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Fiction

Notes brutality surpasses even Jack’s. While Jack condones and participates in violence against animals
and humans alike, it is Roger who orchestrates and carries out the murder of Piggy. Significantly,
he does not seek authorization from Jack for the murder or for the implied torture of Samneric.
Rather, his sadism appears to be entirely self-interested, and it suggests that he is a potential
threat to Jack’s authority.

Task How was Piggy Killed?

The novel’s major symbol of civilization, the conch shell, appears in this chapter only to be
destroyed after Roger pushes the boulder onto Piggy. This crucial act provokes and foreshadows
Ralph’s destruction of the Lord of the Flies, the primary cultural symbol of Jack’s tribe, in the
next and final chapter of the novel. The gesture will suggest Ralph’s own descent into savagery
and violence. The conch, an established marker of Ralph’s authority and a consistent symbol
for liberal democracy throughout the novel, has lost power; Jack and his hunters long ago
refused to recognize it as a symbol of authority. In this chapter, the conch is finally destroyed
in a demonstration of the triumph of Jack’s will over Ralph’s.
As Ralph flees from the spears of Jack’s hunters, Golding again draws the reader’s attention
to the lower, immoral, animalistic humanity that lurks inside every individual. Ralph is literally
being hunted like the pigs on the island, a moment that was foreshadowed in previous chapters
when Roger pretended to be a pig in the hunting dance, and when Jack suggested to the group
that they should hunt a littluns. Boy and animal become indistinct, and as Ralph flees he is
propelled by a primitive subhuman instinct. His terror is that of a hunted animal: instinctual,
unthinking, and primal. Ralph, the character who throughout the novel stood for pragmatism
and civilization, has been reduced to an animal of prey, just as Jack and his hunters have
reduced themselves to predatory beasts.
Note also the presence of animals in this penultimate chapter. Throughout the novel, Golding
has used animal imagery and metaphors to call the reader’s attention to the delicate line
between human and animal nature, as well as to highlight the hostile relationship between
civilization and the natural world that civilization subdues in order to ensure human survival.
As Ralph flees the spears of Jack and his hunters, the last thing he registers is the headless
body of the sow that Jack’s tribe had just slaughtered. The image of the sow’s body evokes
both the Lord of the Flies, a pig’s head on a stick that has signified evil, and Piggy, whose
brutal murder marks the final destruction of civilization on the island.

Chapter Twelve: Cry of the Hunters
Ralph hides in the jungle, worrying about his wounds and the inhuman violence into which
the boys on the island have devolved. He thinks about Simon and Piggy and realizes that
civilization is now impossible among the boys. Ralph, who is not far from the Castle Rock,
thinks he sees Bill in the distance. He concludes that the boy is not Bill-at least not any more.
This boy is a savage, entirely different from the boy in shorts and shirt he once knew. Ralph
is certain that Jack will never leave him alone. Noticing the Lord of the Flies, now just a skull
with the skin and meat eaten away, Ralph decides to fight back. He knocks the skull from the
stick, which he takes, intending to use it as a spear. From a distance, Ralph can still make out
the boys’ chant: “Kill the beast. Cut his throat. Spill his blood.”
That night, armed with his makeshift spear, Ralph crawls undetected to the lookout near
Castle Rock. He calls to Sam and Eric, who are now guarding the entrance. Sam gives Ralph

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