Ch. 4 As night creeps over the island, the younger children huddle together to calm and protect one another
Heather Grabin
Character: Piggy
Theme: Need for social order
Symbols: Conch Shell
Fire
A.)
Ch. 4
* As night creeps over the island, the younger children huddle together to calm and protect one another; the menacing darkness causes their fears to grow.
* The little ones come when the conch is blown, but otherwise they do not bother the older boys.
* Unfortunately, some of the older ones torment the children. Some of the boys, led by Jack, destroy their sandcastle, and Roger throws stones at Henry.
* They spend much of their time gathering and eating fruit, which causes stomachaches and chronic diarrhea.
* They talk about the beastie and imagine all sorts of monsters; by nighttime, they are terrified and have trouble sleeping.
* They are constantly tired, ill, and fearful; they play very little and cry a lot.
* Percival stayed in a hut for two days, refusing to eat and weeping constantly.
* Jack has smeared his face with colored and has the hunters do the same.
* Suddenly Ralph jumps up and starts shouting; he has seen a ship in the distance.
* The boys start to rush up the hill to fan the fire and make more smoke as a signal, but the fire has gone out. Irresponsible and uncaring, Jack and his hunters have not bothered to tend the fire and keep it burning.
* Shortly after the discovery of the dead fire, the hunters are chanting something warlike and carrying a dead pig on a stake.
* The excited party tries to describe the hunt in detail, talking especially about the kill and the blood.
* Ralph interrupts and bitterly accuses them of irresponsibility for letting the fire burn out. The hunters, still in the grip of the thrill of the hunt, ignore him.
* Ralph once again tries to make them realize the size of their mistake. Piggy also criticizes Jack and the hunters.
* In quick and angry retaliation, Jack lashes out at Piggy, powerfully slapping his face and breaking one lens of his glasses. Piggy, who is basically blind without his glasses, begins to wail, and Jack meanly imitates him.
* Ralph is shocked at Jack's cruelty and yells at him once again.
* Jack makes an apology to everyone for letting the fire die out and ruining their chance for rescue, but ...
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* Ralph once again tries to make them realize the size of their mistake. Piggy also criticizes Jack and the hunters.
* In quick and angry retaliation, Jack lashes out at Piggy, powerfully slapping his face and breaking one lens of his glasses. Piggy, who is basically blind without his glasses, begins to wail, and Jack meanly imitates him.
* Ralph is shocked at Jack's cruelty and yells at him once again.
* Jack makes an apology to everyone for letting the fire die out and ruining their chance for rescue, but Jack refuses to apologize to Piggy.
* A wall of bitterness has been confidently planted between Ralph and Jack.
* Piggy's glasses are used to light a fire; they roast the pig and have a feast. Jack is again mean to Piggy and refuses to give him any of the roasted pork.
* Simon shares his meat with Piggy.
* To celebrate their winning capture, the hunters wildly dance and sing around the fire.
* Ralph, envious of their delight and achievement and angry of their unreliability, cuts short their fun and calls a meeting.
Ch. 5
* Ralph is walking alone and thinking on the bad state of things. Organization and regulations are quickly falling apart, and things must be altered if they are to survive.
* He makes a decision that the meeting he has just called must be serious business and that he must act like a real chief.
* When the group meets, Ralph yells at the get-together for their failure to work together and follow the rules. He reminds them that they need to build huts, store drinking water, and keep the fire burning if they are to survive and be rescued.
* Ralph then tries to cool their fears, mainly those of the little ones, and Piggy joins in his efforts.
* Jack crudely disrupts, talks about beasts, and stirs up the flames of fear.
* Simon makes clear that the only beast present amongst them is the beast in their inside them.
* Their fears grow stronger and they tell monster stories.
* Before long, they are all absorbed by fear, and out of control.
* The meeting turns chaotic with everyone shouting at once, and Ralph fails to regain control. He realizes that the group is fearfully close to losing its sanity, and he is helpless in preventing it.
* Led by Jack, the boys run away from the meeting. Only Ralph, Simon, and Piggy are left. Piggy suggests that the leader blow on the conch to call the boys back. Ralph fears the call will be ignored, so he does not even try.
* Aggravated and miserable over his need for achievement in controlling the meeting, Ralph thinks about quitting from his place as chief.
* Piggy and Simon tell him that he needs to keep power in order to have any chance of surviving.
Ch. 6
* While everyone is sleeping, two warplanes fight in the sky over the island. A dead parachutist floats down, undetected by the sleeping boys. When he lands on the mountaintop, his parachute gets tangled in the trees.
* Early the next morning, Sam and Eric, the twins who have responsibility of the fire, wake up after sleeping through the night instead of tending the flames. When they fan the fire to bring, they see the clustered body of the dead airman and hear the eerie flapping of the parachute.
* They rush down to the safety of the beach.
* They shake awake Ralph and tell him that they have seen the beast.
* A scared Ralph calls for a meeting, where the twins give an exaggerated report of the beast and tell how it has attacked them.
* The hunters propose that they arm themselves with their spears, ready to attack the beast. The other boys join the search party, afraid of being left behind on the beach.
* Piggy is left with the little kids.
* Before leaving, Jack and Ralph argue again as Jack tries to declare his power over the hunt, but the predicament quickly goes by.
* Soon, they all set out in search of the beast. They reach the other side of the island and locate caves that they have never seen before.
* Ralph goes inside to search for the beast. Before long, he has calmed himself and he realizes he is no longer frightened.
* Not to be outdone by his rival, Jack soon joins Ralph in the cave. The two of them explore the cave and the hill above, and for a brief time they feel a new friendship in the midst of this unexplored territory.
* The other boys also forget their fear and start exploring the hill, pushing large rocks into the sea below and rushing around excitedly.
* Everyone seems to have forgotten the purpose of their exploration.
* Ralph grows angry with the playing of the boys and reminds them that they must continue to search the rest of the island in order to calm the fears that have run out of control.
* The boys mumble about mutiny, but just obey Ralph's orders and continue the search.
B.) Piggy
* Piggy and Ralph are becoming closer and Ralph always has Piggy to back him up when Jack interferes in his decisions for the group.
* Piggy is acquiring some self confidence now and is not afraid to stand up and speak how he feels. Piggy, Ralph, and Simon are basically the only on the island that have a sense of what to do in order to survive.
* Piggy's glasses now have only one lens due to the fact that Jack slapped them off of his face and broke them.
* Piggy's glasses were a flaw at first in his eyes but now they are what might actually save them.
* Piggy is one of the few older boys who is close with the young boys and looks after them.
C.) The need for social order is at an all time high. The boys are just off and doing their own thing. The young boys are scared and can not really help out much while the choir is ravaging and killing just to talk about it. There is still a need for shelter and the huts still have not been built which will be vital for them if they need protection from weather or anything. It is starting to show that they need order to control everyone. People are starting to lower their moral standards and the compassion in the boys is starting to die down, especially the choir boys.
D.) Conch Shell- People are starting to loose respect for the conch and Ralph and starting to realize that. Ralph and the conch go hand and hand. The conch has basically been with Ralph since he has been on the island and everyone had a lot of respect for bother of them. However the respect is starting to die down.
Fire- The fire was the first thing they accomplished on the island and is what is supposed to save them. People are not worrying anymore and are all loosing responsibility. The fires are always dieing out, and when they need it, it is not there due to someone's lack of responsibility. I think the fire symbolizes the group. At first it was all together and thriving and little by little it died down and soon became nothing. And once in a while it would spark back up again but before me knew it, it was out.
