The first crisis the boys have is who to choose as a leader, jack puts himself forward and automatically expects everyone to agree to him being the leader. As you can see in the story the boys start to call the leader chief, the chief is a primitive name for the leadership. They have already started going back to their barbaric roots.
In chapter 2 the boys create a fire and have agreed to keep the fire going, the fire represents superiority but it also represents the destroying nature as well. What the author says is that their is responsibility that comes with superiority. They let the fire loose and the boy with the birthmark gets killed, they have not the responsibility yet to have the superiority.
In chapter 2 at their meetings (a kind of parliament) the person can talk if they have the conch, the conches symbolism has just been heightened because it represents authority and order.
Jack starts to get obsessed with the hunt, he is starting to stay in the jungle more and more, trying to kill the pigs for food. Ralph and Jack come into near confrontation because what Ralph says is that they are both working but jack likes what he is doing so he cant be working.
Their society is breaking down, only Ralph and Simon are working on their shelters while the rest have fun. When the hunters come back from the hunt they go away and have fun, leaving only two of them to do the work. This is a good way to show that a few work in life but the whole group uses what they have made.
Their meetings (parliament) are just becoming talk, with none of them actually doing any of the things that they set out to do.
In this chapter the beast starts to become apparent. All the boys think that the beast is an actual living thing. The boys start to fear it even more. The boys think that the island is not good. What Golding is stating by the boys saying that is that the island cant be bad, the boys are.
In chapter four the boys that are meant to be keeping the fire going (the fire which represents their hope of being rescued) are not keeping the fire going, they instead are throwing stones at each other. There is one big man in the group, his name is Roger, he is throwing stones at the scavengers, but always making sure that he misses them. What this is saying to the reader is that the people are still bound by the sense of right and wrong that the parents have taught them. He is fearful of what would happen to him if he hurt the scavengers.
The boys start to hunt for the pigs, they are wearing paint on their faces, another primitive way of life, what the paint is making them is free from the bounds of civilisation because to commit the ultimate sin of murder they say that they have to be free from all responsibility.
The fire goes out, their hope of being rescued dies with it, most of the boys want to be primal and never be rescued.
In chapter 5 Ralph realises that his "world" has gone wrong. He is not the greatest thinker but he is smart enough to realise what is going on, but he cant understand why things are going wrong.
The beast is mentioned in the story many times, but now one of the boys realises what the beast actually is, and Simon realises this, he realises that the beast is in fact the boys.
Golding sets up the death of Simon deliberately, he is the only one that sees that there is no beast and the beast is a culmination of fear. They kill Simon and with that killing the killing of knowledge. By this point in the story the readers should have already pointed out Simon as a smart boy that knows about what is happening on the island.
Murder is greatest of all evils, and the boys have now committed it, they have now taken the last step in going back to their primitive ways.
In chapter 10 the conch gets destroyed, the conch was the symbol of order, authority and civilisation, and with the breaking of the conch the civilisation has been destroyed. Roger, who earlier in the story was fearful of hurting another being, now he is willing to kill, kills piggy who is most needing of civilisation, he means to kill Piggy. It was harder to kill at the start of the story but now the boys are liberated enough to kill. This is a good way to do this, Piggy who was most of civilisation has been killed by the boys, who are back to their barbaric state. What this is saying is that the people in society who are most needing of society are normally hurt.
In the end jack has become so aggressive that he wants power so much that he is willing to destroy the island to defeat the leader of the remaining civilisation. What happens is that jack destroys most of the island and the only thing that will help them now is civilisation.
A naval boat rescues the boys; Ralph can now say again that he is the leader because civilisation has now been restored. The irony of the ending is that a warship, a ship that is meant to inflict damage, rescues the boys. What Golding is saying is that are we so civilised or are we just living in a form of sophisticated form of savagery.
