LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lord of the Flies, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Analysis
Next, we read an abridged version chapter one of Lord of the Flies for the reasons stated above and so that my books wouldn't get sticky from our hands-on microcosm activity described below. For my last attempt at creating a WOW-worthy start to Lord of the Flies, I came up with the idea of having groups work together to create a microcosm. Next, we read an abridged version chapter one of Lord of the Flies for the reasons stated above and so that my books wouldn't get sticky from our hands-on microcosm activity described below. For my last attempt at creating a WOW-worthy start to Lord of the Flies, I came up with the idea of having groups work together to create a microcosm.
Back at the beach, Ralph blows the conch to call another meeting. Ralph announces that they're on an uninhabited island. Jack interrupts to say that they still need an army in order to hunt pigs.
Jack needs to be in control: he interrupts Ralph to demonstrate his importance.
Ralph says that without adults, they'll have to take care of themselves. He makes a rule that whoever holds the conch at meetings gets to speak.
The boys' first law is focused on the conch and made by Ralph.
Jack, excited, shouts out that they can make more rules and punish whoever breaks them.
Piggy takes the conch and says no one knows they're on the island. Ralph agrees, but describes the island as a good place where they'll have fun even if they have to stay for a long time.
Only Piggy sees the big picture. Ralph and the other boys focus on short term pleasure and fun.
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A nervous little boy with a birthmark that covers half his face steps forward. After some prodding, the boy whispers to Piggy, and Piggy tells everyone what the boy said. He saw a 'beastie,' a 'snake-thing,' the previous night in the woods. Ralph and the older boys dismiss this 'beastie' as just a nightmare, but the younger boys seem scared. Jack grabs the conch and says there's no snake-thing. If there is, he adds, his hunters will find and kill it. Ralph also says there's no snake-thing.
The beast's first appearance. It symbolizes the evil in human nature. Jack, the symbol of savagery, says the beast doesn't exist but also that his hunters will kill it. He uses the beast to make himself more powerful. Ralph, the symbol of civilization, just denies that the beast exists.
'But there isn't a beastie!'
'He says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung...'>
'He says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung...'>
Ralph says he's confident they boys will be rescued. He suggests they build a fire on the mountaintop to alert rescuers.
Fire leads to rescue, which leads back to civilization.
'Shut up! Wait! Listen!'
He went on in the silence, borne on in his triumph.
'There's another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island...'>
He went on in the silence, borne on in his triumph.
'There's another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island...'>
Excited by the idea of building a fire, the boys jump up and run to collect wood and bring it to the mountain top. Piggy, left alone at the meeting place, disgustedly says that the other boys are acting like a bunch of kids.
Civilized and intelligent, Piggy prefers organized plans to short-sighted 'fun.'
William Golding
The boys make a pile of dead wood on the mountain. They can't figure out how start the fire until Jack grabs the glasses off Piggy's face. Ralph uses the glasses to focus the sun's rays on the wood. Piggy is terrified, nearly blind without his glasses.
Piggy's glasses symbolize technology, mankind's ability to harness nature to build tools. Here the boys use technology to help their return to civilization.
The fire burns out because the wood is so dry. Piggy starts to criticize the boys, but Jack shouts him down. Simon points out that Piggy's glasses made the fire possible.
The rivalry between the savage (Jack) and intellectual (Piggy) intensifies. Note also Simon's generosity.
Ralph says they have to keep the fire burning every day without fail. Jack volunteers himself and his hunters to do the job.
Jack takes on keeping the boys linked to civilization.. This seems like a bad fit.
Piggy notices that sparks from their signal fire have set the trees below them on fire. He argues that instead of running off to start a fire they should have first made shelters. The other boys shout at him again, but are disturbed. Piggy asks where the boy with the birthmark who saw the 'beastie' is. No one knows.
Though they know Piggy's right, the other boys still gang up on him. The boy who saw the 'beastie' was actually killed, symbolically, by the beast: the boys' savage desire to have 'fun.'
Florman, Ben. 'Lord of the Flies Chapter 2.' LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 22 Jul 2013. Web. 8 May 2019.
Florman, Ben. 'Lord of the Flies Chapter 2.' LitCharts LLC, July 22, 2013. Retrieved May 8, 2019. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/lord-of-the-flies/chapter-2.
Lord Of The Flies Pages In Book
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