‘The sound of the inexpertly blown conch interrupted them……Jack went on blowing…..’
This is a direct challenge to Ralph’s leadership and authority. When Jack directly challenges Ralph by asking the group to vote against Ralph as a leader this may be a reference from Golding about the fear some of the boys have about speaking out. Ralph does appear to be quite a genuine person but does not make a particularly good leader.
He strives to maintain order and social stability by enforcing rules, but people by nature do not always conform to rules. I imagine that if Jack had been elected leader from the start the atmosphere on the island would be totally different. There would be partial if not total descent into savagery.
In chapters eight and nine Jack decides to leave the group.
‘I’m not going to play any longer’
This phrase is ironic in that the word play has been transformed from something harmless into a hysterical ritual. After leaving Jack formed his own tribe and is known as Merridew. Merridew means ‘lord of the palace’ this is significant as this is the name Jack first wished to be known by.
A very significant moment is where the tribe kills the sow. Jack tells his ‘tribe’ to ‘forget the beast’ and they go hunting. Golding’s description of the sows killing is electrified with forceful emotion ‘wedded to her in lust’. The hunt of the sow can be seen as the point when the boys finally break with their past moral values and innocence. The force of destruction which is presented by Jack triumphs over the controls and restraints of civilisation represented by Ralph.
Throughout the book Jack plays a significant role but within this section his character changes and appears to be molded by his inner evil self. This is a message that is conveyed constantly throughout the novel that everyone has evil within them which may only surface under given circumstances. Once that evil has been released it can cause terror, pain, destruction and in some cases as happened on the island death.
Simon is a significant character in these two specific chapters. During chapter eight he enters the jungle alone
‘Simon has passed through the area of fruit trees but today the littluns……had not persued him there’
This is when Simon retreats into his private den where he is surrounded by nature. This is a peaceful place of solitude where Simon can sit and think. Simon sits and contemplates and can understand the decline into savagery that is taking control of the boys and this is his place of safety where he feels comfortable away from the others.
Whilst he is in the jungle Simon meets the lord of the flies. He has a strange conversation with The Lord of the Flies which can be interpreted as a symbolic experience, a conflict between good and evil. Here Golding wants the reader to consider the conversation from a variety of angles, whether it be real or imaginary.
It is in chapter 9 where Simon discovers what the boys believe to be the ‘beast’
‘Simon felt his knees smack the rock’
Here Simon shows a saintly compassion in freeing the parachute lines; He then looks down from the mountain onto Jacks camp. Simon realises he has to bring the truth down from the mountain and warn the boys that they have nothing to worry about. When Simon reaches the boys it is quite dark and they do not realise it is Simon, they believe it to be the beast.
‘A thing was crawling out of the forest…The beast stumbled into the horseshoe…’
The boys continue there chanting as they savagely kill Simon. Even then he is still trying to tell then the truth about the beast, whilst he is being battered to death. The crowd of boys acts like a pack of savage crazed animals.
Golding’s particular use of language makes Simon’s death seem almost beautiful,
‘Somewhere over the darkened curve of the world’
The sea takes Simons body ‘softly’ and merges it with the energies pf the natural world. Simon’s death is a shocking and significant climax for the concluding events of this chapter. However Golding does preserve an element of innocence in this death, as his body is carried out to sea by the rising tide.
Simon had the vision and intuition and was like a saint on the island. However like many people he failed to communicate his insight to others on the island. Simon is the only boy to have a conversation with the Lord of the Flies. This conversation supports Golding’s message, which is that evil, is within everyone. Everyone must wrestle with the ‘beast’ within, and either accept it and be ruled by it, like most of the boys on the island or conquer it and reject it. Simon chooses to reject the ‘beast’ and continues to search for the truth. However when he finds the truth it only results ion his death and this is not the outcome he expected. Now that the boys have killed Simon they do not know that the beast is imaginary. There is no one on the island now who knows the truth about this beat. Some of the boys, for example Piggy, have their suspicions about the reality of the beast, but non have the knowledge or the truth. Simon is rejected and slaughtered in a ritual frenzy. He represents the martyr who is neither valued nor understood by his society.
The arrival of the dead parachutist gives the boys a physical form for the beast. In reality he is just a soldier killed in war. The moving, decomposing corpse is gruesome but there is nothing supernatural about it. It takes its place in nature, along with the flies, but is finally claimed by the sea.
What Golding is trying to portray is the undeveloped evil which does exist in all humankind. This is the real beast. In the novel is an example of how, in the right circumstances, the beast will reveal itself and bring about corruption.
