Two separate illustrations of an animal head and a fire on a mountain

Lord of the Flies

by William Golding

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Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

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Summary

Ralph, scraped and bloodied, approaches Castle Rock carefully. He glimpses the boys atop the fort. Seeing that they are feasting on pig, Ralph figures that he has time to retreat to safety and eat. He reflects that his relationship with Jack has achieved a state of pure animosity, with slim chance of reconciliation. When he arrives at the fruit trees, the littluns there are frightened of his ragged appearance and they scatter. Ralph returns to the shelters, which he finds empty. With no other plan, Ralph begins to walk back to Castle Rock.

Ralph stumbles into the clearing where the pig’s head stands skewered on the stake; by now the head is pure skull. He imagines it grinning at him, as if it “knows all the answers and won’t tell.” Ralph strikes the skull, knocking it down and splitting it in two so that its grin widens upward at the sky.

Ralph arrives again at the base of Castle Rock at nightfall. He meditates on his outcast state, realizing that it would be impossible to attempt a truce. He hears the sounds of feasting and notices that the two boys on sentry duty must be Samneric. He carefully climbs up the rock and gets their attention by whispering their names. He frightens the two boys but reassures them, saying, “‘I came to see you two.’” Samneric encourage Ralph to leave and tell him that they were violently forced to join Jack’s tribe. They tell Ralph that Jack plans to gather his tribe to hunt down Ralph the next day. Ralph tells Samneric that he plans to hide in the nearby thicket, and they give him some meat. Ralph asks, “‘What are you going to do when you catch me?’” They reply, “‘Roger sharpened a stick at both ends.’”

Ralph wonders about the stick sharpened at both ends as he slips down to the nearby thicket, scouts out a concealed place to sleep for the night, and settles in. At first light Ralph wakens and hears the sounds of Jack’s tribes issuing ululations as their hunt for Ralph begins. Nestled in the deep thicket, Ralph waits calmly as the tribe passes on. Then he hears the low sound of Jack’s voice speaking urgently to Samneric, asking them, “‘He meant he’d hide in here?’” Ralph realizes that the twins have reported his location. He prepares for contact but knows he is well defended. He hears a cry from the top of Castle Rock as the boys unleash a rock that crashes down and tumbles through the undergrowth, followed by an enormous boulder that nearly flattens Ralph in its course.

As the boys begin to edge into the clearing, Ralph stabs at them with his spear, keeping them at bay. Smoke begins to pour upward; the boys have lit the foliage on fire. Ralph sees an opening into the jungle and, attacking a painted boy standing in the way, darts into the trees and sprints frantically along a pig-run. As he escapes he hears the ululations of the boys approaching in a long line, evenly spaced across the width of the island, sweeping through the jungle in their hunt for Ralph. Exhausted, crashing through the dense trees, Ralph tries to formulate a plan. His options are to crash through the line of boys as a startled pig would, climb up a tree, or find a hiding spot. As the line of boys draws near, he finds a low, densely covered patch and hides himself, spear in hand.

The fire has spread into the main jungle and begun to devour the entire island in a forward crawl, causing the sky to fill with smoke. As both the fire and the line of boys get closer, Ralph braces himself. He notices one boy a few yards away walking his direction. In his limited field of vision, he can see the boy’s weapon—a stake sharpened at both ends—and legs drawing closer. The boy stares directly into the dark patch where Ralph lies; Ralph screams and launches himself at the boy, knocking him to the ground. He sprints forward and confronts the wall of flaming trees. He veers right and begins running toward the beach, with the conflagration raging to the left. With Jack’s tribe trailing him, he runs down onto and along the shoreline, watching as the forest and the shelters of the original camp erupt in flames. Ralph stumbles, rolls in the sand, and collapses.

When Ralph looks up, he finds himself confronting the white cap, revolver, and uniform of a naval officer. The officer studies Ralph carefully as his boat and crew wait in the water behind him. The officer asks if there are any grown-ups, to which Ralph shakes his head. Jack’s tribe has come to a stand-still just down the beach and now look silly with their body-paint and sticks. Seeing them, the officer says, “‘Fun and games[…] We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?’” Ralph nods and when the officer asks whether any were killed, Ralph replies, “‘Only two. And they’ve gone.’”

