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Unit 26: William Golding — Lord of the Flies: Detailed Study of Text-II

In his flight, he catches sight of the headless sow from the earlier hunt. After Ralph departs, Notes
Jack casts his gaze on the bound Samneric. He orders them to join the tribe, but when they
request only to be released, he bullies them, poking the twins in the ribs with a spear. The
other boys cheer him on but fall silent when they notice Roger edging past Jack to confront
the twins.

Analysis
As the tension between Ralph and Jack comes to a violent head, Golding again establishes the
conflict between the two boys as an explicit struggle between savagery and civilization. The
two continue to clash over previously developed points of conflict: Ralph criticizes Jack for his
lack of responsibility and his ambivalence toward rules of order and justice, and Jack continues
to blame Ralph for his lack of direct action against the beast. Their accusations express and
emphasize their respective visions of human society on the island: while Ralph is oriented
towards a cooperative community organized around the common goal of getting rescued, Jack
adheres to a militaristic ideal and unites his tribe around a shared interest in hunting, self-
gratification, and fear of the mythical island beast.
Unfortunately, Ralph’s criticisms fall on deaf ears, for they are based on the assumption that
Jack and his hunters are members of a society with moral codes and regulations. Ralph is
appealing to standards Jack no longer believes in, as is symbolized by his glee when the conch
shell is crushed. The shift in the struggle between Ralph and Jack is subtle but significant.
Previously Jack and Ralph debated over the type of civilization that should predominate on
the island: the former advocated a militaristic culture and the latter a liberal community. Now,
with Jack’s repudiation of any rational system, the two now argue over whether there should
be any ordered society at all on the island. One might think of Jack as Plato’s Callicles from
the Gorgias or Plato’s Thrasymachus from the Republic.
The political subtext of the chapter is most evident, however, in the final confrontation between
Ralph, Piggy, and Jack. As Ralph and Piggy face Jack and the other boys, Golding clearly
delineates the tension between civilization and animalistic savagery. Before they face Jack,
Ralph and Piggy deliberately readopt the manners and customs of English society, grooming
themselves and dressing themselves as proper English boys. They do so to exaggerate their
differences from the hunters, who wear little if any clothing and who adorn themselves with
“native” makeup. When Piggy speaks to the boys, he explicitly expresses the major question
the novel explores, asking whether it is better to live sensibly according to rules and standards
of behavior or to live in a state of anarchy (again, one might turn to Plato’s Republic for
guidance on this question and others raised by Piggy and the events of the novel). It is
significant that the most insightful, reasoned statement in the novel is the one that provokes
the most horrific tragedy on the island: the murder of the rational Piggy by the brutal and
amoral Roger.
With his death, Piggy joins Simon as the second martyr among the boys. There are several
parallels between their respective murders. The two outcasts both die when they shatter the
illusions held by the other boys. Simon dies when he exposes the truth about the nonexistent
beast, while the hunters kill Piggy when he forces them to see their behavior as barbaric and
irresponsible. The murder of Piggy, however, is a more chilling event, for the boys killed
Simon out of an instinctual panic. In contrast to the frenzied hunters, Roger has a clear understanding
of his actions when he tips the rock that kills Piggy. This event thus completes the progression
of behavior that Golding developed in the previous two chapters: the boys have moved from
unintentional violence to completely premeditated murder. The chapter’s final image, in which
Piggy’s murderer, Roger, edges past Jack to approach the bound twins, implies that Roger’s

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