Lord of the Flies: Chapters 5-8
Episode 51
Professor Pipes has come to slay the beast of Chapters 5-8 of William Golding's classic novel Lord of the Flies. Is the beast the evil within humanity or just tonight's homework? Find out as we explore William Golding's Lord of the Flies from summary and themes to character analysis. Whether you're studying for a test or just brushing up on classic literature, Professor Pipes has you covered.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Death, Violence, Animal Cruelty
Transcript
Introduction:
Hello and welcome to Piper’s Paraphrases. I’m Professor Pipes, and today we’re headed to the beach! Specifically, to the deserted island of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, chapters 5-8. So grab your sunscreen, and let’s head out.
Previously:
Previously in Lord of the Flies: A group of young boys was plane-wrecked on a deserted island, but they decided they needed rules, so they elected Ralph as their leader, and he chose Jack as head hunter. But like, head of the hunters, not a headhunter. The kids decided to keep a signal fire on top of the mountain in the hopes of attracting the attention of passing boats, but in doing so accidentally lit a whole bunch of the island on fire, which killed a little boy. Ralph, Piggy, and Simon decided to spend their time building huts, while Jack and his possibly sociopathic buddy Roger spent time hunting pigs, and they actually managed to kill one! Unfortunately, they also let the fire go out just in time for a ship to pass by. When Ralph confronted them, Jack punched Piggy in retaliation. Eventually the boys ate the pig and even reenacted its death, and Ralph called for a meeting.
Plot Summary:
Chapter 5 starts with a bit of ennui as Ralph heads to the meeting space, reflecting on his dirty appearance, ragged hair, and difficulty thinking. During the meeting, he vents his frustration about them making decisions and not following through, leaving him and Simon to build the huts, and letting the fire go out. He reinforces the rules and then laments that they used to be happy, but then fear crept in. Yep, everything’s all fun and games until you set your home on fire. Speaking of fear, Jack talks about the beast, which has apparently been scaring the little kids and even the hunters. Jack says that they shouldn’t be afraid because there is no beast. One of the littluns talks about waking up from a nightmare and seeing something moving in the trees, but Simon admits it was him heading to his calm place in the jungle. None of this appeases the kids, who now decide that maybe the beast comes from the ocean. Simon says clap your hands! Ok, just kidding. Simon says that maybe the real beast is them. Well, he’s got a point. The meeting descends into chaos and ghost talk until eventually Jack is fed up with Ralph and Piggy and the rules and announces that they’ll kill the beast and everyone goes running off excitedly, leaving only Ralph and Piggy and Simon. As Ralph wonders if he should even be chief, Piggy reminds him that Jack would be a terrible leader. He would hurt Piggy and never light the fire and they’d be stranded forever. As the three kids long for grown-ups, the chapter ends with the ominous wailing of a child in the grips of a nightmare. Dun dun dun!
Chapter 6 starts out pretty! Pretty horribly. Thought I’d give you a glimmer of hope for a second. During the night, a plane explodes, leaving the pilot, attached to a parachute, but dead, to float quietly down to the earth and up the mountain, where it gets caught in the trees, blowing in the breeze, its head between its knees. I’m a poet, don’t ya know it? Samneric, who had fallen asleep when they were supposed to be on duty maintaining the fire, wake up only to see this lifeless, parachuted body in the darkness and freak out, thinking it’s a giant beast! They wake up Ralph, who calls an assembly, where they describe the beast’s fangs and claws as it chased them through the woods! Wait a minute - I thought it was just a dead guy. Oh! I get it - they don’t really know what they saw, so it became scarier in their imagination. After a bit of arguing, Ralph has Piggy stay at camp with the littluns and the rest of the boys head out to an unexplored area of the island. Ralph and Jack explore the rocky cliff, which Jack thinks would be perfect for a fort. Soon all the boys are playing and rolling rocks down the cliffside. All except Ralph. Party pooper. Ok, well actually he’s just upset that - yet again - the signal fire is out, so he angrily tells them that they all need to climb the mountain and light the fire!
Sure enough, in Chapter 7, we find the group on their way toward the mountain. They pause to eat some fruit, and Ralph gets lost in memories of home and hopelessness at the vastness of the ocean, but Simon assures Ralph that he’ll make it home. Eventually they come across a boar, which they try, and fail, to catch, but at least Ralph was able to hit it in the face with a spear. Great job. Then the boys play their horrible game where one of them pretends he’s a pig and the rest pretend to attack him - only it’s not that pretend-y. They start to actually beat a kid before luckily snapping out of it, but then Jack jokes that they should play this game again with a littlun as the pig, so they could actually kill him. Ha. Ha ha ha. Gross. It’s getting late, so Simon volunteers to head back to camp alone to tell Piggy that everyone else won’t be back until after dark. Eventually the group makes it to the bottom of the mountain, but the boys are afraid to face the beast! So Ralph, Jack, and Roger head up. In the dark. Alone. With sticks. Great plan. Ralph points out their obvious stupidity, so Jack has to prove himself as brave and heads to the peak alone. He comes back super freaked out, saying he saw something giant and bulging. All three go up together and see the bulging lump, but of course it’s too dark for them to see what it actually is, and the chapter ends with them running away down the mountain.
