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Fiction

Notes martyr, is established in this chapter as a prophet whose words are not heeded until it is too
late. Golding uses Piggy’s advice as foreshadowing: failure to heed Piggy, however absurd he
may sound, leads to dire consequences. Chapter Two contains the first example of Piggy’s
prophecy: after the trip to the mountain, one of the boys seems to be missing. The implication
is that if the others had heeded Piggy’s advice and allowed him to keep track of the number
of boys and their names, there would be no confusion over whether one is missing.
Despite the boys’ dislike for Piggy, they appear to recognize that he is an important presence
on the island. His glasses enable them to start a fire on the mountain. In particular, Piggy is
useful for Jack, who remains more interested in hunting and causing pain and disorder than
in contributing or constructing anything of use. It is significant that the development he is
most supportive of is building a fire, which is by nature destructive even though it can be
used for good. In this chapter, Golding also establishes Jack as a boy who tends to dominate.
Jack’s statement about the English being the “best at everything” also suggests his nationalistic
impulses. Jack adheres to the colonial English position that depended on the perceived superiority
of the British to justify the colonization and forced development of other peoples, foreshadowing
his brutal behavior in subsequent chapters. His statement that they are “not savages” will, by
the end of the novel, appear deeply ironic as Jack and his tribe devolve into unthinkable
depths of brutality and self-destruction.
The boys’ childishness is again highlighted as the boys face the challenge of meeting their
basic needs for survival. The immediate dangers that the boys face are few, for on the island
there is fruit, plus the pigs, to eat, yet as children they are overcome with irrational and
diffuse terror. Golding suggests that their own sense of fear is the greatest danger to these
boys. It is fear over a snake that causes the younger boys to panic and to exaggerate the
dangers on the island, causing disorder and commotion. Both Jack and Piggy contribute to this
sense of dread. Jack does so through his aggressive stance, which contains the implicit notion
that they are in danger and must defend themselves from some unknown force. Piggy does
so through his constant fatalism. It is here that Ralph best demonstrates his superiority for
leadership, displaying the most calm of any of the characters and encouraging the others to
be confident in their rescue.

Did u know? Ralph is established here not only as a political leader but also as a parental
figure whose job is to reassure the scared boys and protect them from their
own fears and doubts.

As the narrative moves closer to dramatic conflict and tragedy, Golding distinguishes Lord of
the Flies from the romantic adventure stories that were popular among boys of the mid-
twentieth century. In the second meeting, Ralph encourages the boys to have fun on the island
and to think of the experience as one that would happen “in a novel.” Immediately, the boys
begin shouting out the names of their favorite island adventures, including The Coral Island.
The Coral Island (1857), written by R.M. Ballantyne, was a popular nineteenth-century novel
that followed the happy adventures of three unsupervised boys on a tropical island. Golding,
who found the narrative of The Coral Island naive and unlikely, wrote Lord of the Flies partly
as a response to this novel. The mention of these idealized island narratives at the outset of
Golding’s dystopian tale is thus ironic because the events to follow are nothing like the entertaining
experiences of the boys on The Coral Island. Through the explicit comparison, the reader is
encouraged to recognize Golding’s work as a critical commentary on popular adventure fiction
on the basis of its optimistic unreality.

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