Lord Of The Flies Chapter 3 Summary

At the beginning of the Lord of the Flies, Golding presents the reader with a group of young, civilized, British school boys who have been stranded on an uninhabited island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean. The boys have fled Great Britain in an attempt to escape the nuclear war which was occurring. The boys who are now free from the restraints of a constructed society that they left behind in Britain attempt to create a miniature version the society that they are accustomed to. But ultimately that illusion of a civilization deteriorates as the time passes and the boys embrace living a life without consequences. The boys undergo a transformation from being civilized individuals into savages without their own identities, despite their efforts

to remain civilized individuals. Golding’s theory of human nature is that within all humans, there is a darkness and that the darkness is only kept in check because of the eyes of civilization, and that without the watchful eye of society this darkness would become visible, which is the theory that he based the novel around. This will be shown in this essay through an analysis on the characters' time on the island.
As the novel begins, the reader is introduced to two of the novel’s main characters, Piggy and Ralph, and thus we are shown the first attempt to recreate and maintain the society that the boys had left behind. As the two characters got acquainted with their surroundings by exploring the beach they discovered a conch shell to which Piggy had prior knowledge of. He suggested to Ralph that he blow into in to produce a hornlike sound in an attempt to call the other stranded boys to the beach to have a meeting. As the stranded boys begin arriving at the beach, the reader is introduced to the second pair of main characters— Sam and Eric. Sam and Eric are twins who do everything together, including breathing which gets them confused with each other even at the beginning of the novel. During the final blow of the conch, the reader is introduced to the next group of characters— the choir. The choir arrived to the meeting in a synchronized march under the lead of their choir leader Jack Merridew. Jack addressed Ralph and the other group of boys asking if there were adults on the island, which shows the reliance that these school boys have on the adult world, or rather, civilized society itself. As the characters introduce themselves, they come to the conclusion that they need to devise a strategy to get rescued. The group suggests voting for a leader, striving to recreate the civilized society in which they were raised and are accustomed to. Jack suggests that he be chief because he is already leader of the choir, but one of the other boys suggests Ralph because of him having the conch. The majority of the boys voted for Ralph because of him having the conch. Because of this, the conch is now used as a symbol of power, civilization and democracy throughout the novel. Ralph, after winning the position of chief, acknowledges that the choir will still be loyal to Jack so he offers Jack the option of picking what him and the hunters will be. Jack selects the hunters, who will gather meat for the group of stranded boys. After that decision three of the boys— Jack, Simon and Ralph set off to explore the island and discover that it is completely uninhabited. As they were heading back to the rest of the boys, they come across a piglet caught in some vines. Jack rushed to kill it but was halted by the idea perpetuated by the society that they left in Britain that it was wrong to kill a living thing. This is a pivotal moment in the novel as it outlines the beginning of the descent into savagery that the boys on the island go through, because of Jack’s failure to kill the piglet he vows to kill the next one he comes across without mercy. This particular event in the novel is where Jack has the unconscious realization that there are no consequences for his actions as he has been separated from society. His inner darkness, or his inner evil, begins to shine through.
The next part of the novel deals with the absence of adults on the island and how the boys will survive without the adults. Ralph makes the fact that they are alone on the island clear to all of the boys, and makes them aware that they as a group have to take care of themselves. Furthermore, Ralph sets up a system of clear communication amongst the boys by using the conch so that everyone will not be speaking at once, but rather have one speaker at a time. He establishes that the person who is holding the conch will be the only one who is allowed to speak until they pass the conch off. This is an example of how society’s conditioning is still evident within the boys— they are still following the rules of civilization at this point in the novel. Piggy proceeds to take the conch from Ralph, and explains to the group that nobody knows that they are stranded on this island and that they may be there for a long time, planting the idea of rescue into everyone’s head. Ralph expresses the need for rescue to the group, and that they need a signal fire to alert passing ships and airplanes that they are stranded on the island. The group agrees with this proposal and rushes to gather fallen debris to start the fire— the only problem being that neither Ralph nor Jack new how to start a fire. This is an example of how civilized the boys on the island truly are, because they cannot light a fire without some category of manmade aid such as matches. Jack has the idea to use Piggy’s glasses to start the fire, as one might use a microscope to start one, and snatches the glasses off of Piggy’s face. The fire was started and the boys began to celebrate, until the fire got out of control and burned several trees in the process. Piggy becomes infuriated with the boys, and scolds them for their recklessness and in the process notices that the boy with the mulberry birthmark has gone missing. Ralph acknowledges this with grief, but as the rest of the boys did, he quickly dismisses the fact that the boy has gone missing and is possibly dead. This is the beginning of the true erosion of the civilization that the boys are accustomed to.
Chapter Three of the novel begins with Jack tracking a pig in the forest, acting animalistic and as though he was a pig to get a better understanding of how the pig was thinking.

