Lord of the Flies Quarter Analysis (4/4)
Michael Feng
Lord of the Flies (4/4)
By William Golding
Skeletal plot
1- Ralph feels really bad about how he acts the night before. He thinks that it
was also his fault that he couldn’t stop the other boys from killing Simon.
2- Jack is a tyrant in his tribe. He beats up other boys with no reason. He and
the other boys in his tribe are not guilty of what they did. They really think
Simon was the beast, or they pretend Simon was the beast. They attacked Ralph’s
tribe and steal Piggy’s glass away so they can make their own fire.
3- Ralph and his followers go to Jack’s tribe for a meeting. They bring the
conch with them hoping the hunters still recognize it, but Jack ordered the
hunters to capture Sam and Eric. Ralph and Jack starts to fight while piggy is trying
to say something to stop the fight. Roger rolls a rock down and hits Piggy and
crush the conch. Piggy died and falls into the ocean with the conch. Ralph then
escapes as fast as he could.
4- Ralph goes to Jack’s tribe again in the night and meets Sam and Eric who are
guarding the gate. Sam and Eric tell him Jack is going to hunt him tomorrow. Ralph
then leaves and run into the forest. He found the pig head on the stake. He
pulls off the pig head and brings the stake away as his weapon. He fell asleep
in a thicket.
5- Ralph wakes up and hears Jack asking Sam and Eric to find out the place he
is hiding. The hunters start to attack Ralph, and Ralph defenses himself using
the landscape and the stake. Then the hunters try to use fire to smoke Ralph
out of the Thicket. Ralph runs to the beach and meets a naval officer who came
close to the island to check what the fire was. (The fire that the hunters use
to smoke Ralph) Jack and the other boys arrive at the beach too. After the reprimand
of the naval officer, everyone starts to sob.
Conflict
Person vs Person
This part it shows the fight between Ralph and Jack. Ralph realizes there is no
way to recover his friendship with Jack, and he gets angry when Jack attacks
him.
Setting
Without the glass, Piggy can nearly see nothing in his sight. He asks Ralph to
go to Jack’s tribe and try if they can work together again. They also bring the
conch with them that they hope that Jack and his followers still recognize the
authority of it. Ralph blows the conch at the gate of Jack’s tribe, but no one
is responding and they start to throw stones at Ralph. Ralph realizes that the
civilization on the island is totally gone after Piggy get killed. He escaped
from the hunters’ attacks. Ironically, the fire that the hunters use to smoke
Ralph became their life saver, that a ship came close to the island to check
the fire
Characters
-Ralph: In this quarter, Ralph becomes very sad because of the death of Simon.
After Jack steals Piggy’s glass, he begins to feel angry about Jack. He and his
followers went to Jack’s tribe and tried to negotiate with Jack, but Jack just
attacked them. At the end, only Ralph left and he is almost desperate.
-Piggy: He is still a character that represents intellect and civilization. In
this quarter, his glass which is the only thing to make fire on the island is
stole by Jack. For himself, he can see almost nothing without the glass, so he asks
Ralph to go to negotiate with Jack. When Ralph is attacked by Jack, Piggy tried
to stop their fight, but Roger rolls a rock dock the hill and hits piggy. With
the fall of Piggy and the conch, there is no more civilization remained on the
island.
-Jack: He uses the meat to attract Ralph’s followers to join his tribe. And at
the end, everyone except Ralph joined Jack’s tribe. In his tribe, Jack is being
a tyrant. He beats up other boys without any reason, and he doesn’t give other
people the right to speak during an assembly.
Notables on writer’s style and structure
-Simile:“Nothing prospered but the flies who blackened their lord and made the
spilt guts look like a heap of glistening coal.” (Chapter 9)
-Imagery:“A steady current of heated air rose all day from the mountain and was
thrust to ten thousand feet; revolving masses of gas piled up the static until
the air was ready to explode.” (Chapter 9)
- Yes, there are a lot of dialogues between the kids on the island.
"That's
where they've gone. Jack's party."
"Let them
go," said Ralph, uneasily, "I don't care."
"Just for
some meat--"
"And for
hunting," said Ralph, wisely, "and for pretending to be a tribe, and
putting on war-paint."
Themes
- Loss of civilization
- Savagery
This quarter shows the reverse of Ralph and Jack’s power. Now there are only
few littluns other than Piggy who are still in Ralph’s tribe, while Jack has
almost everyone in his tribe. Being the chief of his tribe, Jack shows the
opposite policy with Ralph. He rules like a tyrant while Ralph had a more
democratic idea. At the end of story, there is finally someone who comes onto
the island. Ironically, it was the fire that was used to smoke Ralph out of the
thicket became the signal fire. It is a very sarcastic ending, after Ralph tried
so hard to keep rule, it is still a chaotic situation on the island.
