This chapter details the escalating conflict between Ralph's focus on order and rescue and Jack's descent into primal savagery, culminating in a symbolic encounter that questions the inherent nature of humanity.
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In chapter 8, Ralph tells Piggy that they saw the beast, but Piggy doesn't
believe it. Jack says the hunters will handle the beast,
but Ralph calls them nothing but boys armed with sticks, which is what they are.
Jack tells the hunters that Ralph insulted them. He's not fit to be chief, and
he calls for a vote, but he doesn't win, so he runs away, literally saying he
won't play anymore. Ralph tries to stop him, but Piggy says, "Let him go."
Ralph hopes he'll be back. Simon says they should go to the mountaintop because
there's nothing else they can do at this point, but once again, no one takes him
seriously. Piggy suggests they light a fire on the
beach, and everyone agrees. Now Ralph and Piggy talk, and they note that a lot of
the big kids want to be with Jack, and this depresses Ralph. He's trying to help
everyone. Why don't they see that? Jack says that he needs to take care of the
beasts. They need to kill it, and they need to focus on that first and foremost.
Jack and Roger go hunting, and everyone laughs at the blood on Jack's hands. Jack says they'll have a
feast. They'll invite Ralph and his boys, and then they'll raid the other camp and
steal some fire. Before they go, the boys leave a pig's head on a stick as an offering for the beast, and this becomes really important. Ralph says
he's scared. He doesn't understand why the others don't want to maintain the
fire. Jack invites the other boys to the feast, and they end up deciding to go.
While they're at the feast, Simon once again steals off by himself into the
woods. This time, hot and delirious, he begins a hallucinogenic type of dream,
where the head on the stick starts to speak to him, and it's referred to as the Lord
of the Flies. A lot of important stuff in this chapter.
Ralph doesn't understand the appeal of Jack's aggressiveness and Jack's
reaction to the vote storming away shows the reader that he's still a child, and
in a lot of ways sees this as a game. Jack paints his face and tells his
followers that they're gonna have fun and they're gonna hunt and he and his
followers also get a lot of sick glee out of killing a mother pig, destroying
it, ripping its guts out, and getting covered in blood. Now another important part happens
when Simon hears from the Lord of the Flies. First of all, it tells him, "I'm part
of you," meaning savagery is a natural state of humans. There's dramatic irony
in the beast itself speaking to Simon. Is it inside him, inside all the boys? Is it
true evil and the nature of man? Lord of the Flies is a translation of Beelzebub,
a name used for Satan, and Simon's encounter with this character show his
odds of goodness up against this darkness possibly inside of us all. Now
the hunters also have an anger and an aggression that's getting out of control
at this point, and we see that in the way they put the
lives of the piglets in danger to kill the mother. That shows that they're not
thinking a couple steps ahead. How are those piglets going to nurse and
fend for themselves? There is no future in their immediate living.
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