The officer agrees to take the boys off the island, but when he asks how many there are, Ralph does not know. The officer is outwardly disappointed with the boys’ confusion, disorganization, and overall squalor. He expresses his expectation that British boys ought to act according to higher standards. Studying the wreckage of the island and the huge fire and thinking about the deaths of Simon and Piggy, Ralph begins to weep, joined by some of the other boys. Ralph weeps “for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.”

Analysis

By chapter 12, the boys have almost entirely sided with Jack, thereby slipping from civilization to savagery. Aside from a few littluns, Ralph is the only remaining boy who is unmoved by Jack’s vicious rhetoric and leadership. As he remarks, he is an outcast “‘‘Cos [he] had some sense.’” The other boys with such “sense” are either dead (Simon and Piggy) or forced into Jack’s tribe (Samneric). Among Jack’s tribe, any pretenses of civil or fair behavior are gone. Accountable to no law, they embark on a barbaric hunt for Ralph with the supposed aim of feasting on his flesh as if he were a pig, rather than a fellow boy.

Indeed, the final two chapters document what happens when the “beast”—revealed in chapter 8 to be the spirit of brute violence and chaos—takes over and guides events. In a key encounter, Ralph happens upon the pig skull in in the jungle clearing and bashes it twain. The skull, which had embodied the “Lord of the Flies” in Simon’s presence, represents the “beast.” With its cryptic grin and morbid visage, it stands for the savagery that Ralph is against, and so he destroys the thing. 

The fire that Jack’s tribe starts both expresses and represents the destructive spirit that has come to consume the boys after the conch and its promise of order were dashed. The fire is both a product of and symbol for their savagery. Just as the fire sweeps wildly across the island, threatening to destroy the entire landscape, the boys’ savagery aims to mindlessly destroy everything: Ralph, the entire natural landscape, and, by extension, themselves. It seems that the entire island, including the boys, would be eradicated were it not for their sudden rescue.

It is by a twist of fate that the all-consuming fire becomes the very beacon the boys have struggled to raise since their arrival on the island. Just as the tribe’s pursuit of Ralph approaches its culmination, the hunt is broken up by the presence of the naval officer. In a sense, the officer is an example of the literary device of deus ex machina, which literally means “God from the machine” and occurs when a figure or event intervenes just in time to prevent an immanent calamity—in this case, Ralph’s butchery at the hands of Jack, Roger, and the rest of the boys. 

The British officer, proper in comportment and dress, reveals the contrast between the civilization from which the boys came and the savagery to which they have descended. His bewilderment and disappointment deepen the contrast. Ralph’s tearful breakdown in the novel’s final lines emphasizes that the tragic events that have unfolded on the island hold real and lasting significance.

Expert Q&A

In chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies, what does Ralph say when the twins refuse to help him?

Quick answer:

In chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies, when Ralph asks the twins to help him, they do not actually refuse. He tells Samneric that he will be in the thicket and to keep the other boys away from his hiding place. When he asks what will happen if he gets caught, one of them states, "Roger sharpened a stick at both ends." That is the end of their conversation.

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Ralph's conversation with Samneric after Jack has captured them and they become "part of the tribe" emphasizes the total devolution of society on the island. First Ralph tries to point out to the twins that they don't truly belong to Jack. He says, "You two aren't painted. How can you--? If it were light--" This fragmented argument is meant to arouse shame in the boys, but because it is dark, they do not keenly feel their guilt. When the twins admit they have been physically hurt in order to gain their compliance, Ralph asks, "Who? Jack?" Ralph continues to try to reason with the boys, asking, "What have I done? I liked him--and I wanted us to be rescued--"

The boys explain that "the chief" and Roger hate Ralph and that "they're going to do you." Ralph continues to try to understand why the boys hate him and to proclaim his innocence, but the twins realize that none of that matters anymore. Jack has made up his mind, and Jack and Roger are now "terrors." When the boys hear someone approaching, Ralph says, "I'll lie up close; in that thicket down there ... so keep them away from it. They'll never think to look so close." He then asks pleadingly, "I'm going to be all right, aren't I?" and then asks twice what the tribe plans to do when they catch Ralph. Samneric reply only, "Roger sharpened a stick at both ends." It turns out that Samneric are tortured and reveal what Ralph said about his hiding place, making Ralph's quest for survival even harder than if he had not confided in the twins.

Although Ralph has a hard time understanding what Roger's sharpening a stick at both ends means, it's clear that the tribe intends to hunt Ralph as if he were a pig, showing that their society has lost all moral grounding and is willing to commit savage murder for no cause other than hate. 

