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Fiction

Notes indifferent. In previous chapters, Golding linked Simon to a vision of nature that was abundant,
beautiful, and Edenic. The Lord of the Flies represents a different kind of nature, a hellish one,
not one of paradise. Seen through Simon’s perspective, the Lord of the Flies is a Hobbesian
reminder that human life in the most basic state of nature is in fact nasty, brutish, short, and
worse. In keeping with Golding’s characterization of Simon as spiritual, the pig’s head has
deep religious connotations: the phrase “lord of the flies” is a translation of the Hebrew word
Ba’alzevuv, or its Greek equivalent Beelzebub. The pig’s head is thus a symbol of Satan, but,
as it reminds Simon, this devil is not an external force. Rather, it is a more nefarious evil, one
created by, and remaining within, the boys themselves.
Another interesting facet of Golding’s representation of nature in this chapter is evident in the
pig hunt. Historically, artists and novelists have associated the natural world with women, in
contrast to the civilized world, which they linked to men. Nature is often gendered in literature
as female and in this sense a threat to the civilized forces of masculinity. Accordingly, Golding
represents this pig hunt in gendered terms and with violent sexual imagery in that the boys
kill a female pig with a spear thrust into her anus, which evokes rape. In a novel that has no
female human characters appearing in any scene, and in which women are barely even mentioned,
this sow and what happens to her carries additional weight. The brutal murder of the sow
represents the boys’ attempts to subjugate and impose their will on the natural world, coded
here as feminine. We may again note the metaphoric link between Piggy and the sow, which
calls attention to the ways in which Piggy is himself coded as “feminine”: hairless, softly
rounded, and with several stereotypically girlish qualities, such as disliking physical labor. In
this way, too, the sow’s subjugation anticipates his own.

Chapter Nine: A View to a Death

On the humid, dark mountaintop, Simon’s fit passes into the weariness of sleep. Waking up,
Simon speaks aloud to himself, questioning what he will do next. His nose bleeding, he climbs
farther up the mountain, and in the dim light, catches sight of the Beast. This time, however,
he recognizes it as the body of the man who parachuted onto the island. Overwhelmed with
disgust and dread, Simon vomits. He realizes that he must inform the other boys of their
mistake, and he staggers down the mountain toward Jack’s camp to tell them what he has
found.
Ralph notices the clouds overhead and estimates that it will rain again. Ralph and Piggy play
in the lagoon, and Piggy gets mad when Ralph squirts water on him, getting his glasses wet.
They wonder where most of the other boys have gone, and they realize that they must have
gone to Jack’s feast for the childish fun of pretending to be a tribe and putting on war paint.
They decide to find them to ensure that the events do not spiral out of control.

Self Assessment

State the following sentences are True or False:
1. Ralph is selected leader because he had been the boys leader back at school.
2. The Choir is given the responsibility of hunting.
3. The Lord of the flies is nothing more than a pigs head on a stick.
4. Simon talks with the Lord of the flies in a dreamlike state.
5. Ralph comes to respect Piggy’s intelligence.

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