CHAPTER 6 – ‘BEAST FROM AIR’– PLOT
SUMMARY
There is a late night military
airplane battle above the island. None of the boys sees the explosions and
flashes in the clouds because the twins Sam and Eric, who were supposed to
watch the signal fire, have fallen asleep. During the battle, a parachutist
drifts down from the sky onto the island, dead. His chute becomes tangled in
some rocks and flaps in the wind, while his shape casts fearful shadows on the
ground. When Sam and Eric wake up, they tend to the fire to make the flames
brighter. In the flickering firelight, they see the twisted form of the dead
parachutist and mistake the shadowy image for the figure of the dreaded beast.
They rush back to the camp, wake Ralph, and tell him what they have seen. Ralph
immediately calls for a meeting, the boys organize an expedition to search the
island for monsters. They set out, armed with wooden spears, and only Piggy and
the littluns remain behind.
Ralph allows Jack to lead the search
as the group sets out. The boys soon reach a part of the island that none of
them has ever explored before—a thin walkway that leads to a hill dotted with
small caves. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/section6.rhtml
CH6 QUESTIONS
1.
What does Ralph tell Jack to do at the meeting when Jack tries to talk out of
turn? Is Ralph’s order followed?
2.
What do the boys do when they enter the small island? Why?
3.
What does Ralph urge them to concentrate on instead? Why?
CHAPTER 7 – ‘SHADOWS AND TALL TREES’–
PLOT SUMMARY
…That afternoon, the hunters find pig droppings, and
Jack suggests they hunt the pig while they continue to search for the beast.
The boys agree and quickly track a large boar, which leads them on a wild
chase. Ralph, who has never been on a hunt before, quickly gets caught up in
the exhilaration of the chase. He excitedly flings his spear at the boar, and
though it glances off the animal’s snout, Ralph is thrilled with his
marksmanship nonetheless. Jack holds up his bloodied arm, which he claims the
boar grazed with its tusks. Although the boar escapes, the boys remain in a
frenzy in the aftermath of the hunt. Excited, they reenact the chase among
themselves with a boy named Robert playing the boar. They dance, chant, and jab
Robert with their spears, eventually losing sight of the fact that they are
only playing a game. Beaten and in danger, Robert tries to drag himself away.
The group nearly kills Robert before they remember themselves. When Robert
suggests that they use a real boar in the game next time, Jack replies that they
should use a littlun instead…Darkness falls, and Ralph proposes that they wait
until morning to climb the mountain because it will be difficult to hunt the
monster at night. Jack challenges Ralph to join the hunt, and Ralph finally
agrees to go simply to regain his position in the eyes of the group. Ralph,
Roger, and Jack start to climb the mountain, and then Ralph and Roger wait
somewhere near the top while Jack climbs alone to the summit. He returns,
breathlessly claiming to have seen the monster. Ralph and Roger climb up to
have a look and see a terrifying specter, a large, shadowy form with the shape
of a giant ape, making a strange flapping sound in the wind. Horrified, the
boys hurry down the mountain to warn the group. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/section7.rhtml
CH7 QUESTIONS
1.
Of what does Ralph dream when he contemplates the sea?
2.
Who correctly interprets Ralph’s reverie as a longing to be rescued? What can
be inferred about this character?
3.
What literary device is featured heavily in tis chapter (hint: think of
Robert). Explain your reasoning.
CHAPTER 8 – ‘GIFT FOR THE WATER’– PLOT
SUMMARY
The next morning, the news of the monster has the boys
in a state of uproar as they gather on the beach. Piggy, who was not on the
mountain the night before, is baffled by the other boys’ claims to have seen
the monster. Jack seizes the conch shell and blows into it clumsily, calling
for an assembly…Enraged, Jack storms away from the group, saying that he is
leaving and that anyone who likes is welcome to join him. Piggy thinks they
should build a new signal fire, on the beach rather than on the mountain.
Piggy’s idea restores Ralph’s hope that they will be rescued. The boys set to
work and build a new fire, but many of them sneak away into the night to join
Jack’s group. Piggy tries to convince Ralph that they are better off without the
deserters. Along another stretch of sand, Jack gathers his new tribe and
declares himself the chief. In a savage frenzy, the hunters kill a sow, and
Roger drives his spear forcefully into the sow’s anus. Then the boys leave the
sow’s head on a sharpened stake in the jungle as an offering to the beast. As
they place the head upright in the forest, the black blood drips down the sow’s
teeth, and the boys run away.
As Piggy and Ralph sit in the old camp discussing the
deserters, the hunters from Jack’s tribe descend upon them, shrieking and
whooping. The hunters steal burning sticks from the fire on the beach. Jack
tells Ralph’s followers that they are welcome to come to his feast that night
and even to join his tribe. The hungry boys are tempted by the idea of pig’s
meat. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/section8.rhtml
CH8 QUESTIONS
1.
What lie does Jack tell the others at the assembly?
2.
What does Jack do before he leaves the assembly?
3.
Who converses with the pig’s head about the nature of the beast?
4.
What threat does the beast make at the end of the chapter?
5.
Who is the Lord of the Flies?
CHAPTER 9 – ‘A VIEW TO A DEATH’– PLOT
SUMMARY
Simon awakens and finds the air dark and humid with an
approaching storm. His nose is bleeding, and he staggers toward the mountain in
a daze. He crawls up the hill and, in the failing light, sees the dead pilot
with his flapping parachute. Watching the parachute rise and fall with the
wind, Simon realizes that the boys have mistaken this harmless object for the deadly
beast that has plunged their entire group into chaos. When Simon sees the
corpse of the parachutist, he begins to vomit. When he is finished, he
untangles the parachute lines, freeing the parachute from the rocks. Anxious to
prove to the group that the beast is not real after all, Simon stumbles toward
the distant light of the fire at Jack’s feast to tell the other boys what he
has seen. Piggy and Ralph go to the feast with the hopes that they will be able
to keep some control over events. At the feast, the boys are laughing and
eating the roasted pig. Jack sits like a king on a throne, his face painted
like a savage, languidly issuing commands, and waited on by boys acting as his
servants. After the large meal, Jack extends an invitation to all of Ralph’s
followers to join his tribe. Most of them accept, despite Ralph’s attempts to
dissuade them. As it starts to rain, Ralph asks Jack how he plans to weather
the storm considering he has not built any shelters. In response, Jack orders
his tribe to do its wild hunting dance.
Chanting and dancing in several separate circles along
the beach, the boys are caught up in a kind of frenzy. Even Ralph and Piggy,
swept away by the excitement, dance on the fringes of the group. The boys again
reenact the hunting of the pig and reach a high pitch of frenzied energy as
they chant and dance. Suddenly, the boys see a shadowy figure creep out of the
forest—it is Simon. In their wild state, however, the boys do not recognize
him. Shouting that he is the beast, the boys descend upon Simon and start to
tear him apart with their bare hands and teeth. Simon tries desperately to
explain what has happened and to remind them of who he is, but he trips and
plunges over the rocks onto the beach. The boys fall on him violently and kill
him. The storm explodes over the island. In the whipping rain, the boys run for
shelter. Howling wind and waves wash Simon’s mangled corpse into the ocean,
where it drifts away, surrounded by glowing fish. At the same time, the wind
blows the body of the parachutist off the side of the mountain and onto the
beach, sending the boys screaming into the darkness. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/flies/section9.rhtml