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

a chunk of meat but does not agree to join him again. Sam tells Ralph to leave. The twins tell Notes
Ralph that Roger has sharpened a stick at both ends, and they warn him that Jack will be
sending the entire tribe after Ralph the following day. Dejected, Ralph crawls away to a
thicket where he can safely sleep. When he awakes in the morning, he can hear Jack torturing
one of the twins and talking to Roger outside the thicket where he hides. They are trying to
find out where Ralph is hiding. Several other boys are rolling rocks down the mountain,
trying to break into the thicket. More boys are trying to climb in.
Just as Ralph decides to find a new hiding place, he smells smoke. He realizes with horror that
Jack has set the forest on fire in an attempt to smoke Ralph out of hiding. He also recognizes
that the fire will destroy all the fruit on the island, again endangering the boys’ basic survival.
Terrified, Ralph bolts from his hiding place, fighting his way past several of Jack’s hunters,
who are painted in wild colors and carrying sharpened wooden spears. Wielding their spears
menacingly, they chase Ralph through the forest. Weaving through the dense underbrush,
Ralph finally escapes to the beach, where he collapses in exhaustion and terror. He is aware
that Jack’s hunters are close behind.

When Ralph looks up, he is surprised to see a figure looming over him. He realizes that the
figure is a man-a naval officer! The officer tells Ralph that his ship saw the smoke and decided
to investigate the island. Ralph realizes that the officer is under the impression that the boys
have been only playing games. The other boys begin to appear from the forest, and the officer
begins to realize the chaos and violence among the stranded boys. Percival tries to tell him his
name and address but finds he can no longer remember it. Ralph, informing him that he is
boss, is sad to find he cannot answer the officer when asked how many boys are on the island.
The officer, aware that they have not been behaving according to the rules of civilization,
scolds the boys for not knowing exactly how many they are and for not being organized, as
the British are supposed to be.
Ralph insists to the officer that they were organized and good at first. The officer says he
imagines it was like the “show” in The Coral Island. Ralph, not understanding his reference,
begins to weep for the early days on the island, which now seem impossibly remote. He weeps
for the end of innocence and the darkness of man’s heart, and he weeps for the deaths of
Simon and Piggy. All of the other boys begin to cry as well.

Did u know? The officer turns away, embarrassed, while the other boys attempt to regain
their composure. The officer keeps his eye on the cruiser in the distance.

Analysis
The dynamic of interaction between Ralph and the other boys changes dramatically in the
opening scenes of the final chapter. Ralph is now an object to the other boys as he flees Jack’s
hunters, who seem unable to make the distinction between hunting pigs and hunting each
other. As Ralph observes, the other boys on the island bear no resemblance to the English
schoolboys first stranded there; they are complete savages without either moral or rational
sensibilities. As they cease to exhibit the qualities that define them as civilized human beings,
they no longer qualify as boys. This shift from human to animal identity is noticeable now in
Ralph. No longer considered human by the other boys, he must rely on his primitive senses
to escape the hunters. Because Ralph can no longer defend himself through any sense of
justice or morality, he must use his animal instinct and cunning to survive.

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