Lord Of The Flies Chapter 4: Painted faces And Long hair

Authors Avatar

Lord Of The Flies

Chapter 4: Painted faces And Long hair

        

At the beginning of this chapter the link with moral order and civilisation is still present This is noticeable when Roger is throwing stones but makes sure they do no hit Henry. This is because “the taboo of the old life” is still strong, “Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law” However there is a suggestion that civilisation is becoming remote for the boys “Rogers arm was conditioned by a civilisation that new nothing of him and was in ruins” Civilisation is a distant memory.

Roger and Maurice are beginning to behave differently towards the littluns. They kicked their sand castles over, buried the flowers and scattered the chosen stones. They enjoy doing this, something they would have not done in their past life as they would have been punished by their parents. Maurice realises this while walking away as he “still felt the unease of a wrong-doing.” This shows that although they have broken away from their past life, by rule breaking, they still have a sense of right and wrong. Moral standards are under threat in this new environment.

Join now!

Jacks standards and morals have been eroded. He claims that his war paint is for camouflage and will help him when he is hunting, “They don’t smell me. They see me.” He claims. Jack is excited by his new appearance. However the war paint removes him from his previous identity. The others are “appalled” as Jack “began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling.” He takes on primitiveness and leaves behind the rules and laws from his previous life.

The war paint mask appeared to be taking control “the mask was a thing on it’s own” and it ...

This is a preview of the whole essay