Ho 1

Matthew Ho

Ian Avery

Honors English 10

17 November 2016

Lord of the Flies Chapters 7, 8, 9 Reading Journal

In chapters seven, eight, and nine of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, he

gradually progressed toward a darker, morbid atmosphere. I admire this new climate because I

didn’t expect it, and it kept me intrigued all throughout reading it. Every few pages, there was a

new, unpredictable twist and turn which was refreshing and entertaining.

However, the beginning of chapter seven implemented a casual mood, focusing on Ralph

and his thoughts. Throughout reading this book, I had not deeply thought about their living

conditions and hygiene with all the chaos taking place. This passage concentrates on Ralph’s

realization of how sweaty he is, how long and messy his hair is, and how he has no particular

toilet, bath, or toothbrush. The boys have been living this way for months, trying to efficiently

create a stable society without any concern about their cleanliness. It was odd to try and imagine

how they look and how I myself could cope with such conditions because I shower nearly every

day and take personal hygiene generally seriously.

Furthermore, chapter seven also invokes nostalgia as it digs deeper into Ralph’s thoughts

and his homesickness. He reminisces winter and watching the little flakes of snow fall to the

ground. This particular memory is most likely brought out by the fact that he’s been living on a

remote, tropical island for months with hot weather and sweaty days. Following this, Ralph

recalls the books stacked on his shelf including their texture, weight, and content. This can be
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explained because the boys have been fighting for survival and a stable society, generally using

their instinct, rather than turning to intellect.

Afterward, the story takes a dark turn when the boys go off hunting for pigs. Ralph

spears a pig for the first time and feels a refreshing, new sensation. This leads to the boys

playing a sadistic game where they jab and hurt Robert as if he were a pig. Suddenly, Ralph’s

barbarism is brought out as his desire to inflict pain and kill becomes overwhelming. This part

of the story was off-putting to read yet still intriguing. It was terrible reading of children doing

such awful things to each other and acting as if it’s a game and not some awful, violent act.

Ralph had also seemed to be one of the most clear-headed of the boys—save for Piggy and

Simon—so reading such dark thoughts coming from his brain was surprising.

In addition, when the boys are reaching the top of mountains as it is starting to grow

darker, most of the boys want to return to Piggy and the littluns. Jack, however, insists that they

continue their trek. At first Ralph opposes this suggestion, but is soon convinced by Jack to

travel all the way to the top. This is yet another example of Ralph choosing instinct over reason.

I expected him to choose to be above Jack, but instead he does the exact opposite, falling to

Jack’s level.

Moreover, chapter eight developed an even darker atmosphere than the previous. The

boys and hunt and kill a sow who was feeding her children. Not only were they obviously not

using their reason because she was feeding and raising her children which would grow to

become their potential food sources, but they are also committing a heinous act. Not only do

they kill her brutally by cutting her throat but they enjoy doing so to the point where it becomes

almost sexual as they stab her in the butt. Furthermore, they even go as far as cutting off her

head and sticking it on a pike as an offering to the beast. This could be seen as an act of fear but
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also an act of worship. This part was disturbing to me because of all the violence being ensued

by children.

Afterward, when Simon returns to his special spot on the island, he comes across the

pig’s head on the pike. Oddly enough, the head begins to speak to him—labeling itself “the Lord

of the Flies” and warning Simon that there’s a little bit of him in everyone else. This support’s

Simon’s suggestion that perhaps the beast is the boys themselves. This passage was odd yet

enlightening because it’s weird that Simon is speaking to a dead pig’s head but it’s interesting to

see how the title connects to the story.

Ultimately, all these horrific events were only leading up to the most terrible of them all.

Simon was brutally killed by his own friends with their bare hands and teeth when he was simply

just trying to alert them that the so-called beast was just a dead parachutist in the tree that could

do them no harm. This chapter invoked sad emotions in me because Simon was perhaps my

favorite character since he was kind, reasonable, and had a good moral compass. Simon didn’t

deserve the fate that he received, which made reading his death even more difficult.

These three chapters brought about the theme that under civilization, there’s always

underlying savagery which cannot always be contained. As hard as the boys attempt to establish

a stable civilization, their barbarism and instinct overcome their reason and intellect, causing

chaos and violence.

They also express aspects of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory which expresses that all

human personalities have three main components: id, superego, and ego. Jack is most

representative of the id because he cannot carry on with this responsibilities and commitments

until after he fulfills his desire of killing a pig, and he prioritizes his pleasures over everyone

else’s. On the other hand, the superego can be best represented by either Piggy or Simon. Id and
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superego are polar opposites, and Piggy and Simon definitely contrast from Jack. Piggy choses

the right things to do in order to meet the priorities and needs of the group, while Simon is a

moral compass who doesn’t wish to hurt anyone. Finally, Ralph is best representative of the ego.

The ego is a mixture between superego and id, and it sometimes has to chose between the two.

Ralph always choses between Piggy and Jack, but more recently Ralph slowly drifts toward Jack

and the id, and the group is becoming more uncivilized.

Next—especially in chapter nine—the story includes many similarities to religious

stories. For instance, in the story of how Siddhartha reached enlightenment, he first had to

overcome three temptations: thirst, lust, and discontent. Likewise, in the Bible, Jesus also faced

three temptations. Similarly, the boys also faced three temptations, but Simon was able to

overcome them, not fall under the Lord of the Flies’ philosophy, and understand what the beast

truly was. The thirst is a lack or scarcity of basic needs: proper shelter, sanitary conditions,

meat, etc., while the lust is the desire for bloodshed and killing brought out by the hunting of

pigs. Lastly, the discontent is exemplified when the majority of the boys in Ralph’s group leave

to go to Jack because they’re unsatisfied with his leadership. Simon never succumbed to any of

these and was able to reach his own enlightenment. As Siddhartha and Jesus were both in rivers,

Simon’s corpse floats along the ocean surround by a halo of phosphorescent fish.

Finally, these three chapters remind me of American Horror Story: Roanoke. In the sixth

installment of the series, several people are put on a property haunted by bloodthirsty, human-

sacrificing, ghostly colonists. As in Lord of the Flies, pigs are very prominent in this season of

the television show. Pigs are mutilated, burned, and eaten, and there’s even a machete-wielding

ghost with a pig’s head. Furthermore, as these people fight for survival, they begin to give into

the violence and disarray around them. One of the characters, Shelby, brutally murders her own
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husband after she finds him succumbing to lust when he cheats on her. Another character,

Audrey, gruesomely murders one of her kidnappers by bashing her skull in with a hammer.

Then, two of the characters lock another out of their room to be killed because they don’t trust

him. Finally, one of them, Lee, even falls under a literal trance by a ghostly witch. She then

goes on a killing spree, murdering three innocent people. Similarly to Lord of the Flies, though

they try to establish order and survive, their savagery eventually gets the best of them and leads

to their downfall.

New Vocabulary:

1) furtively: surreptitiously or stealthily

2) demure: character by shyness and modesty; reserved

3) corpulent: large or bulky of body