The Island has been visited times.
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Beelzebub's neighbors
List of Characters
Ralph- Ralph is a tall, blond boy who establishes himself as
the leader soon after the boys crash on the island. He
struggles against Jack for the respect of the boys.
Throughout the novel he is the advocate of order and
civilization.
Jack- Jack is the leader of the boy's choir. Ralph puts him
in charge of hunting and maintaining the signal fire.
Eventually he revolts against Ralph and leads a savage pack
of boys to the far side of the island. Jack is unconcerned
with order but thrives on the thrill of the hunt.
Piggy- Piggy is an obese boy with bad vision which forces him
to wear thick glasses. He is picked on by the other boys
because of his weight. Despite his physical weakness, Piggy
is very intelligent. He befriends Ralph and socializes well
with the littluns. Piggy is killed by Jack's tribe near the
end of the story.
Simon- Simon is a Christ-like figure. He doesn't socialize
much with the other boys, and is neither liked or disliked by
them. He spends much of his time wandering alone in the
jungle. Simon is the only character who converses with The
Lord of the Flies. He is killed by the other boys on a
stormy night.
Roger- Roger is Jack's closest friend. He is a good hunter,
and is very sadistic. He tortures pigs, and Piggy. Other
than his cruelty, Roger has few characteristics.
Sam 'n Eric- Sam and Eric are twins who are so similar that
they are referred to as one person by the other boys. They
do what they are told by both Ralph and Jack.
Little'uns- The little'uns are set apart as a different
society than the older boys. They lack recognition and
interest of the severvity of the situation. They are all
frightened and depend on the older boys as gaurdians.
Percival- Percival is the only individual that Golding
singles out of the little'uns to their personify their
emotional status. He displays their fear of the beast,
and progressive mental derangement.
Plot Summary
The book opens after the airplane crashes on the deserted
island. The airplane was shot down because there is a war
currently taking place. Ralph and Piggy are the first
characters that you are introduced to. They find each other,
and begin talking to one another on the beach. They discover
that the pilots are deceased, and therefore there are no
adults on the island. This fact gives them both much
delight.
Ralph and Piggy explore the island untill they find a
conch shell. Ralph blows the shell, calling out to the
other boys who were scattered around the area. Jack and
his boys' choir arrive, marching in formation, wearing their
uniforms. After most of the boys had congregated, an
election takes place to decide who should be the leader of
the group. Ralph and Jack are the leading candidates.
Ralph wins because of his initiative in gathering the boys,
and his possesion of the conch shell.
Ralph's first duty as leader is to appoint Jack the
leader of the soldiers and hunters. He did this so that
Jack's feelings would not be hurt because of his loss of
the election. Then Ralph, after promising not to, tells
the other boys Piggy's dispised nickname.
The meeting disperses and Ralph sets out with Jack and
Simon to explore the island. When exploring, they stumble
across a wild pig. Jack prepares to kill it, but is
unable to bring himself to slaughter the helpless animal.
The boys reassemble to create the rules and
punishments for breaking them. The only rule they decide
on is that whoever holds the conch shell must be heard by
the others. At this meeting a little'un describes a
beast that he saw the night before in the jungle. The
older boys reassure the little'uns that it was only a
nightmare, but the seeds of fear had already taken root.
During this meeting they also organize the construction
and maintenance of a signal fire. The fire is built and
lit using Piggy's glasses. The flames soon become out of
control and it is suspected that one of the little'uns was
burned because of their negligence.
Ralph and Simon erect three huts upon the beach while
Jack hunts and the others swim in the lagoon. Ralph
complains the Jack about the unwillingness of the boys
to work. Jack's obsession with killing the pig becomes
evident when Ralph requests that the choir boys build
huts instead of roaming the jungle in search of food.
Meanwhile, Simon wanders off in the jungle alone.
The boys become delusional in the tropical heat and
Piggy alone recognizes that they are only mirages. The
little'uns become sick from the overripeness of the fruit
and suffer from chronic diarrhea. Percival stays in a hut
weeping for two days refusing to eat or speak. Jack and
his hunters finally catch and kill the pig. They roast
the pig, and have a feast upon the flesh of their kill.
Ralph once again calls a meeting to lecture them about
their inability to set rules and stick with them. The
fear of the beast is spreading faster, and Ralph tries to
allievate it with common sense in a hope to allay them
with him. Jack, on the other hand, uses the fear of
the beasts to destroy any chance for Ralph's success.
Darkness once again falls upon the huddled masses of
little'uns, and they begin to tell stories of monsters.
This spreads more panic and fear within the group. It
is then that the meeting becomes disorderly, and the
meeting dissasembles with Jack as leader. Only Piggy,
Simon, and Ralph are left. Ralph becomes disheartened,
and wishes to give up his chieftainship. Piggy and Simon
talk him out of this.
