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Matthew Ho

Ian Avery

Honors English 10

9 November 2016

Lord of the Flies Chapter 4 Reading Journal

In the fourth chapter of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, he shifts focus from

the older leaders of the group—Ralph, Piggy, Jack, and Simon—to the younger boys who have

been less prominent in the story. I really enjoy this transition because, after three chapters,

we’ve learned many of the qualities of the older boys, but we haven’t learned much about the

others—especially the “littluns”—so shifting gears feels very refreshing. These boys see this

situation differently and are adapting to it in a much different manner from the older ones. They

are still very naïve and don’t quite understand everything unfolding around them. This is evident

when Golding explains that Henry “[is] not old enough to understand” (60) that his distant

relative had died the evening of the disastrous wildfire. Furthermore, Percival is described as

being “peaked, red-eyed, and miserable; a littleun who [plays] little and [cries] often” (59),

showing how devastating being thrown into a new environment without the supervision of adults

is for the kids who are as young as five years old. This evokes emotions of sympathy and pity

within me for these boys. Though the older boys are taking on leadership roles and rapidly

maturing, the littluns are losing their childhood and, therefore, are developing and adapting with

great difficulty. Golding further displays this through the passage involving Roger observing

Henry. Roger begins throwing stones around Henry, intentionally missing. He understands that

it would be wrong to hit Henry, yet he does it anyway as a barbaric nature is developing in him

because of the loss of civilization. Golding explains that Henry is protected by “parents and
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school and policemen and the law. Roger’s arm [is] conditioned by a civilization that [knows]

nothing of him and [is] in ruins” (62). This shows a clash of British society as the boys once

knew and their new unstable civilization which relies on survival rather than morality.

Then, although life seemed to be okay for some time, leadership begins to take a

tumultuous crumble. As the priorities of Ralph and Jack continue to polarize, commitments and

actions are not held. On one side, Ralph’s priority at this point is to be saved which is why it is

so important to him that the signal fire continues to burn so that passing ships and aircrafts can

see that they are there and need help. On the contrary, Jack’s objective is to hunt for the group

and acquire meat for them. Rather than being rescued, he wants to sustain the boys. Jack’s

priorities overcome his commitments, therefore he abandons his responsibility of ensuring the

fire continues to burn and goes into the jungle to hunt and successfully kill a pig. As he is off

hunting, however, the fire dies out when it is most needed as a ship passes. With the fire out and

no way to signal to the ship, it passes by and the boys remain stranded. This causes an argument

between Jack and Ralph, who calls for a meeting to finally establish long overdue order.

Furthermore, the bitterness escalates as it is obvious “Jack [does] the decent thing, [puts] himself

in the right by his generous apology,” (72) while Ralph is still overcome with anger.

As Golding had previously done in other chapters, he introduces another object as part of

his allegory of humanity. This new object introduced, or more so emphasized, is the pig. This

pig may symbolize desire because virtually all the boys crave it, since all they’ve eaten since

they’ve been there are fruits and other non-meat food sources, therefore they will do anything to

get it: abandoning the fire that could’ve saved them to finally hunt and kill a pig. On a societal

scale, pigs may symbolize power, while on a more personal scale it may represent temptation.

Another object introduced that could possibly be symbolic is face paint which could represent
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anonymity or transformation. Golding states that when Jack looks at his reflection after painting

his face with red, black, and white, he no longer sees the person who knew as himself but a

stranger. Furthermore, the paint is described as a mask “behind which Jack [hides], liberated

from shame and self-consciousness” (64).

The conflict between Jack and Ralph reminds me of Andrew Jackson and his time as a

general and President of the United States. As general, Andrew Jackson had led three invasions

into Spanish Florida without asking for permission from Congress or the President. During his

presidency, he rashly and repeatedly sent the military to use force in order to remove Native

Americans, who refused to relocate, from their homes. As Jack resorts to hunting, bloodshed,

and violence before following the orders of Ralph, the chosen leader of the group, Jackson

similarly did so because he decided upon violent, forceful actions without authorization from his

Congress. This conflict also reminds me of the effect which the 2016 Presidential Election has

has on America. The result of this election—Trump most likely becoming the next President—

has led to terrible consequences which have bitterly divided our nation. I feel that those

devastated by Trump becoming the next President, including me, can relate most to Ralph. He

wants to cooperate and create progress, while Jack wants to give into desire and temptation,

resorting to violence and barbaric behavior. Similarly, Donald Trump has run a campaign based

on a racist, xenophobic, sexist, anti-LGBTQ platform which has already evoked bigotry in many

of his supporters and terribly affected the lives of marginalized people: people of color, Muslims,

women, etc. As this chapter is showing, a civilization cannot prosper without order and

cooperation. Likewise, I believe it will be difficult for our nation to effectively continue because

of how divided its people currently are.

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New Vocabulary:

1) opalescence: n. the condition of exhibiting a play of colors like that of the opal

2) vagrant: n. something which has no permanent place or purpose

3) errant: adj. moving in an aimless manner

4) gyration: n. a moment of spiraling emotion