controlled them was dressed in the same way, though his badge was golden…’ page 15 chapter 1.
This shows that he is the leader of the choir, and already has a high status, so people would listen to him and follow his orders.
‘Why should I be Jack? I’m Merridew.’ page 17 chapter 1.
As he wants to be called by his surname it means h is from a posh family and must be much civilised.
‘Sandy hair, considerably longer than it had been when they dropped in…tattered pair of shorts held up by his knife-belt’ page 48 chapter 3.
This is showing that in only a few days from a civilised, posh Jack Merridew he’s turned into a savage hunter, who wants nothing but pig.
‘“Come on! I’ll creep up and stab-” The mask compelled them.’
This is showing that when Jack puts on his mask, he is a different person, an even more savage person, who wants to kill a pig just to prove that he can kill one, even if it does mean letting out their rescue fire.
‘Kill the Pig. Cut her Throat. Spill her Blood…’ page 74 chapter 4.
This was just a chant that the group made up who killed the pig. There have gotten so savage that they made a chant for killing a pig. And because all the big boys were doing it, little ones decide to copy them, which make them indirectly savage.
Even though Ralph can sometimes be quite savage like, he’s always trying to make people become civilised again. He was the one who had the idea of the rules. ‘We’ll have to have ‘Hands Up’ like at school…” ’ page 31 chapter 2
So Ralph wanted a civilised group who would go by the rules but in the end people don’t bother.
He has the idea of having a fire to be rescued which is a good idea, so that then they can all go back home.
‘…so we must make smoke on top of the mountain…’ page 37 chapter 2.
He was thinking of a way to get home but Jack had always been thinking about hunting, just didn’t care about the fire, and so they are still on the island.
Even though Ralph wanted to reject the meat, because his fire got let out because of it, he took some and the way he ate was very savage.
‘…gnawed at it like a wolf.’
This is showing that the more they are staying on the island the more animal like they are becoming. And to stop all this Ralph called an assembly, to try and become civilised again but failed.
All this shows that as time is going on people on the island are turning savage, especially Jack who is influencing the others. But there are people like Ralph, Simon and Piggy who want to stay civilised, and don’t want live on the island forever, just because people are more interested in being savage and killing pigs, rather than being civilised and thinking about how to be rescued.
