In chapter 5, after the meeting has broken up into chaos and Jack has led most of the boys down to the beach in a "random scatter," Ralph, Piggy, and Simon remain in the meeting place and discuss Ralph's leadership—or lack thereof. Both Simon and Piggy encourage Ralph to go on being chief. For Piggy's part, speaking of Jack, he says, "I'm scared of him... and that's why I know him... When you see him......
In chapter 5, after the meeting has broken up into chaos and Jack has led most of the boys down to the beach in a "random scatter," Ralph, Piggy, and Simon remain in the meeting place and discuss Ralph's leadership—or lack thereof. Both Simon and Piggy encourage Ralph to go on being chief. For Piggy's part, speaking of Jack, he says, "I'm scared of him... and that's why I know him... When you see him... it's like asthma an' you can't breathe." He goes on, telling Ralph, "He can't hurt you: but if you stand out of the way he'd hurt the next thing. And that's me."
In chapter 8, Jack has become the chief of his own band and has killed a sow. Before the feast, as Piggy and Ralph are talking about why things have deteriorated so severely, this conversation and commentary show how fear of Jack is growing:
"I dunno, Ralph. I expect it's him."
"Jack?"
"Jack." A taboo was evolving around that word too.
In chapter 11, when Piggy, Ralph, and Samneric make plans to go to Jack at Castle Rock to demand Piggy's glasses back, Samneric say that they should all take spears "because we may need them." Piggy says he won't take a spear, but that he will simply take the conch and tell Jack Merridew what he wants. Sam or Eric warns him, "You'll get hurt." Ralph insists that they go as they are, without paint. Eric protests that the others, including Jack, will be painted. In response, "The others nodded. They understood only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought." They are afraid of how Jack and the boys act when they are painted. Jack was the first one to paint himself, and he demanded that the others also wear paint.
After Samneric have been captured by Jack, Ralph manages to speak to them while they are on watch. They fearfully tell Ralph to leave. They explain that Roger is a terror. Then they add: "And the chief—they're both—" "—terrors—" They have actually been kidnapped by Jack and have been physically forced to comply with Jack's wishes, so they have reason to fear him.
These passages reveal how fear of Jack begins relatively early in the book and grows significantly by the final chapter.
No comments:
Post a Comment