The all-consuming nature of The sibilance of ‘scar smashed’ is

human destruction is almost onomatopoeic – the reader can

emphasised by the image of hear the sounds of the violent crash,
the scar being ‘long’ and ‘all with the metaphor ‘scar’ alluding to the
round him’ – there is no wounds mankind inflicts upon nature.
escaping the devastation.

All round him the long scar smashed

into the jungle was a bath of heat

A sense of being overwhelmed and oppressed are evident from the

beginning of the novel. ‘Jungle’ has associations with future savagery,
but also a sense of being trapped in an overgrown environment. The
pathetic fallacy of ‘bath of heat’ creates a sense of being submerged in
something overwhelming.
The conch is described as a ‘delicate thing’,
symbolically referencing the fragility of
order and civilisation. It is juxtaposed with
Jack’s ‘sooty hands’, an image of the
corrupt darkness that begins to develop in
the novel.

Jack held out his hands for the conch and stood up, holding
the delicate thing carefully in his sooty hands. ‘I agree with
Ralph, We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all,
we’re not savages. We’re English.

Jack contrasts ‘savages’ (seen as strange, foreign people who

lack ‘rules’) with being ‘English’, yet the irony is the children
are only on the island due to the savage effects of the war
the English were engaged in.

Clothes, particularly school
uniform, represent civilisation
and order – Jack’s shorts are
‘tattered’, a clear indication
the rules of school are
disappearing.
Jack is ‘naked’ – this is not the innocent
nakedness of Ralph in the first chapter, but a
more sinister disregard for ‘English’
behaviour. His shorts are held up by a belt –
the inclusion of ‘knife’ suggests the belt is
not part of a uniform anymore , but a tool to
help him with his violent , destructive
hunting.

Except for a pair of tattered shorts held up by

his knife-belt he was naked. He closed his
eyes, raised his head and breathed in gently
with flared nostrils.

‘Flared nostrils’ develops an image of Jack as an animal, not a boy.

 ‘grew together’ suggests
Alliteration creates a tone working as one leads to
of pleasant unity. growth, symbolic of Simon
handing littluns fruit so all
are fed.

‘Flowers and fruit grew together on the

same tree and everywhere was the scent of
ripeness and the booming of a million bees
at pasture.’

Images of nature working

Associations of hard work and living
in harmony, suggesting it
closely together. A symbol of how the
is the boys who cause the
boys should live – one leader, with
descent into savagery, not
everyone else working together for
their environment.
the good of the community.
Civilisation soon fades away. Whilst it is ‘strong’, it is ‘invisible’ and therefore easy to
reject. ‘Old’ suggests a new way of life is coming; it is only ‘Roger’s arm’ that is
conditioned, not his mind’ and the adult world is ‘in ruins’.

Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old

life. Round the squatting child was the protection of
parents and school and policemen and the law.
Roger’s arm was conditioned by a civilisation that
knew nothing of him and was in ruins.
Polysyndeton highlights the work
The verb ‘conditioned’ suggests man
required to civilise mankind. We
is not instinctively wholesome and
are taught morally (‘parents’),
good – we have to be ‘conditioned’
educationally (‘school’) and legally
to behave correctly.
(‘policemen’ / ‘the law’)
‘Pretended’ has associations of
youthful imagination and childish
games, but is juxtaposed with ‘beat
him’, depicting a move from
innocence to violence.

The hunters, circling still, pretended to beat him.

As they danced, they sang “Kill the pig. Cut her
throat. Bash her in.” Ralph watched them, envious
and resentful. ‘Envious and resentful’ highlights the
appeal of the chant – whilst Ralph is
‘resentful’, he is still drawn to the
excitement of their tribal behaviour.
It is important to track changes to the ‘Kill’
chants. ‘Kill’ and ‘cut’ are harsh, violent and
aggressive verbs, but also necessary for a
hunt. However, the earlier ‘spill her blood’,
whilst still violent, now becomes ‘bash her in’,
a destructive image of bludgeoning that
serves no purpose except a desire for
violence.
 The inclusion of ‘only’ before ‘us’
underestimates the level of evil humans
inflict. He articulates it as the ‘dirtiest thing’,
with ‘dirtiest’ not even close to describing the
horrific actions of the boys throughout the
novel.

