Lord Of The Flies Chapter Summary

Plot Summary
The novel begins with a group of British schoolboys crashing onto a deserted jungle island. Two boys, Ralph and Piggy, are looking for other survivors when they stumble across a conch shell. The boys decide to blow the conch shell in order to signal any other survivors to the beach, where they are. At the meeting on the beach, Ralph is elected chief by the other schoolboys. Another boy, Jack, is also introduced at the meeting. Over time, the boys on the island build a rescue fire using Piggy’s glasses, and also a few shelters. However, nearly all of this work is done by Ralph, Piggy, and a few other boys loyal to Ralph, known as Simon, Sam, and Eric. Ralph becomes irritated that Jack and many of the younger boys refuse to help,

The younger boys, called “littluns”, have been having nightmares about a so-called beast that roams the island, and believe wrongly believe the parachute floating in the breeze is the beast. Tensions between Ralph and Jack have been increasing, with Ralph wanting to focus on shelter and the rescue fire, while Jack insists on hunting pigs. The tension further increases when Jack decides to leave camp with his band of hunters, who are intent on killing pigs, and even create a chant and dance to celebrate a kill. Eventually, when hunters kill a pig, they decide to cut off its head and leave it on a stake as a type of offering to the beast. Later, Simon stumbles upon the pig-head, calling it “Lord of the Flies”. Simon has a hallucination-like dream where the Lord of the Flies speaks to him, mocking him and the other

Ralph, described as fair-haired by the author, is among the older schoolboys, but not yet a teenager, so the reader can assume he is anywhere from 9 to 12 years old. The character of Ralph is meant to represent society and morality. However, Ralph is not instinctively good and moral, either. He has to fight against urges of bloodlust and brutality, one of his main internal conflicts throughout the book. For example, at the feast in Jack’s tribe, Ralph is swept up into the frenzied “hunt”, when the boys accidentally murder Simon. Ralph’s main external conflict throughout most of the book is against Jack, his moral opposite. By the end of the book, Ralph becomes more aware of the evils of humanity, whereas, in the beginning, he is more naivë. He learns how humans are fundamentally violent and evil through Jack and the other