|
READ THIS
Both Ralph's now tiny group and Jack's enlarged tribe suffer the after-effects of having killed Simon.
At Castle rock, Jack imposes his authority in various inhuman ways. He also instigates a plan to have
their own fire for the purposes of roasting pigs -- but it was a plan which involved stealing Piggy's
spectacles.
READ THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE:
At length Ralph got up and went to the conch. He took the shell caressingly with both hands and knelt,
leaning against the trunk.
"Piggy. "
"Uh?"
"What we going to do?"
Piggy nodded at the conch.
"You could -- "
"Call an assembly?"
Ralph laughed sharply as he said the word and Piggy frowned.
"You're still Chief."
Ralph laughed again.
"You are. Over us."
"I got the conch."
"Ralph! Stop laughing like that. Look there ain't no need, Ralph! What's the others going to think?"
At last Ralph stopped. He was shivering.
"Piggy. "
"Uh?"
"That was Simon."
"You said that before."
"Piggy. "
"Uh?"
"That was murder."
"You stop it!" said Piggy, shrilly. "What good're you doing talking like that?"
He jumped to his feet and stood over Ralph.
"It was dark. There was that -- that bloody dance. There was lightning and thunder and rain. We was
scared!"
"I wasn't scared," said Ralph slowly, "I was -- I don't know what I was."
"We was scared!" said Piggy excitedly. "Anything might have happened. It wasn't -- what you said. "
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
|
TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"What we going to do?"
Piggy nodded at the conch.
- Why does Ralph ask the question, "What we going to do?" ? (4)
[Need help?]
Ralph is essentially at his wit's end. His leadership has failed but he knows that Jack, despite having the
support of most of the boys, will never get them rescued.
At the same time, Ralph believes that Piggy has all the correct answers. Although Piggy appears to be
a buffoon, he nevertheless is intelligent and can reason logically whereas he -- Ralph -- struggles to
think logically.
Ralph therefore looks to Piggy for advice at this critical time when everything appears to be dissolving
around him.
|
- Why does Piggy hesitate to speak the words, "You could [call an
assembly]"? (4)
[Need help?]
Piggy knows perfectly well that they can't call a proper assembly. Most of the boys are now with Jack.
If Ralph did actually blow the conch to announce an assembly, no-one but himself, Piggy, Sam and Eric
would attend -- plus perhaps a few of the littluns who would be quite useless in this situation.
|
- There's an irony in Ralph's answering laughter. Can you explain why? (2)
[Need help?]
Ralph too knows that calling an assembly would be a farce. His leadership has failed and it is impossible
now to attempt restoring it.
He therefore laughs but his laughter means the exact opposite. There is no humour whatever in it.
|
"You're still Chief."
Ralph laughed again.
"You are. Over us."
"I got the conch."
"Ralph! Stop laughing like that. Look there ain't no need, Ralph! What's the others going to think?"
- Piggy's words -- "You're still Chief." -- are also ironic. Can you explain this
irony? (4)
[Need help?]
Still the Chief? Over whom?
Ralph had essentially lost his entire following and was therefore a leader over just a small rag-tag group.
He no longer therefore held any authority whatever.
|
- What does Ralph mean when he says, "I got the conch."? (4)
[Need help?]
Ralph is joking at the irony, of course. The conch was meant to symbolise authority but no-one would now
respond if he were to blow it.
He is laughing ironically because of Piggy's comment that he was still their Chief. The Chief was he who
held the conch.
But the act of holding the conch was now so totally preposterous because leadership and real authority
had vanished completely.
|
- Piggy says, "What's the others going to think?" What does he mean by this? (4)
[Need help?]
There are two possible meanings to this.
Piggy might be thinking simply of Sam and Eric, plus any littluns who might still be there. Seeing Ralph
laughing so ironically would cause them to lose all faith in him.
On the other hand, Piggy might have been thinking about the others back home, i.e. the grown ups.
He recognises that they have all made such a mess of things: the boy with the purple birthmark has died
because of their irresponsibility -- and now they have killed Simon.
What will the grownups think when they learn what they have done?
|
"That was murder."
"You stop it!" said Piggy, shrilly. "What good're you doing talking like that?"
He jumped to his feet and stood over Ralph.
"It was dark. There was that -- that bloody dance. There was lightning and thunder and rain. We was
scared!"
- What does Ralph mean when he says, "That was murder."? (4)
[Need help?]
Ralph is referring to the way in which they had killed Simon who had crept into the midst of the dancing
group while they were engaged in the ritual hunting dance. The boys had mistaken Simon for the
"Beast" and had clubbed him to death.
Ralph sees their action as having been deliberate. They had known it was Simon and yet they had still
killed him. That therefore was murder.
|
- Do you think that Piggy's excuse is acceptable about it being dark, the "bloody dance", the
lightning and thunder and rain, and that they were scared? (4)
[Need help?]
In actual fact, Piggy is perfectly correct.
The boys had been caught up in mass hysteria. They were indeed frightened: both by the
thunderstorm and of the beast. They were also afraid of the dark.
On the other hand, the "bloody dance", as Piggy called it, was a ritual dance which in itself was
geared to engender mass hysteria.
When Simon had crawled into their midst, therefore, they really did have little option but to kill him,
believing that he was indeed the Beast.
Afterwards, they might look back on the incident and realise that it had been Simon but, at the time that
it was happening, it wasn't Simon at all. It was indeed the Beast who was crawling into their midst looking
like Simon.
That is what mass hysteria does.
|
- Explain Ralph's reaction, "I wasn't scared." (4)
[Need help?]
Essentially Ralph had to say something like that, didn't he? After all, he was the Chief and chiefs are not
supposed to know fear. If he were to admit that he too was afraid, it would be a criticism against his own
leadership ability.
The fact, however, was the Ralph had been very much afraid. After all, why had he joined Jack's group
during the thunderstorm if it wasn't because of his fear of the storm?
|
- Do you agree with Ralph's claim about his not being scared? (4)
[Need help?]
Ralph had indeed been scared -- very scared. There were only the four of them the previous evening.
With the storm brewing, he was just as afraid as the others.
At the same time, they all believed that the Beast was roaming freely on the island. How could the four
of them defend themselves against the Beast should it attack them?
No, there was obvious safety in numbers. That is part of our human genetic make-up: we look for safety
in numbers.
If there are only four of you when the beast attacks, you have a 25% chance of being killed. If, on the
other hand, there are a hundred of you in the pack, your chance of being killed has been reduced to only
1%.
And it was that fear which drove them all into participating in the hunting dance, which dance psyched
them into a state of mass hysteria and made it possible for them to believe that the little boy called Simon
was in fact the terrifying Beast.
|
|
