Jack and Ralph were opponents. Jack wanted other “littluns” and “biguns” join his tribe, where they doubtless would get life essentials such as protection from the beast, food and fun. The boys favoured Jack and finally chose him as their leader and that wasn’t really strange. In comparison with Jack Ralph’s speech lacked logic and lucidity. He didn’t sound confident and his last phrase “call an assembly” became his definite failure. Suddenly “the thunder exploded again” and the boys made a fuss for a short while. In order to keep his tribe and avoid separation Jack showing himself a wise leader ordered them to start dancing and singing. Even Piggy and Ralph - Jacks’ strong protagonists willingly joined that “demented but partly secure society”. Out of the blue “a thing” resembling the beast appeared. The boys under the influence of magical wild dances and songs were out for blood now. They mercilessly “struck, bit and tore” that beast as they had thought without realizing that, indeed it was Simon, who tried to tell them “something about a dead man on the hill”.
This extract represented a third-person narration and a narration of events interrupted by dialogues between Ralph and Jack and also by a separate remark of Piggy “The fire- rescue”. Other boys almost didn’t speak anything except for several phrases of agreement: “I will”; “Me”. It seems as if the author wanted to create an image of faceless and ready for all crowd.
The main characters - Jack and Ralph were described by the narrator indirectly through their speech, actions, and emotions. Though the author treated his main characters neutral, his stage directions helped each reader to conceive more essential details about them and their emotional state and to understand how the plot was going to unwind then. For example, such stage directions as: “Ralph went crimson”, “said Ralph breathlessly”, “confused and sweating” are quite impressive, brief and informative.
The first sentence of this chapter set the plot in motion. (“Evening was come, not with calm beauty but with the threat of violence”) The word “violence” was of ill omen that made a reader become alert in expectation of a calamity. Then the rising action started. It included several stages. The first one was presented by the dialogue between Ralph and Jack. Then the second stage went, where boy’s wild dances and songs were described. The song “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” was one of symbols of their transformation from civilized people to savages. And the sudden appearance of “the beast” which “was like a pain” revealed the third stage of the rising action. The climax begun with the phrase “Do him in!” They wanted the bloodshed so much that they forgot about everything and even weren’t able now to tell the beast from a human. They did everything quickly and unhesitatingly. This we could see in the sentence “At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore.” All the verbs were joined asyndetically that expressed the speed of action. To my mind in this very extract there was no falling action. It ended on the top of the climax.
The weather in "Lord of the Flies" played a major role in representing the attitudes, behavior and mood of the boys throughout the novel. In this very extract, on the night of Simon's killing, the author described the night as pitch black and there was great detail of a violent storm raging on the island and the ocean was extremely rough. The weather and ocean symbolized the boy's anger and hatred. Due to the descriptions of the weather the reader could feel that the tension gradually became stronger and stronger. At first ‘the thunder struck”, then it “exploded again so that a littlun started to whine” and finally “the sulphurous explosion beat down”.
Ralph was the properly socialized and civilized young man. He was attractive, charismatic, and decently intelligent. He demonstrated obvious common sense. Ralph is the one who conceived the meeting place, the fire, and the huts. He was a diplomat and a natural leader. The conch shell that he and Piggy had discovered on the beach at the very beginning of the novel became a powerful symbol of civilization and order. But over time he started to lose his authority and the power of organized thought. He tried to sound reasonable and stick to the point but he was a definite failure. He lost his verbal power, now he was speaking “breathlessly” and “tremulously”. Ralph and Piggy were those characters who identified Simon's death as a murder and had a realistic, unvarnished view of their participation. He felt both loathing and excitement over the kill they witnessed.
Ralph was a static and flat character. He faced an internal conflict. When the boys abandoned to keep the fire, Ralph started fearing about their future. He knew that keeping the fire was the only way of being rescued and escaping the fact of becoming savages. Ralph personified the symbol of democracy on the island.
Jack was Ralph’s antagonist in the novel. He represented the savagery and the desire the power. He was a good politician and a real rule breaker. Jack wore a mask and “power lay in the brown swell of his forearms”. He ignored democracy using fear to rule the island. He domineered over other boys forcing them to join his tribe without “calling an assembly” as Ralph did. (“Who will join my tribe?”) Jack knew how to keep the unity and always thought two steps ahead. When a rough storm started and “a wave of restlessness set the boys swaying and moving aimlessly”, Jack ordered them to dance and sing, eo ipso he gave them protection, confidence and hope. This character represented the dark side of human nature and proved how drastically people change when they are tested.
Jack is also a static character. In this very extract he didn’t face any conflict.
In conclusion, 'Lord of the Flies' was a classic book that even without the allegory would be fun to read. The Beast was the irrational fear of the boys portrayed in several physical forms throughout the novel.. Overall, Golding painted a broader canvas of the primary human struggle between the instinct to be obedient, morale and lawful and the instinct to overpower others and be selfish, disrespectful, immoral, and violent.
