Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Ralph calls the assembly and reminds everyone of their agreement to maintain fresh water supplies, observe sanitation measures, build shelters, and keep the signal fire going. He then addresses the growing fear that he knows is beginning to overwhelm many of the boys by opening up the floor for discussion. Meanwhile, darkness is falling.

Jack takes the conch to point out that if a beast were on the island, he would have seen it during his hunting trips. Piggy adds that the field of psychology can be used as a tool to explain logically the experience of fear, thereby invalidating it. When a littlun comes forward to describe a large creature he saw in the jungle the night before, Simon reveals that it was only he, going to his special place. Percival suggests that a beast could arise from the sea, then falls asleep on the platform from the effort of his revelation.

Simon attempts to explain that the boys themselves, or something inherent in human nature, could be the beast they fear. His unsuccessful explanation leads to talk of ghosts, so Ralph holds a vote to see who fears ghosts. This vote sparks an outburst from the rational Piggy with a corresponding reaction from Jack. Now in open mutiny, Jack aggressively disputes Ralph’s authority and leads the boys onto the beach in a sort of tribal dance. Remaining on the platform, Piggy and Simon urge Ralph to summon everyone back to the platform but he resists, his confidence shaken. Suddenly, the three boys are startled by an unearthly wail as Percival wakes up to find himself alone in the dark.

Commentary

Chapter 3 addresses the issue of verbal communication and its place within a civilized society; this chapter implies that the primitive life leaves little mental energy for conceptual thought. Making his way to the platform, Ralph realizes “the wearisomeness of this life, where … a considerable part of one’s waking life was spent watching one’s feet.” With so much energy devoted to survival, little time is left to devote to the kind of conceptual thought or abstract reasoning available to those sheltered by the institutions found in civilizations.

The two boys who retain the most capacity for conceptual thought are Piggy and Simon. Note that Piggy does not participate in the physical endeavors of the other boys; his physical activities are limited by his poor physical condition. Simon makes the effort to be alone in his hidden spot, giving himself time to meditate in a place where he doesn’t have to concern himself with hunting, building, or the needs of others. In the hidden spot, Simon develops his understanding of human nature as the true beast to be feared.

The silence of Simon’s hideaway allows him to reflect on what he sees and feels. In contrast, silence is a threat to the other boys. Consider Jack’s feeling oppressed by the jungle’s silence while hunting in Chapter 3. During the assembly in this chapter, the boys respond almost aggressively to Percival’s silence when asked his name: “Tormented by the silence and the refusal the assembly broke into a chant. ‘What’s your name? What’s your name?’” Chanting is associated with primitive societies, not part of the order or domesticity from whence the boys came or that Ralph is trying to establish.

Ralph expends much energy on the needs of others as well as on the physical rigors of building huts, and he begins to feel the effects: He is gradually losing both confidence that they will be rescued and his feeling that they are involved in an exciting experiment without adults. As a boy who represents the civilized, English society, he is neither as savage as Jack nor as cerebral as Piggy. He provides an example of how the leader in a community must strive to utilize the intellectual resources available in solving communal problems. This chapter shows Ralph’s skills of organization and governance starting to wane. He is struggling to implement his agenda for the meeting and finds he is unable to control the assembly, which degenerates into a mob of “noise and excitement, scramblings, screams and laughter.” He finds himself lost “in a maze of thoughts that were rendered vague by his lack of words to express them.” This lack of mental clarity recalls Jack’s difficulty in expressing himself described in Chapter 3. Such a loss of verbal command bodes ill for Ralph and the community because his seat of authority is the platform, a symbol of the verbal communication and thoughtful debate. Ralph’s mental acumen is subject to the same decay as his clothing, frayed as both are by the rigors of the primitive life.

Yet the crisis of the lost rescue opportunity spurs Ralph to grasp some new concepts, revelations following each other thick and fast as he makes his way to the platform and sits on the chief’s log. His growth is evident in his musings as he ponders matters more conceptual than he ever has before. Realizing the difficulty of this lifestyle in contrast to its initial glamour, he “smiled jeeringly,” as an adult might look back with cynicism on the ideals held as a youth. Ralph is losing his innocence quickly, but gaining an understanding of natural processes not available to him in the sheltered society he came from. “With a convulsion of the mind, Ralph discovered dirt and decay … At that he began to trot” toward the platform and the civilization it represents, in a physical reaction to the abstract truth newly present within him.

Once on the platform, more revelations engulf Ralph. He considers the springy log that shifts during assemblies and throws off the boys sitting on it, and ponders how maintenance of the status quo has taken precedence over the simple solution of securing the log with a stone wedge. He notes that the light of late sunset makes the entire place look different, calling into question the reality of its usual appearance. Suddenly Ralph recognizes the value and talents of the intellectually gifted Piggy, a conscious appreciation foreshadowed by the allegiance formed in Chapter 4 when “Not even Ralph knew how a link between him and Jack had been snapped and fastened elsewhere.” At the same time, Ralph realizes that “Piggy was no chief,” understanding intuitively that a leader needs the popular support Piggy can’t garner, hindered by his lack of charisma or popular appeal.

Up to this point, Ralph himself has been leading by instinct and charisma. Now he realizes that “if you were a chief, you had to think, you had to be wise … thought was a valuable thing, that got results.” Simultaneously, he realizes “I can’t think. Not like Piggy.” This sentiment echoes Piggy’s question to the boys in Chapter 2, after they’ve accidentally caused the forest fire: “How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t … act proper?” In that scenario, Piggy links social conventions with results, in a logical relationship of cause and effect lost on the emotional crowd. Social conventions are not necessarily based in rational thought, but they do provide a framework for rational discussion and thought.

