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Fiction

Notes landscape, says assertively, “this belongs to us.” The three decide that they need food to eat,
and continue to explore the island, this time in search of food.
The boys descend the mountain into brush area, where they consider and then decide against
eating some foliage they call “candle-buds.” Shortly thereafter, they discover a piglet caught
in a curtain of creepers. Jack draws his knife but pauses before he has a chance to stab the pig,
which frees itself and runs away. Jack insists that he was merely looking for the right spot on
the pig on which to stab it, but his white face suggests that he is unaccustomed to such
violence. But he vows that next time, he will show no mercy toward his prey.

Analysis

The opening chapter of Lord of the Flies establishes the novel as a political allegory. As a
whole, the novel explores the need for political organization and dramatizes the clash in
human nature between instinctual and learned behavior. In Chapter One, Golding depicts the
deserted island as a place where the abandoned boys have a choice between returning to a
pre-civilized state of humanity and re-imposing social order upon the group. Thus, the situation
tests a Hobbesian hypothesis by throwing the children almost fully into a state of nature. The
first chapter of the novel confirms that the boys have no society, no rules, and no concerns
beyond personal survival. All they have is a set of histories. The narrative thrust of the novel
traces how the boys develop their own miniature society and the difficulties that inevitably
arise from this development. Chapter One foreshadows these events by depicting the boys as
alternately frightened, ignorant, and exhilarated in the face of their newfound freedom.

Accordingly, Chapter One immediately establishes the tension between the impulse towards
savagery and the need for civilization that exists within the human spirit. Freed from adult
authority and the mores of society, Ralph plays in the beach naked, a practice that at the time
of Golding’s writing was commonly associated with pre-industrial cultures believed to be
“uncivilized” or “savage.” Yet if Ralph’s nudity is an uncivilized practice, it is also a reference
to another popular conception of pre-civilized life, that of the Garden of Eden. Ralph does not
panic over the children’s abandonment on the island, but he approaches it as a paradise in
which he can play happily. The reader, aware of the outcome of the Biblical Eden, should treat
the boys’ “paradise” with similar skepticism. Like Eden, the island paradise will collapse; the
questions are how and why.
Characterization emphasizes the tension Golding establishes between anarchy and political
organization. The first sign of disturbance on the seemingly tranquil island is the appearance
of Jack and his choir. Golding describes Jack and his compatriots as militaristic and aggressive,
with Jack’s bold manner and the choir marching in step. They are the first concrete example
of civilization on the island, with a decidedly negative feel. Jack seems a physical manifestation
of evil; with his dark cloak and wild red hair, his appearance is ominous, even Satanic.
Accordingly, Jack is militaristic and authoritarian. He gives orders to his choir as if they were
troops, allowing room for neither discussion nor dissent. Significantly, the role that he first
chooses for his choir is that of hunters-he selects that task which is most violent and most
related to military values. Yet, as his inability to kill the pig demonstrates, Jack is not yet
accustomed to violence. Golding indicates that Jack must prepare himself to commit a violent
act, for he is still constrained by his own youthful cowardice or by societal rules that oppose
violent behavior. While his authoritarian attitude indicates a predisposition to violence, Jack
must shed the lessons of society and conscience before he can kill.
In both temperament and physical appearance, Ralph is the antithesis of Jack. Golding idealizes
Ralph from the beginning, lavishing praise on his physical beauty. In the island sun he immediately
achieves a golden hue, a physical manifestation of his winning charisma. Ralph’s value is not

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