The beast has put out the signal fire, which is the boys’ last link to civilization. Ralph calls a meeting that quickly becomes heated. Jack questions Ralph’s decisions and leadership, mocks Piggy, and claims the conch no longer matters.

Simon… felt a flicker of incredulity—a beast with claws that scratched, that sat on a mountain-top, that left no tracks and yet was not fast enough to catch Samneric. However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick.

Hover for more information. Arguably, the most important part in Lord of the Flies is when the boys elect Ralph as their leader instead of Jack. This leads to Jack adopting a rebellious spirit toward the group and eventually divides the boys into two groups.

Why is this chapter called “Beasts From Air”? This chapter is called “Beasts From Air” because there is a man, who the boys think is the beast, that falls from the sky. The twins say that the beast had claws, and that it followed and nearly touched them.

The dead parachutist symbolizes the adult world and its inability to maintain peace. Piggy’s desire to learn civilized behavior from adults goes unfulfilled. The dead man also becomes the beast.

Shortly after he declares this at his meeting, he and his hunters kill a pig. They sharpen a stick at both ends: one end to stick into the ground and the other to stick into the head of the killed pig. This is the gift he leaves for the beast. It is this pig’s head that Simon “hears” in his trance.

Jack suggests a way to keep the beast happy. What is it? Jack suggests that in order to keep the beast happy, they should stay off the mountain and give the beast an offering of the sow’s head mounted on a stick and her guts.

Jack uses the other boys’ fear of the beast to bolster his own importance in the tribe: Jack uses the moment to play on their fears, pointing out Ralph’s cowardice and lack of hunting ability as reasons why the other boys should choose him as chief over Ralph.

Similar to Ralph, Jack does not initially believe that a beast exists. However, when Jack mistakes the dead paratrooper for the beast, he becomes frightened. Jack sees that the boys are terrified of the beast and uses their fear to his advantage.

In this scene, they allow themselves to confuse Simon for the beast, and they kill him. Simon is martyred for attempting to bring them the truth about what they believed to be the beast—the pilot—and his murder symbolizes that the true beast is, in fact, the evil inside humans.

After the moral posturing of Ralph and Jack, who “walked along, two continents of experience and feeing, unable to communicate, Simon slips off and walks into the forest “with an air of purpose.” Like Thoreau in Walden, Simon wishes “to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see what [Nature] …

To the dismay of Ralph and Piggy, Simon admits in Chapter 5 that he does believe in the beast, but suggests that the beast is actually the inherent evil inside each one of them. Simon senses early on that the boys will fall into violent savagery and become their own worst enemies.

Simon is asked his opinion and he tentatively says that he isn’t sure; that maybe it’s only them. He means that he doesn’t think there is a beast with claws and fangs; something living and breathing outside of them. He thinks that the beast is the evil inside of each of them.

Simon imagines the beast as the “picture of a human at once heroic and sick.” (Golding 103) Simon imagines the beast as the inherent evil within each individual. He interprets the beast as being the negative, wicked quality that every human possesses.

“The thing is – fear can’t hurt you any more than a dream.” Ralph speaks this line in response to Jack who spreads fear on the island. He intends to make his case of hunting strong so that others could give him more importance. He knows that only fear can win him the leadership which is in Ralph’s hands.

In Chapter 4, the boys are on the hunt for the sow, and they chant, “Kill the pig! Cut her throat! Bash her in!” Later in Chapter 9, the boys simulate a hunt using Roger as the pig, and they chant, “Kill the beast! Cut its throat!

Golding’s message throughout the novel Lord of the Flies is that fear is the catalyst for violence and the destruction of civil societies. Fear is a major theme throughout the novel and is the reason behind the boys’ loss of innocence.

Earlier in the novel, Jack claims that hunting is important to provide meat for the group; now, it becomes clear that Jack’s obsession with hunting is due to the satisfaction it provides his primal instincts and has nothing to do with contributing to the common good.

Roger

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

• Civilization vs. Savagery.
• Loss of Innocence.
• Struggle to Build Civilization.
• Man’s Inherent Evil.
• Dangers of Mob Mentality.
• War and the Future of Mankind.

Ralph

At the end of the novel, Ralph begins to cry uncontrollably: “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy.” (Golding, 202). He is crying because he’s realized the true savagery that he’s been enduring for his duration on the island.

Piggy’s glasses are symbolic for a number of reasons in Lord of the Flies. The spectacles represent the boys’ only means of obtaining fire through reflecting the sun’s rays, and fire itself is symbolic of survival and rescue. Later, Jack punches Piggy which cause the glasses to fall, smashing one side. …

When things get foggy or out of hand, Piggy wipes his glasses: “He went very pink, bowed his head, and cleaned his glasses again.” Since Piggy represents intelligence among the group, it is logical that his glasses represent rationality and civil thought.

In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Piggy dies after he asks whether it is better to have rules or hunt and kill. After asking this question, Roger rolls a boulder onto him. Simon dies after his conversation with the Lord of the Flies, when he finds out the beast is inside all the boys.

Jack refuses to give Piggy meat because he resents his relationship with Ralph and because he sees Piggy as an outcast. By treating Piggy poorly, Jack feels a sense of power within the group of boys, for everyone seems to enjoy watching the poor boy suffer.

Simon

Why did Percival cry on the beach? He got salt water in his eye.

The significance of the stick sharpened at both ends mentioned by Sam ‘n Eric is that Jack intends to put Ralph’s head on a stick. The fact that Ralph is carrying a stick sharpened at both ends at the end of the novel symbolises his complete descent into savagery.