That night two aircraft involved in the war engage in
a dogfight. There are many explosions but the sleeping
boys are not awaire of the commotion. One airplane is
blown up and the pilots corpse floats down into the
jungle. The firewatchers, Sam and Eric, wake up and
discover the body of the dead pilot. They think it is the
beast and flee in terror.
They alert the other boys of the danger and tell of
their escape from the beast. Ralph, with a party of
boys with wooden spears, goes into the jungle search for
the beast. While searching, they come upon some caves
on the other side of the island. They search these caves
but find nothing. The search party forgets thier purpose
and disbands.
They party goes back to the signal fire to see that
Sam and Eric, who were in charge of maintaining it, were
gone. The party rebuilds the fire under Ralph's order.
Jack organizes another hunting party. They soon come
upon a wild boar and pursue it. In the confusion Jack is
stabbed with a tusk and receives a small injury. The pig
escapes into the jungle. Darkness falls and Simon
volunteers to go back to the beach to tell Piggy that
they will not return to the huts till very late. Ralph,
Roger, and Jack continue searching alone and come upon the
corpse of the parachuter. They believe that it is the
beast and flee in terror.
The next morning Jack blows the conch and calls and
assembly. During this meeting he confirms the existance
of the beast, and says that Ralph is a coward and unfit
to remain cheif. When the other boys refuse to vote
Ralph out of power, Jack becomes enraged and decides to
start his own party on the other side of the island. He
walks off alone.
Ralph and the boys rebuild the signal fire. When they
have completed the job, they find out that many boys have
wandered off to join Jack's party.
Jack's party has covered themselves in warpaint and
begin another hunt. They succesfully catch and brutally
kill a pig. They decapitate the pig and place the
pighead on a pole as a gift to the beast. After the
killing of the pig, Jack and a few boys raid Ralph's
camp. They steal burning sticks from the fire and invite
the boys to a pig roast at his side of the island.
Meanwhile, Simon is alone in the jungle. He comes
upon the pig's head and it begins to speak to him. The
head tells Simon that the evil is inside of the boys, and
threatons Simon until he passes out. When Simon wakes up,
he descovers that the beast is not a monster but only the
corpse of a pilot. He runs back to Jack's party to tell
the boys the news.
All of the boys attend Jack's feast in the evening,
even Ralph and Piggy. Jack invites those at the pig
roast to join his party, and most of the boys agree to.
As darkness falls and a storm approaches, Jack and his
party begin dancing. The primal dance incites a fury in
the boys and all join in the mayhem. Simon walks in on
the party during the dance. They boys, in their maddened
state, think that he is the beast and mob him. Simon is
savagely torn apart by them. The storm breaks after he is
dead and the boys run for shelter.
The next morning Ralph and Piggy wake to find that
everyone but Sam and Eric, and a few little'uns have
joined Jack. Ralph and Piggy are deeply troubled and
disturbed by the slaying of Simon.
At castle rock, Jack rules his tribe with an iron
hand. He punishes all that oppose him and the boys cower
under his reign. That night, Jack and a party raid
Ralph's tribe again and steal Piggy's glasses.
The next morning Ralph and his boys go to castle rock
to get Piggy's glasses back from Jack. Jack's tribe
mock them and throw rocks at them until Jack and a
hunting party appear from out of the woods. Jack tells
Ralph to leave his side of the island, and Ralph asks for
Piggy's glasses back. They two argue and get in a fight.
When they are separated Jack orders that Sam and Eric be
disarmed and bound. This act enrages Ralph and he begins
screaming at Jack. The two begin fighting again. Piggy
interupts the fight and tries to pursued the boys that
they must preserve justice and order. The other boys
mock him. Roger, on castle rock, pushes a boulder down
the slope at Piggy. Piggy, who can't see without his
glasses, is crushed. The other boys start throwning
spears at Ralph, and he runs away into the jungle.
Ralph hides in the jungle while Sam and Eric remain
with Jack's tribe. Ralph finds the pig's head in the
jungle. He is disgusted by it, but arms himself with the
stick that it was mounted upon. Ralph sneaks back to
castle rock where Sam and Eric tell him of the hunt that
Jack has organized to catch him. Ralph sneaks away and
hides in a thick thicket.
In the morning, he hears that Sam and Eric have told
Jack where he was hiding. Jack's hunters can't get at
him in the thicket, so they set it on fire in an attempt
to smoke him out. Ralph bursts out of the thicket and
flees into the jungle. Jack and his party pursues him.
Ralph runs away from the hunters in the jungle until he
is forced out into the open at the beach. He collapses
with exhaustion on the beach. Looking up, he finds that
a friendly naval officer is standing over him. Jack and
his party burst onto the beach and stop at the sight of
the officer. The officer is upset to find out that some
boys had died. Ralph and the other boys burst into tears
at realization of what they had done.
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