Lord of the Flies Ch. 4 Litblog

Mary Ann MacDonald
Period 5
1-9-13

Chapter 4 Litblog

Summary: A young boy named Henry wanders off down the beach and Roger follows him silently  and throws stones six yards from the boy. Jack finds him and he shows him how to use clay to camouflage himself to catch pigs and the boys leave to go catch some. While in the pool, Ralph can't see the smoke anymore and the boys spot a ship. It is too late because the ship sails by when the boys go up and see the fire is unlit. Jack and the choir boys kill a pig and Ralph is mad at Jack for letting the fire burn out. Jack punches Piggy and Ralph reasserts his power and Jack does too when they are all eating the pig. Ralph sets up a meeting for later and leaves.

Quotation: "Slowly the silence on the mountain-top deepened till the click of the fire and the soft hiss of roasting meat could be heard clearly. Jack looked round for understanding but found only respect. Ralph stood among the ashes of the signal fire, his hands full of meat, saying nothing" (74).

Quotation Significance: Jack yells at Simon for giving his food to Piggy and Jack feels unappreciated. The kids are becoming more and more violent and cruel to one another and Jack wants to be understood but he is only respected because the boys fear him. It seems Ralph understands what Jack is going through and is letting him assert his power over the boys too.

Reflection: The boys are starting to become more powerful and assertive over the weaker members of the group, like Piggy and the little boys. This is shown when Jack punches Piggy and when Roger throws stones around Henry. The boys are starting to forget the old rules of society and Ralph is losing control of the boys, especially Jack. Jack was an angelic choir boy who is now turning into a savage hunter. This book shows how being away from society with no outside influence can change people. Jack is now obsessed with killing pigs and him and the hunters sing a song about killing pigs and they are ecstatic of telling people how much they enjoy killing pigs. Ralph is still the leader and is envious that Jack is getting all sorts of attention for killing the pigs and Ralph is determined to be on top but he hasn't become as savage and obsessed like Jack. Simon gives Piggy the meat and in the last chapter goes and hides all by himself. It seems that he feels sorry for Piggy and weak members of the group and doesn't want to spend much time with the boys, and he thinks some of their behavior is wrong but he won't say anything about it. This is a parallel to Benjamin in Animal Farm. Piggy is fat, weak, and harmless but he is also very smart. He comes up with the conch idea, and the fire idea, and other key ideas through out the story but he gets almost no credit for this. Piggy is abused and belittled for how he looks and no one is paying attention to how much his ideas have contributed to the group. In my opinon, he should be the chief.

Discussion Question: Why are the boys starting to turn savage and trying to assert power over one another? Do you think that Piggy would be a good chief for the boys?