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First, he feels frustration and anger, but quickly realizes that will do no good.  Then he tells the twins where he is going to hide with the implication that they will lead the hunters in a different direction.  Then, finally, he asks them what will  happen to him once he's found.  He goes from trying to talk them into helping him to acceptance of his fate.

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Why is the officer embarrassed at the end of chapter 12 in Lord of the Flies?

Quick answer:

The officer is embarrassed at the end of chapter 12 because Ralph is crying, which he finds improper for British school boys. He mistakenly believes the boys were merely playing, unaware of the true horrors they experienced. His focus on the "trim cruiser" and distancing from the boys' emotions highlights his detachment and the persistent savagery in the world they will return to.

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The final clause amplifies the statement "a little embarrassed." In the final clause the narrator says the officer "waited, allowing his eyes to rest on the trim cruiser in the distance." Both "trim" and "distance" are significant words, suggesting the officer's need to focus on what has order and to separate himself from what does not. In addition, the "trim cruiser" is in the "distance" just as true humanity in the form of goodness is quite far away--certainly the officer doesn't show it. Kind though he attempts to be, he does not want to get involved in the "messy emotions" the boys show.

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The officer is embarrassed because Ralph is crying and in the officer's mind and in his culture, proper British school boys do not cry.  The officer thinks the boys have simply been playing; he does not realize what has been going on.  Golding is showing the reader that things in the world outside of the island haven't changed and the world that Ralph and the other boys will return to will be no better than the one they left.  Mankind, according to Golding, is, by nature, savage and the world the boys left was savage because they were at war.  The boys on the island became savage and now this officer's response to the boys shows a lack of understanding and therefore, a lack of civility.

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In chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies, what escape options did Ralph consider?

Quick answer:

In chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies, Ralph considers three escape options: climbing a tree, breaking through the hunters' line, and hiding in hopes they will pass by. He ultimately decides to hide, but this plan fails when the hunters set a fire to flush him out. Ralph is eventually rescued by a naval officer.

In chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies, Ralph is fleeing for his life. He is not sure which is the best plan for escape from Jack and the savage hunters. Ralph approaches the empty shelters that he himself built when first stranded on the island. He decides he cannot stay in the shelters:

He cannot stay there for he is too alone. He wishes to try again with Jack so he walks toward Castle Rock again.

After thinking on this, he realizes that Jack will never stop trying to kill him. He knows that he must escape in a different manner.

He awakes next morning to the sound of the hunters pursuing him. Ralph hides in an indentation left by the rock that killed Piggy. He does not feel safe, so he considers another escape plan. Ultimately, he feels he has the following options for escape:

He considers breaking the line, climbing a tree, or hoping they will pass. None of these are attractive alternatives for him. He decides to hide and retreats into what used to be Simon’s secret place. The fire approaches, leaving a huge curtain of smoke between the island and the sun.

Ralph runs from the hunters and the smoke. He falls in the sand. He is prepared to surrender when he looks up into the face of the naval officer who has come to his rescue.

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He actually entertains three possibly escapes.  He thinks about climbing a tree, which he dismisses because it's "putting all his eyes in one basket".  Then, he thinks about breaking through their attack line like a boar.  He decides against this because he realizes they will just turn around and continue stalking him.  Finally, he thinks about trying to hide as well as possible and hoping they pass right by him.  This is what he decides to do, which of course doesn't work because of the fire they start to flush him out.

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Why can't Percival remember his name in Chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies?

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As one of the two smallest littleuns, Percival's ability to recite his name and address as he has been taught is a sign of the morals and civilized manners ingrained in him by nurturing in his former life.  In Chapter 4, his rote repetition of this information reminds him and the other youngest children of their homes and families, and they begin to wail in miserable longing for their past situations.  Percival is representative of the boys' gradual and progressive loss of all they have learned previously, the longer they run wild on the island.  When Percival is unable to remember his name in Chapter 12, it is indicative of the total loss of innocence of all the boys, and is illustrative of how far they have come from their former reality in their descent into savagery.

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What does the Lord of the Flies look like when Ralph sees it in Chapter 12?

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Towards the beginning of chapter 12, Ralph is on his way back to Castle Rock when he unknowingly walks into Simon's secluded clearing in the forest, where the severed pig's head has decayed on the stake. Ralph is initially frightened by the pig's skull, which is now as white as the conch. As Ralph walks in front of the skull, he notices that it seems to "jeer at him cynically." Other than an "inquisitive ant" walking across the skull, it is completely lifeless, and Ralph continues to stare into its empty eye sockets. Golding then writes,

The skull regarded Ralph like one who knows all the answers and won’t tell (266).