Chapter 8 starts with Ralph describing what happened to Piggy. When he laments that hunting will do no good against the beast, since they’re just a bunch of kids with sticks, Jack is enraged and calls a meeting where he insults Ralph and asks everyone to raise their hands if they don’t want Ralph to be leader anymore. *Cricket noise* So, when he realizes no one is on his side, Jack declares he doesn’t want to play with them anymore and runs off to start his own group. Since everyone is too scared to go up the mountain, Piggy recommends that they build the fire down here by the camp, and everyone excitedly does just that. Well, almost everyone. Turns out a few of the hunters have gone off to join Jack’s group. While Jack, Piggy, and the remaining boys feast on fruit, Simon heads into the forest to his usual, calm glade. Meanwhile, Jack and his crew go hunting and attack a mother pig, chasing her into the forest where they violently, viciously kill and gut her and then joke about it. They decide to invite the other boys to a feast, but also to steal their fire. The hunters head off, but leave behind the pig’s head on a stake as an offering for the beast. Poor Simon emerges from the shadows, having witnessed the killing, and stares, horrified, at the fly-covered head. The Lord of the Flies. Cut to Ralph and Piggy worrying about keeping the fire going - and the breakdown of society - until they’re interrupted by Jack and the hunters, who terrify everyone, steal some fire, brag about the hunt, and invite them to a feast. So at least they’ve got that going for them. After the hunters leave, Ralph decides that they should go to the feast. Aaaand back to Simon, in a full on mental breakdown. He imagines the Lord of the Flies talking to him, taunting him, and declaring itself the beast - a beast within him. It warns him that there is no escape, and that he could be next. Simon loses consciousness, ending our final chapter for today.
Characterization:
This section of the book is very plot-driven, and all this action reveals a lot about our main characters as they start to break away from each other.
Ralph, who consistently represents the order that comes with so-called “civilized” life, is increasingly disgusted with his dirty appearance. The longer they’re on the island, and therefore the further they are from their old lives, the more he notices his matted hair, his dirty clothes, and his need for “a bath, a proper wallow with soap.” He continues to focus on the need for a fire, since “Without the smoke signal we’ll die here.” It’s their symbol of hope and their only chance for rescue. And as the other boys hunt and play, Ralph worries about what would happen if HE “got like the others – not caring.” For the boys to succeed – and survive – someone needs to maintain the rules and worry about order, and that someone is Ralph.
Meanwhile, Jack is not so concerned with his appearance and feels at home amongst the vines and trees and literally pig poop. In fact, he is “happy and wore the damp darkness of the forest like his old clothes.” He fully breaks away from society, deciding to start his own group, where he establishes himself as the leader. In fact, he attacks society by stealing fire from Ralph and the others. Jack doesn’t care at all about the rules, is annoyed by Ralph’s protection of Piggy and the littluns, and truly seems to care about only two things – himself and the hunt, demonstrating just how vicious and violent people can become when they let their wild and selfish nature win out over their reason.
Piggy is largely absent in this section of the story, which is a point of contention between Jack and Ralph. Ralph continues to protect Piggy, and Jack is angry about this. I mentioned last time that Piggy is representative of rational thinking, reason, so naturally Ralph, who represents order and the rules of civilized life, would value reason. Jack, on the other hand, represents humanity’s wild and fierce nature, so he feels constrained by the rules and fights against reason, both literally by attacking Piggy back in Chapter 4, and symbolically, by abandoning the group and disregarding the signal fire.
And then there’s Simon. The rest of the group’s moral compass is really less innate morality and more ingrained rules set forth by society - “out of custom.” However, Simon is truly good. Like Jack, he is at home in nature and enjoys being in the jungle. He’s even brave enough to go through the forest alone to bring a message to camp. However, like Ralph, he cares about the littluns and Piggy and wants everyone to be safe, which is also shown through that same selfless choice to venture alone. Simon represents the best of us, a natural goodness in humanity. As such, he also recognizes the true beast on the island, saying, “Maybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only us.” And here I was thinking maybe it’s Maybelline. Anyway, “However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick.” So the dichotomy is clearly not really about civilization versus nature, but rather good versus evil.
Which is a perfect transition to themes.
