The chapter starts with Ralph and Piggy at the beach, the morning after Simon’s death. Ralph feels terribly guilty for killing Simon with Jack’s tribe though did not meant it, he thought it was murder. On the other hand, Piggy strongly denied what Ralph said and insisted that it was an accident.
SamnEric reports to Ralph that the other bigluns joined Jack’s tribe and left. Ralph was starting to lose hope in getting rescued, but Piggy tried to comfort the chief that there is hope.
Meanwhile, Jack punished one of his tribal members for no good reason and is a very harsh leader towards his tribe. Everyone in his tribe has been painted and preferred Jack to be leader, despite the fact that he was the cause of the fire to be unlit to be rescued. Jack and his tribe believed that the beast was still alive despite killing “it” at the beach last night. He would order his tribe to do weird rituals to ensure that the beast leaves them alone.
Jack call Roger and Maurice to hatch a plan to steal Piggy’s glasses.
On the beach, Ralph decided to create a signal fire there, clinging for hope to be rescued. While the boys were asleep at the beach, Jack’s boys attempted to steal Piggy’s glasses and succeeded. Ralph wondered why the boys did not steal the conch. Piggy was desperate to have his glasses, without them, he is blind as a bat.
>The effect of Simon’s death on the boys
>Ralph losing power of the boys, despite being chief
>Jack and his tribe turning savage
>The loss of hope in getting rescued of Ralph
>Piggy losing his glasses
>Losing civilisation to savagery
>Process of losing power and control of Ralph
Starting to lose hope and confidence in leading the boys because of Jack brainwashing them to go against him. But with the help of Piggy, he regains hope to be rescued.
The bigluns in Jack’s tribe
Quickly turning savage because of Jack, starts worshiping the head of the sow and their belief in the Beast became stronger.
“the fragile white conch still gleamed by the polish seat”
The conch usually represents power and control between the boys but it is said to be fragile. This means that power and control can also be destroyed easily, like how Ralph is losing power over the other boys because of Jack.
There is a repetition of this being said by Piggy. Piggy is convinced that what they did to Simon was not murder, but the more he repeats himself he realises that they actually did murder Simon but does not want to admit it. This shows how much Piggy can be a coward and not facing the problem.
“The fire was dying on them”
The fire represents hope of the boys that they will be rescued, and is dying on them. The loss of hope being saved made the boys at the beach become more desperate but still clinging on what is left of hope left.
This was said by Piggy and thought that the beast has come for them. This shows how Piggy is starting to be illogical and smart as at first, he knew that the beast did not exist but now he believe in it.
“He was chief now in truth”
Jack finally had beat Ralph in being chief and now has power and control of the boys, making them more savage.