After staring at the skull for an extended period of time, Ralph becomes filled with anger and rage and punches it off the stake. Ralph ends up breaking the pig's skull into two pieces before removing the stake from the ground and carrying it with him to Castle Rock. As Ralph leaves Simon's secluded spot in the forest, he carefully walks backward while keeping his eyes focused on the broken skull.

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When Ralph finds Simon's hiding place in Chapter 12, the pig's head is now a pig's skull, the flesh having been eaten away by the swarming flies. At first he sees "the thing as lifeless" but then when he looks levelly at it, it seems to grin and "hold his gaze masterfully and without effort." The skull then seems to "[regard] Ralph like one who knows all the answers and won't tell." Ralph senses that the skull is significant, but, unlike Simon, does not understand any further.

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In Chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies, why does Ralph claim only two died when three had?

I can think of two possible explanations for the way Ralph answered the Naval officer's question by saying only two had died, when at least three had.  First of all, the little 'un with the mark on his face disappears soon after the group arrives on the island, after the fire goes out of control.  Ralph never knew his name, and is only reminded of his presence when Piggy notices he is no longer there.  The little 'uns at that early juncture were not yet distinguishable as individuals to Ralph, and there had been no chance to make a list of who had survived the plane crash.  For all Ralph or any of the others knew, there might well have been others, who, like the little 'un with the mark on his face, were lost in the fire.  When the officer asks Ralph how many have been killed, his answer reflects only those of whose deaths he is sure.  I think it might be possible that, like Percival Wemys Madison, who can no longer remember his name at that point, Ralph, who has just run a race for his life, does not recall the details of what happened in the chaos of their first days on the island.

Another possibility for Ralph's answer might be that he is answering the second part of the officer's question rather than the first.  The officer says, "Nobody killed, I hope?  Any dead bodies?"  Ralph and the boys saw the bodies of Simon and Piggy, but the body of the lost little 'un was never found (Chapters 1 and 12).

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How does the naval officer view Jack in chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies? Why do the other boys weep?

Quick answer:

The naval officer views Jack with amusement at first when he believes the boys are simply playing a game of war on the island. The officer then feels ashamed of the boys for their lack of responsibility and discretion. Ralph and the others begin sobbing when they reflect on their immoral behavior and are overcome with grief, shame, remorse, and guilt. Their tears encompass the traumatic, harrowing experience they have endured, which has dramatically transformed their lives.

The first person the naval officer sees is Ralph. He's amused at first and jokes about the boys playing war—a highly ironic comment given that the boys are involved in a deadly war at that very moment, not unlike the atomic war the naval officer himself has been engaged in as a military leader in the adult world. The officer has an intelligent conversation with Ralph, but when he asks who is the boss, Jack begins to step forward, but remains silent. Jack is described as a "little boy." This is surprising since his actions during the novel have placed him at the pinnacle of leadership along with Ralph. Beyond that, Jack's body is "streaked with colored clay," he carries a pointed stick, he wears "an extraordinary black cap on his red hair," and he wears little if any clothing but has a broken pair of spectacles hanging from a belt around his waist. The sight of this boy must have been quite astonishing to the naval officer. His reaction on surveying Jack and the other painted boys is one of dismay—he feels ashamed for them that, as British boys, they have allowed themselves to sink into such an uncivilized state.

Ralph is the first of the boys to start crying. "Great shuddering spasms of grief" that go back to their traumatic landing on the island wrack his body. The other boys join in. Their sorrow no doubt encompasses the grief of their separation from their families but also sadness for what they have made of themselves. They abandoned everything they had been taught by their parents, they followed an unworthy leader who they can now see through the eyes of an adult, and they have been engaged in a murderous pursuit that has destroyed the very island that sustained them. Seeing how they have botched everything, and knowing they have been rescued just before they would have starved to death on the parched island, they break down in tears. Their tears are tears of grief, shame, and relief.

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In Chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies, why does Golding use the second person point of view?

Great question! I think it allows Golding to freely show us the thoughts pounding through Ralph's distracted brain. We've seen him get more and more cloudy in his own head (that famous quote about the "bat's wing" which obscures his clarity of thought in an earlier chapter) and now we actually move the camera inside his head. He's on his own.