Analysis:
Before I really get into themes from this section, it’s important to note that people often discuss Lord of the Flies as a tale of civilization versus savagery. I mean, the book itself refers to Jack’s hunters as “savages.” They cover themselves in war paint and have ritualistic chants. The hunters are essentially a caricature, a prejudiced stereotype, of indigenous people. And we have to remember that this was written in 1954, and authors are fallible, so it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that he held prejudiced views. However, it’s also important to keep in mind a couple of things. First, the main characters are little boys and in fact they act less like actual indigenous people and more like the stereotypes they would have seen on television and in movies, like even the movie Peter Pan, which came out just the year before this book. Ralph often talks about how the hunters are playing, almost like they are playing the roles they’ve watched on tv, rather than actually creating a completely legitimate society like actual tribes or native communities. Second, we have to think about setting, and I don’t mean the island. William Golding wrote this book not long after World War II, and set it during war. It shouldn’t be lost on readers that the “civilized society” the boys come from is problematic, and the whole reason the boys ended up on this island is because of war. So like I said with Simon, the story isn’t really about civilization versus nature or even “savagery,” but actually between the Good and Evil that exists within each of us.
And that brings us to our title: Lord of the Flies. The phrase “lord of the flies” is a literal translation of “Beelzebub” which is one of several names used to refer to the devil, like Satan and Lucifer. So the pig’s head on the stake – the Lord of the Flies – is a symbol of evil. In fact, it is the result of the evil within humanity. The mother pig’s death was vicious and cruel and came not out of need but out of a desire to kill. The boys even joke that she was killed by a stake “Right up her ass!” demonstrating their heartlessness and remorselessness, and reinforcing the rape-like quality of her killing, further suggesting the boys’ loss of innocence. While the hunters offer the head as a sacrifice to “the beast,” they are the real beast. In fact, the Lord of the Flies says, “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! …You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?” And it says this to Simon, the symbol of humanity’s good nature. So who will win? Good or evil? The hunters and the Lord of the Flies or Simon? I guess we’ll have to read on to find out.
Next up, let’s talk Power!! We have two chiefs now – Ralph and Jack – and they represent two types of power: Power for and Power over. Ralph uses his power to create rules that are meant to help and hopefully save everyone – it’s power for the people. He wants them to gather water, so they can survive; to poop away from where they eat, so they don’t have to live in filth; and to maintain the fire, so they can be rescued. After all, “We’ve got to make smoke up there – or die.” Jack, on the other hand, is all about power over the people. He even says that they don’t need the conch anymore because, “We know who ought to say things.” He takes the power away from the conch – and therefore away from the people – placing it on himself. Jack also lies to the boys, saying that only he and Roger approached the beast, and that Ralph “Stayed back.” He says this in order to assert his authority and diminish Ralph’s. Jack treats the other boys as his servants, ordering two of them to “Go on!” and announce to the others that, “The Chief has spoken.”
Finally, let’s talk Fear. Fear has been the motivation for most of their decisions in this section of the book. Piggy is not around much, and therefore neither is reason, leaving fear to reign supreme. Ralph is motivated by a fear of never being rescued, of never seeing his home. Simon assures him that he’ll “get back all right,” but even so, Ralph is scared. Over and over again he reminds the group that the fire is “all we’ve got” and that losing the fire means dying on the island. Interestingly, he is also frustrated by the fear that has gripped everyone else, lamenting that “Things are breaking up. I don’t understand why. We began well; we were happy. And then – … Then people started getting frightened.” The littluns are afraid of the beast, and Jack uses that fear to manipulate the group and get people on his side, since he vows to kill the beast, even though he doesn’t believe it really exists at first. Eventually almost everyone is afraid of the beast and they exaggerate or downright imagine what they’ve actually seen. This fear of the unknown ultimately breaks the group apart. Maybe FDR was right when he said, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Food for Thought:
Lastly, I’d like to leave you with some food – not pig or fruit, but food for thought. Consider these questions as you review these chapters and finish up the book.
First, fear and power both play key roles in this section of the book. How are these two ideas related to each other? How does fear affect power, and vice versa?
Second, how do the events in this section of the book contribute to the boys’ loss of innocence?
Third, when the hunters come to steal the fire, Piggy says he was worried that they were there to steal the conch. Why is he afraid of this and what is the significance of the conch?
Fourth, consider how the boys' isolation on the island affects their social structures, moral codes, and individual identities. How do these chapters explore the idea that isolation can both reveal and shape human nature?
Finally, what is the significance of Simon imagining a conversation with the Lord of the Flies? What is the significance of the breakdown of his mental state?
Thanks for watching this episode of Piper’s Paraphrases. Now go forth, read a bunch, and be good, Simon-like people.