Although he degraded himself to the point of acting like a pig to try and catch it, he was unsuccessful as the pig evaded him. Civilization is favoured more, at this point in the novel, than the savage life that Jack is following. This creates conflict between Jack and Ralph, as Jack is looking more towards the short term goals for the island such as having meat while Ralph is dealing with the long term goals such as a signal fire and huts for shelter. The idea of the beast had been brought up several times before within the novel, but it was quickly dismissed by the older boys as the littluns imagination. The beast was first brought up by the boy with the mulberry birthmark, who had claimed he had seen the beast, but even after his disappearance the littluns have claimed to have seen it and have been growing increasingly frightened throughout the novel up to this point. For the first time however, Ralph and Jack acknowledged the possible existence of the beast as Jack mentions that he feels as though he is not alone when he is out hunting in the jungle. Within the novel, the beast will become increasingly apparent as the civilization of the boys continues to

deteriorate.
By Chapter Four (Painted Faces and Long Hair) the boys have created a society which is a miniature duplicate of the one they left. The littluns representing the common people who are unaware of what is happening the upper society. The littluns are unaware of the fight between civilization and savagery that is currently brewing between Ralph and Jack, and their respectful social circles. Within the ,,biguns” there is a conflict between what society had told them is wrong and what their natural instincts are telling them to do— involving Maurice and Roger. The pair was relieved of their duty of tending to the fire and headed down to the beach, where they were taking part in destroying the sandcastles and kicking sand towards the littluns. As Maurice kicked sand into the eyes of one of the littluns, there was an internal conflict within him as in his ,,other life” he would have been chastised for kicking sand into the eyes of a younger child, but without the supervision of the civilized world there is no repercussions for doing such a thing. Maurice felt the guilt of that other life however, and made an excuse to leave. Roger however, remained at the beach and watched the littluns. While watching Henry, Roger was overcome with the desire to hit him with one of the rocks lying at his feet. Roger picked up one of these rocks and aimed to miss, and he continued doing this in a circle around Henry. He was aiming to miss because he still felt the restraints of his old life holding him back from becoming a monster, or a savage who hurt others for their own enjoyment. Roger’s aim was conditioned by the civilization that he left behind when he got on the plane. This is reinforcing the theory that Golding based the book around— that it is the eyes of civilization that keeps humanity’s darkness subdued. Jack on the other hand is embracing the fact that he is no longer living in a world with consequences, he paints his face to camouflage in with his surroundings as he hunts for meat. Jack takes SamnEric away from their job of tending the fire to hunt— another example of Jack only caring for the short term benefits. As a consequence, a ship passing by the island at that time was not aware of the boys presence on the island because of the lack of smoke. Ralph, Piggy and Simon tried their hardest in an attempt to restart the fire but the passing ship did not take notice of it. When Jack returned from his hunting expedition, he returned with a dead pig. When Ralph and Piggy informed Jack of the passing ship and the lack of smoke, Jack acted apathetic towards the situation as he was more focused on the thrill of the kill rather than the possibility of being rescued. Piggy, who was overcome with emotion, lashed out at Jack who in turn hit Piggy and caused his glasses to smash in one lens. Jack then, wanting the favour of the boys, apologized to Ralph for letting the fire go out.
After debating what should be done about the fire, Ralph calls an assembly to discuss how the boys are not following the rules they had decided upon when they first got stranded on the island. Ralph discusses how they decide one thing at the assembly’s and won’t follow through with it in the following days. He chides them for things such as not fetching water, not participating in the building of the huts, neglecting the fire, and the fact that the boys are not using the designated toilet area anymore. Although the boys do not realize it, the reasoning behind this is the fact that because they are no longer in a strict civilized environment with set and enforced rules, they are slipping into savagery and primal instincts one by one. The next topic brought up at the assembly is the matter of the beast. Ralph tries to quell the littluns fears of the beast by bringing logic into the discussion, stating that there couldn't be a large beast on a small island like theirs.