The seconds lengthened. Ralph was looking straight into the savage’s eyes.

Don’t scream.

You’ll get back.

Now he’s seen you. He’s making sure. A stick sharpened.

So in this quote, firstly we have third person ("Ralph looked..."). And then we get Ralph talking to himself: "Don't scream". Then we get, what is actually a quote from Simon earlier in the novel, playing Ralph's mind: "You'll get back". The second person has the effect of creating Ralph, in his head, talking to himself, using Simon's words, but also using his own ("Now he's seen you...") and so on.

I also think there is a tactical reason for pulling the camera towards Ralph's perspective. It prepares the ground for that fascinating perspectival moment when we see up the naval officer's body from Ralph's perspective:

He staggered to his feet, tensed for more terrors, and looked up at a huge peaked cap. It was a white-topped cap, and above the green shade of the peak was a crown, an anchor, gold foliage. He saw white drill, epaulettes, a revolver, a row of gilt buttons down the front of a uniform. A naval officer stood on the sand...

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In Chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies, what is ironic about Samneric's behavior?

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In Chapter 12, Ralph sneaks close to Castle Rock and recognizes the two boys guarding the fort. Golding writes,

"Ralph put his head down on his forearms and accepted this new fact like a wound. Samneric were part of the tribe now. There was no chance of rescuing them and building up an outlaw tribe at the other end of the island" (268).

Samneric had been two of Ralph's biggest supporters throughout the novel. They followed Ralph and were loyal to him until they were taken prisoner by Jack. Ralph knew that they never supported Jack and his band of savages, and is hurt to see them currently in charge of guarding Castle Rock. Ralph has to take caution when he attempts to speak to them and worries that they will run and tell the other savages. Golding even writes that Samneric felt ashamed when they remembered their loyalty to Ralph. They even aggressively tell Ralph to leave and are painted like savages. Ironically, Samneric have become the beings they once despised and attempt to kill Ralph, the person they once admired, by telling the savages where he is hiding. 

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The contrast in the behavior of Samneric in Chapter 12 of "Lord of the Flies" is unexpected:

The twins were examining Ralph curiously, as though they were seeing him for the first time.

At the end of Chapter 11, Roger approaches the twins who lie in terror after being told by Jack that they must "join the tribe."  Later, when Roger "advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority," the twins become savages.  For this reason they examine Ralph in Chapter 12 as though they have not seen him before. Just as the twins have felt terror, so, too, does Ralph feel "a spasm of terror" that sends him shaking.  For, he senses the evil inherent in the remaining boys as do Samneric when they are advanced upon by the sinister Roger.

That Samneric are now hunting him disturbs Ralph greatly as this behavior of the twins is not what has been typical of them.  When Ralph finds them painted, they are ashamed that they have yielded to the "nameless authority" of evil.

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Why is the British officer's statement in chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies considered hypocritical?

"I should have thought that a pack of British boys...would have been able to put up a better show than that."

William Golding's Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel set on an isolated tropical island during World War II. The English schoolboys who survive a plane crash on the island devolve from proper, civilized boys into what Golding calls savages. As an allegory, the novel should be read as a microcosm (small example) of what is happening in the adult world away (though not very far ) from the island.

Several times the outside war intersects with the boys' world. At least one ship passes by (though the signal fire is out so the boys are not rescued), and a parachutist (a dead pilot from a nearby battle) lands on the island. The final intersection happens in the final chapter of the novel, when a naval commander arrives after seeing the smoke from the conflagration the savages made. 

Of course he does not take what he sees seriously, assuming the boys are just playing some kind of game or reenacting some of the adventures in a novel. When he says, “I should have thought that a pack of British boys—you’re all British, aren’t you?—would have been able to put up a better show than that," Ralph tries to explain what really happened but can find no words.

The hypocrisy of the officer's statement, then, is that he is the British commander of a naval destroyer which is actively fighting a world war. His implication that the British know better than to involve themselves in violent behavior is ludicrous, given his own involvement in war. His implication that (presumably) talking things out rationally is a far superior method of problem-solving than war (which he also laughingly accuses the boys of playing) is ridiculous, as he is evidence that talking does not always achieve peace or maintain civility.

His hypocrisy is certainly unintended, primarily because he does not know (and probably would not believe) the depths of savagery which these little boys have demonstrated.

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In chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies, what actions does Ralph take in the thicket?

