‫‪Novel‬‬

‫قسم اللغة االنكليزية‬

‫مصطفى عالء حسين عليوي‬
‫المرحلة الرابعة‬
‫الشعبة )‪(B‬‬

‫‪Lord of the flies‬‬

‫‪William Golding‬‬

‫‪Chapter 5‬‬
‫‪Beast from water‬‬
 Lord of the flies
Chapter five
Beast from water

Summery:
This chapter begins with Ralph, who has been on the beach thinking
deeply about their current situation on the island. Ralph was thinking
about how to make things right in order to restore order to their small
community on the island, as the boys began to break with the rules that
were put in place to ensure everyone’s safety and disobedience. Ralph
scolded the boys for being unfit for work, not helping with the shelter,
and not using the agreed area to relieve themselves. Finally, Ralph
refers to fire and says it should be their highest priority, and here Ralph
sets out a new rule that they should use only the fire above the
mountain and prevent the use of other fire, as if they need it, they
should go up to the mountain to make use of it for food or anything
else. Here Ralph tries to regain control and restore order within the
group to keep them safe until they rescued. While everything is going
well, suddenly things get worse because of fear. Ralph has a
conversation with the boys about fear, and he admits that at times he I
afraid, but he knows that fear is nonsense. Jack gets into the
conversation and seems angry with the littluns for talking about
monsters and not doing their duty to help with work, saying that he has
travelled the entire island, knows it well and has not encountered any
monsters. Piggy agrees with jack and says that fear is self-made and
there is no fear, and this has been scientifically proven. A littlun named
Phil says he saw something moving in the dark last night, but Ralph told
him it might just be a dream. Meanwhile, another littlun, Percival,
intends to talk, but he starts crying and all the littluns start crying too,
because they are afraid of the beast. While Maurice starts joking to
calm the littluns down, jack asks Percival to tell him where the beast is,
telling jack that the beast comes from the sea. The boys continue to
talk about monsters and ghosts, and conflicts break out again. Jack yells
at Piggy and Ralph tells them to shut up. Jack does not care for the rules
as we know and doesn’t admit them, saying that if there is a monster,
he and the hunters will kill him. This indicates jack’s courage as well as
his violent mindset and way of thinking, close to barbarism, far from
rational tranquility, since the idea of killing is the first thought to come
to his mind. At the end of this chapter, Jack takes his hunters and leaves
cheering. Piggy asks Ralph to blow the shell so that he can bring
everyone back, but Ralph refuses, fearing that they will not obey him,
as the situation may get worse. Ralph loses confidence and realizes that
leadership is too difficult; he begins to consider stepping down, but
Piggy and Simon persuade him to remain in command.

The significance of the title:

The word “water” in the title refers to the unknown and lost, since the
boys are unaware of what is in the sea and have not entered it in the
first place. On the other hand, the word “beast” refers to the fear that
governs the boys, for they are afraid of the unknown because they do
not know what tomorrow will bring them or what their fate will be. So,
the word beast refers to their fears that could destroy what is left of
reason and civilization, since the fear of the unknown renders man
incapable of doing anything and causes him to behave irrationally.
Symbols:
The conch
The conch symbolizes order, laws and democracy in the sense that it is
a symbol of leadership. In this chapter, the conch loses its importance
and becomes useless because children no longer follow orders and a
rebel against it led by Jack, who is also a symbol or emblematic of
barbarism. What reinforces the idea of the conch losing its value and
prestige is Ralph's argument. When he refused to blow it so that the
children would reassemble. This means that even Ralph accidentally
begins to lose confidence in himself and the conch as a symbol of
leadership and order. If it weren't for Piggy and Simon and their efforts
to persuade Ralph to remain in command, the situation would've
gotten worse.
The beast
The beast symbolizes fear and wickedness. Percival said that the beast
comes from the water, and since the children have not entered the
water and do not know what is in the sea, they are afraid of the
unknown. In other words, they are afraid of their future and do not
know their fate on the island. Simon points out that the beast is a
symbol of the evil within man and its human nature. Simon's intuition
that the beast is a symbol of evil is reinforced by the words of Piggy
when he says that fear of a beast doesn't exist is pointless; we must be
afraid of people.
The fire
Fire as symbol of survival and safety. At the beginning of the chapter,
Ralph insists on taking care of the fire on the mountain and keeping it
burning because it is the only way for them to be seen by a passing
ship. Fire, therefore, is an important symbol of the hope of survival and
may also be a symbol of the fact that the flame of civilization is still
burning and that it is not extinguished. As we know Ralph represents
the civilization. On the other hand, fire can be a symbol of destruction,
so for that reason Ralph has banned the use of fire on the island except
the one on the mountain because it can be controlled if the fire spreads
out.