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READ THIS
Because of the disaster of the ship on the horizon but with the fire having gone out, Ralph called another
assembly, a meeting which continued into the dark.
Apart from being very pedantic in laying down rules, Ralph attempted to get the assembly to accept that
there was no such thing as a beast.
The assembly failed. Indeed, the boys decided that there was indeed a ghost on the island. Jack then
mutinied, leading a ritual dance down onto the beach.
Ralph called for a sign from the adult world that would tell them precisely what the adults would do.
READ THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE
Ralph held out his hands for the conch and the littlun Phil sat down.
"You were asleep. There wasn't anyone there. How could anyone be wandering about in the forest at
night? Was anyone? Did anyone go out?"
There was a long pause while the assembly grinned at the thought of anyone going out in the darkness.
Then Simon stood up and Ralph looked at him in astonishment.
"You! What were you mucking about in the dark for?"
Simon grabbed the conch convulsively.
"I wanted -- to go to a place -- a place I know."
"What place?"
"Just a place I know. A place in the jungle."
He hesitated.
Jack settled the question for them with that contempt in his voice that could sound so funny and so final.
"He was taken short."
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
What did Phil believe he had seen? (4)
[Need help?]
Phil had had a dream in which he was outside the shelter, alone in the dark, fighting the twisting creepers.
He woke up to find the twisting things had disappeared but, in their place, was some monster.
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Ralph held out his hands for the conch and the littlun sat down.
- Why does Ralph hold out his hands for the conch? What does the conch
represent? (4)
[Need help?]
The conch represented order on the island. Whoever held the conch had the right to address the
assembly.
Phil had been holding the conch while he told the hushed group of boys about his visions of the monster
during the night.
Ralph, however, needs to allay the fear of monsters that Phil has awoken but, in order to speak, he
needed the right to speak. Despite being the leader, he himself still needed to hold of the conch.
Please note: the conch does not represent leadership. Holding the conch did not make one a leader.
It simply represented order and the right to speak.
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"You were asleep," said Ralph. "There wasn't anyone there. How could anyone be wandering about
in the forest at night? Was anyone? Did anyone go out?"
- In his argument against Phil, Ralph appears to be clutching at straws. Why is this
so? (4)
[Need help?]
Ralph had intended that the debate would settle once and for all the question of there being a beastie.
His purpose was to put a stop to the constant nightmares.
Phil, however, has merely reiterated that there is indeed a beastie and that he has seen it. Ralph attempts
therefore to veto what Phil has been saying but he too is not certain.
He therefore says categorically that Phil had seen nothing because he was asleep.
He then changes his mind and says that perhaps Phil did see something, but that something was only one
of the boys and was not a monster.
It was crucial that Ralph quashed the idea of monsters lurking in the forest, but he himself is not certain
of it.
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"He was taken short," said Jack.
- What is the best word to describe Jack's attitude towards Simon? (1)
[Need help?]
Jack is uncouth and insulting. He makes no attempt whatever to understand Simon, or the boy's reasons
for sneaking off alone. He merely puts it down to an upset stomach. He turns it into a joke, knowing it
will humiliate the boy.
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- Why had Simon actually gone into the jungle that night? (4)
[Need help?]
It is by no means certain why Simon goes off by himself.
He appears to be epileptic, a condition that was not fully understood back in the 1950s when this novel
was written. If Simon felt a seizure approaching, it is possible that he would want to be by himself rather
than allow the boys to witness his humiliation of a Grand Mal seizure.
On the other hand, the author appears to be using Simon in some form of Christ image.
Just as Jesus Christ was said to have gone off into the wilderness to be alone when facing the devil, so
Simon too wishes to be alone to confront the devil which haunts this island.
More will be said of the Christ image later in these worksheets.
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- Jack has clearly not understood what it is that motivates Simon. Explain why. (4)
[Need help?]
Jack himself is none too bright and recognises only brutality and fear. He would never have understood
the forces that drove a sensitive loner like Simon.
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"Maybe," Simon said hesitantly, "maybe there is a beast . . . what I mean is . . . maybe it's only
us."
- What does Simon mean by this? (4)
[Need help?]
Simon appears to be alluding to the fact that the beast does indeed exist but as a spirit which has taken
possession of them.
It is not out there in the forest, but exists rather within their own souls.
They won't find the beast until they look inside themselves.
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- How do these words sum up Simon's character? (4)
[Need help?]
Simon is the most philosophical and spiritual of the boys. Indeed, if he had been able to grow up, he might
have become what is known as a shaman or spiritual leader for the boys.
He appears to have insight into human nature and the human spirit, is able to see when the human spirit
is sick and in need of healing.
If he could have put his beliefs into words, he might perhaps have explained what was wrong with their
community and why it was falling apart -- but Simon was too shy, lacked authority and was not one for
words.
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- What effect would Simon's words have had on the assembled boys? (4)
[Need help?]
Simon was able to recognise the forces of evil that dwelt within the human spirit, the evil that would pull
them ever onwards into a cycle of destruction and murder. The boys, however, were generally incapable
of understanding him.
They merely believed that Simon was attesting to the fact that the beast did exist. As a result, the little
flame of fear which Ralph had been attempting to extinguish was now fanned into a roaring fire of terror.
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"If only they could get a message to us," cried Ralph desperately. "If only they could send us something
grown-up . . . a sign or something."
- Why does Ralph want a sign from the grown-ups? (4)
[Need help?]
The assembly had broken up into a shambles. It seemed that Ralph's powers of leadership were
disintegrating and that the community of boys was descending into anarchy.
Ralph and Piggy discussed the adult world, how the adults would know what to do. They longed therefore
for the adults to send them a sign, something which would restore the values of civilization, show them
how to act in this situation.
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Later that very night, the grown-ups did indeed send a sign.
[Need help?]
The grown-ups did indeed send a sign.
High overhead, an aerial dogfight took place between two fighter jetplanes. One plane was shot down in
a ball of flame.
Its pilot ejected himself but he was already dead. His body floated through the dark sky on a parachute
and eventually landed on the island where the strings of the parachute would become entangled in the
bushes, preventing the wind from carrying the body out the sea.
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- What does the sign mean? (4)
[Need help?]
The sign is ironic.
Ralph and Piggy had been discussing how the adults would know what to do, that the adults would never
have descended into the barbarism and anarchy that was enveloping the boys.
And yet the sign reveals the exact opposite: that the adults themselves have descended into a state of
barbarism in which they kill each other, i.e. the adults themselves are killing each other in open warfare.
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- How does the arrival of the sign make a mockery of Piggy and Ralph's belief in the adult
world? (4)
[Need help?]
The arrival of the dead fighter pilot is a sign that the boys and the adults are in no way different. Each has
descended into savagery: the boys through savagery on the island, the adults through the savagery of
warfare.
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