Discussion Topic
Analysis of the Opening of Lord of the Flies
Summary:
The opening chapters of Lord of the Flies introduce key characters, themes, and symbols. Ralph is elected leader, using a conch shell to assemble the boys, symbolizing order. Jack and his choir are assigned hunting duties, foreshadowing future conflicts. The boys' initial excitement about freedom quickly turns to chaos, exemplified by their failed fire, leading to a missing child. The chapters effectively set up the allegorical struggle between civilization and savagery, with Ralph and Jack representing opposing forces.
What do chapters 1 and 2 in Lord of the Flies cover?
In Chapter 1, the reader learns that an airplane load of British schoolboys has been shot down over a tropical island. The boys, discover that they are without adult supervision, decide to elect a leader. Ralph is chosen; he possesses a large conch shell that he blows into like a horn to assemble the boys for a meeting.
Ralph chooses Jack Merridew, another strong minded boy, and his choirboys to be hunters, so the boys can get some meat.
In the meantime, the idea of being alone on the island with no grown-ups to tell them what to do is at first very exciting for them. They excitedly explore the island, playing and jumping through the jungle.
Jack's first attempt at being a hunter fails, as he is unable to kill a wild pig that they discover caught in a tangle of vines.
In Chapter 2, the boys begin to settle down into the idea that they have crash landed on an island and no one knows where to find them. This leads them to decide on making a signal fire. They collect dead wood and use Piggy's glasses to set it ablaze.
However, the fire burns out quickly. They make a new fire, but end up setting a row of trees on fire, losing track of one of the little boys in the process.
For more details on Chapters 1 and 2 please click on the links below.
In Lord of the Flies, what does the title of chapter 2 signify?
At the beginning of chapter two, Ralph is holding the conch. He is in charge at the moment. Chapter Two is entitled "Fire on the Mountain." Ralph informs the boys that a fire is needed to signal a ship that should happen to pass. At this point in the story, Jack is in agreement with Ralph. He takes the leadership of the fire:
The boys arrive on a platform on the mountain and Jack organizes the choir to the task. Working together the boys enthusiastically pile up dead and rotted wood for the fire. They amass a huge pile and pour on dead leaves for kindling. Piggy arrives too late to help. Against his wishes, Jack takes his glasses to use to light the fire.
Abruptly and in a rude manner, Jack takes Piggy's glasses without permission. Then Ralph takes Piggy's glasses from Jack and starts the fire. Although the fire is Ralph's idea, Jack runs with the idea and soon the fire is burning out of control.
Ralph is concerned that the fire is not producing enough smoke to signal a ship that may be passing. One of the boys suggests they use green branches.
During the time that the fire is burning out of control, the boy with the mulberry mark on his face disappears. The boys assume that he died in the fire.
Ralph tries maintain order. He suggests that they keep the fire ongoing at all times. Jack is in agreement with Ralph at this point:
Ralph takes the conch and reminds them of the need to constantly maintain the fire, and the need to maintain order and respect for the conch. Jack agrees with Ralph, saying “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are the best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things.”
Jack divides the choir members. Some will hunt and some will keep the fire going.
While Ralph is trying to maintain order, there is a breakdown of order by the end of chapter two:
However, by the end of the chapter, their well-intentioned plan has resulted in a horrible disaster.
Keeping the fire burning is going to prove to be a challenge in later chapters. The boys' chance for rescue will be lessened due to this fact. While the boys begin with good intentions, the responsibility of keeping the fire burning becomes too great for Jack and his choir boys. Jack would rather hunt with his mighty hunters.
How effectively does the opening chapter of Lord of the Flies introduce characters, themes, and language?
In an allegorical way, the opening chapter of "Lord of the Flies" is effective. First of all, the emergence from the forest of the single character, Ralph, establishes him as an important personage, and that Piggy arrives next sets him as secondary to Ralph. Then, too, the symbolism of the conch and its importance is indicated by the fact that this first chapter is entitled, "The Sound of the Shell." The conch represents the order of society as it calls the boys to meetings and organizes them. Later, in the novel when the conch is ignored, the reader cannot but recognize the anarchy that exists. Even later in the narrative, as the conch is dashed against the rocks, its symbolism extends to the end of rationality as Piggy himself is hurled to his death against the rocks.
Ralph and Piggy swim in a lagoon and discover the conch. as they rest, William Golding writes that Ralph sits in the "green shade on a convenient trunk." (green is a pleasant color) Sitting on the fallen trunk, "tangled reflections quivered over him," but Ralph "dreamed pleasantly" as he ignores Piggy's "ill-omened talk." Clearly, here Golding foreshadows the character flaw of Ralph which leads to future conflcts in the novel. Golding writes,
Piggy looked up a Ralph. All the shadows on Ralph's face were reversed; green above, bright below from the lagoon...'We got to do something.'
But Ralph looks
through him. Here at last was the imagined but never fully realized place leaping into real life
and, for Ralph, Piggy becomes "an irrelevance."
Then, other boys appear, some of whom have already removed their clothes, the trappings of civilization. a group of boys in black cloaks march into the scene. These boys are led by Jack, whose evil persona is easily perceived:
The boy himself came forward, vaulted on to the platform with his cloak flying, and peered into what to him was almost complete darkness.
Ralph, "sensing his sun-blindness, answered him." Out of the other boy's face "stared two light blue eyes, frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn, to anger." These lines establish the future conflicts between Ralph as the good force and Jack as the evil force.
The last of the main characters, Simon, is also introduced in this first expository chapter. "A slight, furtive boy whom no one knew, who kept to himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy" is seen right before the choir boy who has fainted sits up against a palm trunk, saying that his name is Simon. The significance of this scene is later understood as Roger, who represents primordial evil lurking in secrecy at this point later emerges as part of the "beast" who confronts the sensitive Simon, who faints in his presence in a later chapter.
Jack establishes his choir as the hunters in the first chapter, and they pay "no attention" to Piggy who declares that he was with Ralph when he discovered the conch. Golding writes, too, that "a kind of glamour was spread over them"--the attraction of evil.
While the boys at this point retain the trappings of society, Jack's avowal that he will not miss the pig at which he stabs indicates the future descent of the boys into inherent evil. Golding, thus, effectively introduces his themes in this first chapter as he clarifies the allegorical roles of the main characters.
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