Ralph has clearly learned something about establishing a forum for discussion: “One had to sit, attracting all eyes to the conch, and drop words like heavy round stones among the little groups that crouched or squatted.” Golding’s word choices here evoke a distinct sense of primitivism, a savage lifestyle where words are stones and the chief presides over an electorate that crouches and squats to hear him speak. Just as Chapter 4 lays out a series of microcosms with the littluns’ interactions, the diction here links the platform assemblies to both ends of the social or civil spectrum, from pre-verbal tribe gatherings to modern governmental institutions.

With hunting, Jack has a skill that is becoming increasingly more persuasive to the group in their present environment than does Ralph. Jack’s appeal to the primitive, baser, instinctive nature of the community, coupled with his aggressive, self-assured combative personality, is now appealing more and more to the group. At the same time, Ralph’s political and natural leadership abilities coupled with his visceral optimism and common sense are having diminishing impact on the affairs of the boys as their baser natures become increasingly prevalent.

In this chapter’s assembly, Ralph’s new appreciation for thought leads him to rely too heavily on logic. While he presents his agenda point by point, attempting a rational approach to the fear he knows they feel, night is falling and the boys are growing restless. “We’ve got to talk about this fear and decide there’s nothing in it,” he says, as if a phobia can be defused through discussion. As the brainy representative of civilization, Piggy continues along these utterly rational lines. “‘Life,’ said Piggy expansively, ‘is scientific’” in his explanation that such an emotional concern can be addressed as a pathology with the twentieth-century invention of psychology. His assertion that soon humankind would by flying to Mars indicates his confidence in technology, which he holds out as a source of comfort.

Yet Jack provides the most comfort to the boys in this assembly because he portrays the object of their fear as an actual animal, one that can be tracked, and “[t]he whole assembly applauded him with relief” when he points out that he has never seen a frightening beast of any kind in the forest; his skills as a tracker are undeniable. Jack orders everyone to be frightened if they must—he acknowledges that even he feels that same fear at times—but not to fear an animal-beast. Jack pleases the crowd with his practical take on the beast and his definitive pronouncement that “you’ll have to put up with [the fear] just like the rest of us.”

Given the day’s lost rescue opportunity, Ralph implements the additional precaution of using only the signal fire to cook rather than starting small wasteful fires on the beach—an idea that is solidly grounded in reality. Still counting on logic to carry his agenda, Ralph points out “You voted me for chief. Now you do what I say.” Ralph thus raises the issue of the electorate’s obligation to the rule. Winning of public opinion is both a reasoned and an emotionally based process. Every politician knows that popular opinion is easily swayed from one leader to another; the general public’s perception of who is the best leader is frequently based not on which leader has benefited the group the most, but who has gained favor most recently. Already, Ralph’s authority has lost ground, due to the concrete victory of a kill offered by Jack, the adventure and drama of the hunts, and the overall emotional nature of a crowd.

Ralph, Piggy, and Simon assume that adults could solve the problems they face on the island. After the assembly, the three boys detail the advantages adults bring, crediting adults with the greatest efficacy and civility: “Grownups know things … They ain’t afraid of the dark. They’d meet and have tea and discuss. Then things @‘ud be all right.” Ralph has been trying to uphold that model, using discussion as a means to set things right, but this chapter sees him lose faith in it. When the other boys have been once again led off by Jack, Ralph cannot bring himself to summon them back.

Although Piggy is an undoubted representative of logic and science, he is the first to address the idea that the fear could be based on a fear of self and each other, of something inherent in humanity. Piggy developed his shrewd understanding of human nature during the time spent bedridden by asthma—the equivalent for him of Simon’s secret place in the jungle. For Piggy, the fear is less a concept rooted in knowledge of humanity’s dark side than the practical fear of an outsider, a vulnerable boy disliked by the stronger, more aggressive boys.

Like Piggy, Simon is different from the others: He has fainting spells, sticks up for Piggy even if unobtrusively, and has the special hidden place in the forest; later chapters reveal him as a visionary. Because the other boys don’t understand Simon, they fear him. When he reveals that it was he who inadvertently frightened one of the littluns by venturing into the jungle at night, he gives them a concrete reason to chastise him. Jack holds him up for ridicule; the “derisive laughter that rose had fear in it and condemnation”—two emotions that go hand in hand as the condemnation makes the group feel protected from the fear they’ve experienced.

Simon’s death is foreshadowed in this chapter, as he is made scapegoat for the boys’ unshakeable fear. His question to them, “What’s the dirtiest thing there is?” demands an answer far too abstract for this crowd. Once again, Jack provides a concrete and non-threatening answer, an answer far simpler than the answer Simon seeks, which is evil. Simon can’t express precisely what he understands because he lacks a sophisticated education or training in dealing with abstract concepts; he is, after all, a ten-year-old boy. Simon’s inability to articulate what he sees as “mankind’s essential illness” mirrors Jack’s inability to effectively express “the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.” Both boys want to describe the same thing, but Simon has reached an abstract understanding of the animality that can produce evil effects while Jack is living it. Of course, Jack later stirs up the group into such a frenzy of animality that Simon is murdered.

This chapter expands upon the theme of humankind’s latent depravity, resorting to the savagery of self-indulgence in the absence of social rules, mores, and control to the contrary. Such control is the basis of most social conventions and institutions, which are designed to promote self-control and civilized discourse. The symbol of such conventions and institutions is the platform. In this chapter the platform’s protective powers break down when the assembly dissolves into “arguing, gesticulating shadows. To Ralph, seated, this seemed the breaking up of sanity.” When Ralph sees the disorderly arguing breaking out and taking over the assembly, he perceives not only that he has lost control of the group but that the group is losing control of itself.

Glossary