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Ralph hides in the thicket out of sheer desperation and fear for his life.  He has heard from Samneric that Roger has "sharpened a stick at both ends" and clearly mean to have a man hunt (190).  Ralph "wormed his way" into the thicket, because its dense coverage will help hide and protect him from the other boys.  He has a spear with him, the one that he took after he knocked the sows' skull off its spear lodged in the rock.  When he is hiding from the savages, Ralph unconsciously gnaws on the spear and finds "bark in his mouth" (193). 

After a close reading of the text to check for your possible choices-- Ralph does not do any of those three things: cover his face in mud, bury Piggy's glasses, or find a boar's tusk.  He mostly just crouches in the thicket, paralyzed with fear and listens to the hunters moving past him.  He definitely does not bury Piggy's glasses, because Jack has control of them up until the end of the novel when he still "carried the remains of a pair of spectacles at his waist" (201).

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In chapter 12 of Lord of The Flies, what beliefs does Ralph hold about the tribe and himself?

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In chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Ralph is hiding in the forest.  Ralph wants to believe that the enemy he sees is really not his tribe. 

He had even glimpsed one of them, striped brown, black, and red, and had judged that it was Bill.  But really, thought Ralph, this was not Bill.  This was a savage whose image refused to blend with that ancient picture of a boy in shorts and shirt.

He wants to believe that the tribe will let him go, although he knows they will not.

He argued unconvincingly that they would let him alone, perhaps even make an outlaw of him.  But then the fatal unreasoning knowledge came to him again.

He wants to believe that he can still be one of them, and that they will accept him back.

Might it not be possible to walk boldly into the fort, say -- "I've got pax," laugh lightly, and sleep among the others?  Pretend they were still boys, schoolboys...

But, despite what he wants to believe, he knows he is an outcast and that the tribe will not stop until he is dead.  

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In Lord of the Flies chapter 12, why can it be said that Ralph wasn't truly rescued?

Ralph begins to feel a sense of despair long before the naval officer arrives on the island. His plans to maintain a signal fire, to build shelters, to keep some kind of cohesion and organization amongst the boys slowly unraveled along with his authority.

He also felt a sense of disgust and revulsion at his own penchant for enjoying the thing that Jack used to bring the boys to his side, namely the boys enjoyment of the hunt and the kill. When Ralph participated in a hunt, he noticed his pleasure in it. And then when he'd participated in the murder of Simon he saw where that seemed to lead.

And so in the end, when the naval officer rescues them, "with filthy body, matted hair, and un-wiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." 

This loss of innocence was real and deeply felt. Ralph knew now that every one of them was capable of the darkest and ugliest acts of violence imaginable. He might return to a world of "civilization" represented by the officer and the ship but he knew now that it was nothing more than a thin veneer that could be easily cracked.

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In Lord of the Flies chapter 12, how does Golding's point-of-view shift affect the reader?

Quick answer:

Golding changes the boys from savages back to little boys by enabling them to be seen through the eyes of the naval officer who arrives on the island. This point-of-view change reminds the reader of just how out of control things had gotten on the island.

It is the arrival of the naval officer that transforms the war-hungry mob that was attempting to murder Ralph into a group of silly boys. The sudden and unexpected presence of an adults automatically puts everything back into perspective, and Jack’s tribe of “warriors” now look daft with their sharpened sticks and war paint.

The fact that they are boys, and not men, is reinforced for the reader by the fact that there is so much the boys do not know. For example, all the boys appear confused when the naval officer asks the simple question of how many boys there were. The reader naturally looks at the out-of-control fire in a different way at this point, realizing it was the totally non-strategic action of little boys which has led to a large portion of the island being on fire. It is hardly surprising that the naval officer expresses his disappointment with the boys, and that he tells them that he would have expected more from British children.

The final step in the transformation of these “warriors” back to little boys is the fact that a number of them begin to cry as the magnitude of what they have been through, and what they have done, begins to sink in.

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The function and description of the sentence "He turned... the island." in Chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies

Summary:

The sentence "He turned... the island." in Chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies illustrates Ralph's isolation and desperation. It marks his realization of the complete breakdown of civilization on the island and his need to escape the savagery that has overtaken the boys. This moment encapsulates the novel's themes of loss of innocence and the inherent darkness within humanity.

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Which option best describes the function of the sentence "He turned... the island." in Chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies?

