Lord of the Flies Ch. 2-3 Litblog

Mary Ann MacDonald
Period 5
1-8-13

Chapters 2-3

Summary: The boys have another meeting and a young boy talks about seeing a beastie the night before and then the boys go to light a fire on the mountain to signal passing ships that they need to be rescued, and use Piggy's specs to shine a light and start the fire. The fire goes out of control and burns the rest of their wood supply. The boy who spoke of the beastie is missing and might be in the fire and the boys hear a drum-roll on the unfriendly side of the mountain. In chapter 3, the boys are trying to build shelters and catch pigs to eat but most of the boys aren't helping. Jack and Ralph leave to go find traces on the island and Simon finds shelter among a mat that the creepers had created.

Quotation: "He still says he saw the beastie. It came and went away again an' came back and wanted to eat him-" (36).

Quotation Significance: Piggy tells the group during a meeting of a beastie. This young boy says he saw it and it was basically a huge snake. The other boys laugh it off and says he had a nightmare because he saw it at night and swears it will come back the next night. Creepers (Snakes) surround the whole island and the boys aren't ready to realize that their island but not be as perfect as they thought.

Reflection: The boys don't know whether to be scared by the beastie the young boy talked about or assume it was a nightmare because the child is so young. The boys also just don't want to believe that their island might not be so perfect after all. The build a fire and use Piggy's specs without his permission to start it. Piggy becomes angry and starts to yell at Ralph but Ralph doesn't care what Piggy thinks and they get distracted by the horrible idea of the young boy stuck in the fire. Ralph tries to say the boy might be at camp but he has a feeling the boy is in the fire but doesn't want to risk his safety to help him. Ralph tries to rally the boys together to finish their shelters which are falling apart but the boys ignore him and go eat and swim. Jack gets close to catching a pig but he is still afraid to kill one and doesn't know if he can. Simon sneaks off and finds a hiding place and this makes me suspicious that he is up to something bad.  I think next that Ralph, Jack, or Simon will kill a weak member of the group like a young boy or Piggy and chaos will break loose. They will also probably succeed at killing a pig.

Discussion Question: Do you think that Simon is up to something in his hiding place and do you think that Ralph and pull the boys together and build shelters and catch a pig?