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READ THIS
Jack and his hunters have rejected Ralph's leadership and have gone hunting. They've figured out that
the best way of breaking Ralph's hold on the other boys is by providing them with meat.
They come across a squeal of pigs and set upon the biggest one, a fat sow who is suckling her young.
They attack and kill her.
READ THE FOLLOWING:
They surrounded the covert but the sow got away with the sting of another spear in her flank. The trailing
butts hindered her and the sharp, cross-cut points were a torment. She blundered into a tree, forcing a
spear still deeper; and after that any of the hunters could follow her easily by the drops of vivid blood. The
afternoon wore on, hazy and dreadful with damp heat; the sow staggered her way ahead of them,
bleeding and mad, and the hunters followed, wedded to her in lust, excited by the long chase and the
dropped blood. They could see her now, nearly got up with her, but she spurted with her last strength and
held ahead of them again. They were just behind her when she staggered into an open space where
bright flowers grew and butterflies danced round each other and the air was hot and still.
Here, struck down by the heat, the sow fell and the hunters hurled themselves at her. This dreadful
eruption from an unknown world made her frantic; she squealed and bucked and the air was full of sweat
and noise and blood and terror. Roger ran round the heap, prodding with his spear whenever pigflesh
appeared. Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife. Roger found a lodgment for
his point and began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight. The spear moved forward inch by
inch and the terrified squealing became a high-pitched scream. Then Jack found the throat and the hot
blood spouted over his hands. The sow collapsed under them and they were heavy and fulfilled upon her.
The butterflies still danced, preoccupied in the centre of the clearing.
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:
When one speaks of "images" in poetry or other literature, what does one mean? (10)
[Need help?]
Some literature has different levels of meaning. There is the superficial meaning but then there
is a deeper level of meaning.
The most obvious example of this is in the use of metaphors, similes and allegories.
An image falls into this category but is on a bigger scale to the metaphors and similes. While the latter
two are usually used only in passing -- unless one has an extended metaphor -- the image paints an
enhanced picture.
The author paints a picture within the words and it is meant to make the reader sit up and think.
The image is usually a picture which spells meaning for the entire work. Hidden within an apparent
superficial description is a truly deep picture which extends over an entire paragraph and sometimes even
over an entire novel.
In a work of art, nothing happens by accident. When therefore one comes across a graphic passage
where a series of words spell out a second meaning, the reader should sit up and ask the question,
"What is the writer trying to tell me? Is there perhaps an image hidden here?"
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Read the passage in the left column very carefully because it carries an image hidden away within its
words. Can you identify this image?
- Hint: look for a strange use of words but where each bears exactly the same picture in common. If
you can't see these words, click on "Need help?" below and you'll see these words
highlighted. (10)
[Need help?]
The hunters followed, wedded to her in lust.
She squealed and bucked and the air was full of sweat and noise and blood and
terror.
Jack was on top of the sow. Roger found a lodgment for his point and
began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight.
The spear moved forward inch by inch and the terrified squealing became a high-pitched
scream. The sow collapsed under them and they were heavy and fulfilled upon
her.
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- What do these words have in common? In other words, what is the image in this
passage? (4)
[Need help?]
The image is that of a rape, is it not? The squealing, the terror, the boys on top, pushing their
instruments of terror into her.
It becomes clearer if you were to substitute the sow for a virgin girl, with the boys surrounding
her, and Jack on top. Hear her screams, see her terror. Then Roger pushing "his point"
into her, leaning with his whole weight.
And where was "his point" pushing? The boys say it later: "Right up her ass!"
Far fetched? Then explain two sets of words in particular: "Wedded to her in
lust" and "they were . . . fulfilled upon her."
These latter statements are never used in any other way than with a sexual meaning.
Why would the author want to portray a rape image?
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- What then does this image tell you of the boys' actions in the novel as a whole? (10)
[Need help?]
The boys are raping the island.
When they arrived, the island was a paradise, a garden of Eden, an innocent delight, a virgin playground
untouched by man.
But right from the very moment they arrived, the boys began to behave like savages and raped the island.
They set fire to it almost at once. They behaved like animals, killing the sow which was suckling its young.
Then they started murdering each other. Eventually they unutterably destroyed everything.
When you have finished reading this novel, decide what else the boys have done in raping the island.
The image of raping the sow is therefore an image of the boys' greater deed of raping the whole of
innocence -- the island's innocence as well as their own.
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