“What I mean is … maybe it’s only us.” …

Simon went on. “We could be sort of …” Simon
became inarticulateOrin his effort
putting to express
into words
mankind’s essential illness. Inspiration came to
him. “What’s the dirtiest thing there is?”
‘Mankind’s essential illness’ is a
‘Inarticulate’ and ‘express’ highlight the terrifying concept. ‘Mankind’s
difficulty of comprehending or putting into stresses we are all inflicted by this
words the potential for evil within disease and we cannot escape it -
mankind. it is ‘essential’, a fundamental part
of who we are.
‘The world of grown-ups’ is meant to be safe
and secure. Instead the violence of
‘explosion’, rather than bringing safety
creates nothing but ‘darkness’.
A sign came down from the world of grown-
ups… there was a sudden bright explosion and
corkscrew trail across the sky; then darkness
again and stars. There was a speck above the
island, a figure dropping swiftly beneath a
parachute, a figure that hung with dangling
limbs.
The ‘sign’ is clear; human life is insignificant. The fragility of human life is
The pilot is just a ‘speck’ and ‘figure’ with no emphasised by the adjective
identity. Just like Piggy, no one knows his ‘dangling’.
name , he is killed in conflict and is washed
out to sea. The boys simply copy this adult
world.
‘Claws’, ‘tracks’ and ‘mountain-top’ link with
fiction and mythical tales. The beast they
create is like a traditional fantasy story,
highlighting their innocence.

A beast with claws that scratched, that sat on a mountain-top,

that left no tracks and yet was not fast enough to catch
Samneric. However Simon thought of the beast, there rose
before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic
and sick.
It is Simon’s ‘inward sight’ that allows him to
see the truth’ it is ironic he is killed by boys
who are blinded by a frenzied tribal dance in
the dark. The juxtaposition of ‘heroic’,
suggesting brave and courageous,
and ‘sick’, suggesting ill and
depraved, highlights the conflict
within mankind’s behaviour. Is the
death and destruction of the war
they fled ‘heroic’ or ‘sick’?
 The simile ‘like a great ape’ makes the link
between man and animal clear –we have not
evolved beyond the animalistic savagery of
beast. Humans are nothing more than a
‘creature’, suggesting a lack of evolution.

Something like a great ape was sitting asleep

with its head between its knees. Then the
wind roared in the forest, there was confusion
in the darkness and the creature lifted its
head, holding toward them the ruin of a face.
The once harmonious island now
attacks the boys. Personification ‘The ruin of a face’ is an horrific image
of the wind that ‘roared’ suggests of violence and destruction.
the anger of the island at human
behaviour, and ‘confusion’ and
‘darkness’ show this former
paradise is now a hellish place.
 The contrast between Jack and Ralph is
clear. Jack’s ‘mask’ and ‘paint’ have
associations of savagery, whereas Ralph
remains a heroic, athletic ‘sprinter’.

He was safe from shame or self-consciousness

behind the mask of his paint and could look at
each of them in turn. Ralph was kneeling by the
remains of the fire like a sprinter at his mark and
his face was half-hidden by hair and smut.
Ralph clings to his identity and
civilisation. His face is only ‘half-
hidden’, and it is with ‘hair’ and Jack’s mask is almost an excuse for his
‘smut’(dirt); he only needs to wash behaviour; ‘shame’ and ‘self-consciousness’
to regain his innocence. are human traits that tell us when we are
wrong – Jack’s mask makes him ‘safe’ from
them, as if he now has no moral
judgement.
‘Build-up’ and ‘piled up’ mimics the
tension on the island. The alliteration
of ‘clouds continued’ and use of
‘steady’ suggests an unstoppable build
up.
Over the island the build-up of clouds
continued. A steady current of heated air rose
all day from the mountain and was thrust to ten
thousand feet; revolving masses of gas piled up
the static until the air was ready to explode.

‘Clouds’ and ‘revolving masses of

gas’ are both images of the island
becoming trapped and enclosed by
violent destructive forces.
The language of confrontation foreshadows
clashes between Ralph, Piggy and the
hunters – ‘heated’ and ‘explode’ reference
the hunt of Ralph, Piggy’s head on the rock
and the end of the conch, with ‘thrust’
linking to Simon’s death.
The noun ‘crowd’ suggests the boys
are no longer individuals responsible
for their own behaviour – they are a
collective a pack of animals driven by
instinct.

At once the crowd surged after it, poured

down the rock, leapt on to the beast,
screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were
no words, and no movements but the
tearing of teeth and claws.
Repeated use of commas and sibilance in
The imagery is animalistic – ‘bit, tore’, ‘screamed, struck, bit ,tore’ creates a
‘teeth and claws’ gives no suggestion of frenzy, mimicking the wildness with
humanity. The associations are which Simon is torn apart.
predatory, of savage animals ripping
apart prey.
 Ralph’s victim, Jack, is
dehumanised – he is simply ‘the
mouth’, ‘the face’ and ‘a knee’.
Ralph does not see a boy, but
simply something that must be
attacked.

He began to pound the mouth below him, using his

clenched fist as a hammer; he hit with more and more
passionate hysteria as the face became slippery. A knee
jerked up between his legs and he fell sideways.

This is not a playground fight but a frenzied destruction;

images of a schoolboy fight (‘clenched fist’ and ‘hit) are
juxtaposed with the imagery of a weapon (‘a hammer’).
The savage ‘pound’ and ‘passionate hysteria’ are
developed with the phrase ‘more and more’
 It is important to track the boys throughout the novel. They were
originally formal, educated and sophisticate (‘the Choir’), but are
now purely primitive and animalistic (‘savages’)

He put the conch to his lips and began to

blow. Savages appeared, painted out of
recognition, edging round the ledge
toward the neck. They carried spears and
disposed themselves to defend the The boys are
unrecognisable. ‘Painted’
entrance. references tribal
The civilisation of ‘the conch’ is juxtaposed
with the far more powerful ‘spears’ – rather behaviour, and ‘out of
than an assembly and coming together, we recognition’ suggests
see a need to ‘’defend’ and keep people out. human identity or
individuality has
disappeared.
The contrast of a huge, powerful ‘rock’, The pure ‘white’ conch is destroyed.
symbolising violence, against a fragile Exploded into a ‘thousand fragments’ and
‘conch’, symbolising civilisation, ‘ceased to exist’ shows once evil
suggests evil will always defeat good. triumphs, there can be no return to order.

The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from

chin to knee. The conch exploded into a
thousand white fragments and ceased to exist…
His head opened and stuff came out and turned
red. Piggy’s arms and legs twitched a bit, like a
pig’s after it has been killed.
The insignificance of mankind is clear. Piggy’s brains, symbolic of
his intelligence, are dismissed as ‘stuff’, his body simply
‘twitched a bit’ and the image of Piggy as ‘like a pig’ shows the
worthless nature of human life.
All human identity has gone. Physical feelings of
pain (‘wounds’, ‘hunger’, ‘thirst’) no longer matter
as Ralph ‘became fear’. The boys are the
personified ‘beast’ and Ralph is personified ‘fear’ –
all positive emotions are destroyed.

Ralph is ‘hopeless’ He forgot his wounds, his hunger and

and the alliteration
of the rapid ‘f’ thirst, and became fear; hopeless fear on
sound mimics the flying feet, rushing through the forest
terror and toward the open beach … Below him
irresistible force of
his fear. Ralph is someone's legs were getting tired.
like the hunted pig
Fear is so overwhelming Ralph cannot
in earlier chapters.
recognise himself anymore – he
knows ‘someone’s legs were getting
tired’, but has no comprehension they
are his.