Lord of the Flies (ORR 2)

Author: William Golding

Title: Lord of the Flies

Genre: Historic/Adventure Fiction

This week I read the ninth chapter of Lord of the Flies. This was a short, yet a very important and very dramatic chapter in this book. This chapter started off with Simon becoming conscious and being aware of his surroundings. He sees Jack and his tribe near the beach, but he also notices a dead figure under a parachute, which was previously thought to have been the beast. Later in the chapter, after Sam and Eric, as well as some other boys from Ralph's group leave to go to Jack's party, Piggy and Ralph also give in and join the celebration. At Jack's tribe's "party", all of the boys eat the pig the hunters have previously caught, and they also drink coconut milk. After the feast, most of the boys agree that Jack should be the new leader and the new chief of the whole group. However, things go terribly wrong, when the boys start chanting and performing their well-known hunting ritual. They see something come from the bushes, and they start believing that it is the beast. They start beating it with sticks, biting it, etc. Finally, it becomes obvious that the beast is Simon, but the boys do not seem to care. The chapter ends with the description of Simon's dead body floating on the sea. In my opinion, this chapter signifies the beginning of a catastrophe among all the boys. All of them are becoming extremely primitive, and are starting to behave like animals. Even Simon's cries didn't stop them from killing him. Also, the way Jack and his hunters killed the sow with no mercy shows that they are going crazy, and that they will start hurting each other, in an attempt to gain complete control over everyone else. Personally, I felt horrible that Simon was killed, because he seemed to be one of the only boys who would be able to keep the peace on the island. He never seemed to get into conflicts, and he always had rational ideas and thinking. The death of Simon is symbolic in many different ways. Firstly, I believe that it shows that the beast isn't actually real. The beast are the boys' conflicts, and their primitive ways of behaving that are going to completely destruct their society. I am quite sure that many more deaths will occur before the end of the book. Simon's death could also signify the fact that the boys have lost their signal, or sign, that they have so eagerly been expecting from the grown-ups. Simon was the only one who knew about the man under the parachute, yet was killed whilst attempting to share the important piece of information. Who knows, maybe is Simon had been able to tell everyone about the man, everything could have been different. Maybe all of the boys would still have some hope for survival and saving left in them.