Lord of the Flies. Chapter 8: Reading Notes

Transcription

1 Lord of the Flies Chapter 8: Reading Notes

2 Jack vs. Ralph After Jack s departure it is pretty obvious who is on who s side Jack Ralph: SamnEric, Simon, Piggy What s important to Ralph: The fire Looks to others for suggestions (democracy) Roger, Maurice, Robert, Bill What s important to Jack: Hunt, forget the beast we will leave it a sacrifice Demands things from others (dictator)

3 The Slaughter Jack is able to completely mask his presence from the animals They are able to wound the pig and follow it to a clearing Notice that with each new drop of blood they see, they become more bloodthirsty and give more into their savage desires The boys do not just kill the pig but torturer it Roger: Runs around poking it as much as he can before fully leaning on his spear with all his weight in a very uncomfortable Jack: Jumps on top and stabs it repeatedly before cutting its throat

4 The Slaughter Continues The boys begin to give into savage desires Flicking blood, smearing it on each other s face They realize they do not have the most important element: Fire What do they plan to do? Well steal it from the civilized area Notice that they call Jack Chief They leave the head as a tribute or sacrifice to the beast This is very similar to how uncivilized and/or superstitious civilizations would act toward Gods.

5 Ralph and Piggy Ralph realizes things are pretty hopeless as they do not have enough people to man a fire He is upset at the fact that he can not think like an adult: Is it because he feels that if he thinks older they will listen to him? Ralph admits that he is afraid he will turn out like the others He continues to look for Piggy for guidance and explanation for what went wrong Piggy answers in one word: Jack But it is not that Jack is THE reason, Jack is simply a manifestation of the reason it happened. Given the opportunity people will act like animals: In this case Jack gave the kids their opprtunity

6 Confrontation Jack and his hunters raid Ralph and Piggy s for fire and invite everyone to eat Jack does this to get on everyone s good side so they will leave Ralph The hunters come and scare everyone Jack ignores Ralph Notice how the boys act when they hear thunder Extra Credit (10 Points): Explain how the boys act (pg. 140) when they hear the thunder and what this says about them. Contrast this with how they acted when killing the pig. Are they really savages in your mind? Elaborate on your explanation. You can me if you have a question on this I will be checking my e- mail until 8:30

7 The Aftereffects Ralph and Piggy know who it was Ralph calls an assembly for the remaining kids to remind them what is important Notice how he is forgetting what he is trying to say Ralph and Piggy understand that they are different at this moment from Jack and the others

8 Where has Simon Been? Simon has gone off on his own Here is where you might get confused Simon comes across the pig head left for the beast It is called the Lord of the Flies Remember Lord of the Flies is Bezzlebub who is thought to be A) The Devil B) His right-hand man: He is chaos incarnate which is why only Simon understands, Simon is close with nature so he is able to see the evil that the others are bringing (even though it seems like he is going crazy, but that is what no water will do for you) He is hallucinating while seeing the head believing it is talking to him (This is suppose to represent that the beast is within them all) While hallucinating the head says the most important quote so far, Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill You knew, didn t you? I m part of you? Close, close, close! I m the reason why it s no go? Why things are what they are? This is the savagery that is located in all the boys It tells him they are going to have fun on the island and that if he goes back to the others he will just find him (The Lord of the Flies) He ends the chapter passing out (He is quite dehydrated at this point)