This quote occurs in the final chapter of William Golding's Lord of the Flies, and the answer is not clear-cut. This is the type of question which is best suited to a short answer or essay format, rather than a cut-and-dried multiple choice answer, because it is ambiguous, at best. It is possible to arrive at a best answer; unfortunately (as you have discovered), that may be different for multiple readers and educators.

The paragraph from which your quote is extracted is as follows:

When he had eaten he went toward the beach. The sunlight was slanting now into the palms by the wrecked shelter. There was the platform and the pool. The best thing to do was to ignore this leaden feeling about the heart and rely on their common sense, their daylight sanity. Now that the tribe had eaten, the thing to do was to try again. And anyway, he couldn’t stay here all night in an empty shelter by the deserted platform. His flesh crept and he shivered in the evening sun. No fire; no smoke; no rescue. He turned and limped away through the forest toward Jack’s end of the island.

Choices B and C do not seem to be likely, or at least the most likely, choices from the list you were given. Choice A does not seem reasonable, since there are three rather depressing (negative) sentences which come before it, and one does not counterbalance three, especially three filled with significant details. 

That leaves D and E, and neither of them seem reasonable to me, given the fact that Ralph is soon in hiding, too frightened to even approach Jack and his fort. He asks himself if he dares to approach Castle Rock:

Daylight might have answered yes; but darkness and the horrors of death said no. Lying there in the darkness, he knew he was an outcast.

It is true that he does go toward the fort, but not until he ascertains that it is Samneric (who at least want to be loyal to Ralph) who are on guard. I see no clear plan or decision which moves Ralph to action, so I will reluctantly add my vote for D. It seems to me that he goes toward Castle Rock because he does not know where else to go, not because he has a grand plan of reconciliation or any real hope to change the way things are. Ralph is an optimist, and he only keeps moving because he is unwilling to capitulate to defeat. 

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In Chapter 12 of Lord of the Flies, what is the function of the sentence "He turned... the island."?

The last three sentences of the paragraph: 

His flesh crept and he shivered in the evening sun. No fire; no smoke; no rescue. He turned and limped away through the forest toward Jack’s end of the island. 

In this context, one could argue that each of these aspects (a-e) is represented. Rather than give up, Ralph intends to make another attempt to get Jack and his followers to listen to reason; thus, the act does counterbalance the negativity of "No fire; no smoke; no rescue." Ralph's limp could indicate a wound. Ralph's gesture of heading for Jack's side of the island does indicate action in the midst of a mostly introspective moment. It does indicate that Ralph is not afraid to try: not intimidated. And lastly, this does indicate that Ralph has made the decision to try again, as it is noted earlier in this same paragraph: 

Now that the tribe had eaten, the thing to do was to try again. 

So, although each of these aspects can be implied in the last sentence of the paragraph, the one that best describes the function of the sentence is really open to interpretation of the reader. But consider the following: Ralph does not dwell on his wounds in this section; there is no overt emphasis on his action of walking toward Jack's side; Ralph is trying but he is clearly frustrated and/or intimidated at the prospect of failing; and he had already made the decision to try earlier in the paragraph. So, it could be argued that the best function of this last sentence is to counterbalance the negativity of, "No fire; no smoke; no rescue." This also underscores Ralph's perseverance following Piggy's death and the destruction of the conch at the end of Chapter 11. The simplicity of the line following all of this negativity is an understatement of how determined Ralph is to succeed, despite how despondent he must feel. This is why it does seem to function most significantly as a positive moment (a counterbalance to previous negative events). 

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In Lord of the Flies, Chapter 12, what does the sentence "He turned... the island." (at the end of the paragraph beginning "When he had eaten..") best describe?

e. It indicates that Ralph has made his decision.

While (a) is certainly true that (e) counterbalances the negativism of the previous sentence and other sentences, it is because of these conditions of negativism that Ralph decides that he must act and try to reason with Jack.  Moreover, although Ralph realizes that Simon has been murdered, he believes that his killing was an indirect result of the frenzy in which the boys had worked themselves in the night. Ralph certainly does not believe that Jack will kill him outright; that is, until he approaches the camp and encounters the terrorized Eric and Sam who urgently warn him,

"You got to go, Ralph. You go away now--"
He wagged his spear and essayed fierceness.
"You shove off. See?"

The twins continue to urge Ralph to go even though it is not night and they are not painted. But, they tell Ralph that Roger has sharpened a stick at both ends.

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Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis