LOTF - Chapter Eight

Lord of the Flies

Chapter 8 - Gift for the Darkness

I chose the second scene as the most grotesque and disturbing part of Chapter Eight because it is so far the most repulsive behavior from the boys on the island. It shows that the boys have become truly savage and wild since their plane crashed on the island and left them stranded.

In this chapter, Jack decides to kill a pig and have a feast to try and recruit the people left in Ralph’s group to his tribe. He also said to prevent the beast from bothering them he will make a sacrifice. He and the boys who chose him over Ralph go off to hunt for the pigs and once they found a trail, they follow it and it leads them to a large herd of wild pigs. The boys slowly crept up until a thin screen of underbrush separated them from the hot, bloated pigs. Jack gave the signal and a shower of spears rained down upon the sow they were after, a nursing female, the largest in the group. Two spears took their mark and punctured the pig’s hide, while another caught a piglet that stumbled into the waves. The large pig staggered upright and ran off through the forest. The boys chase after her for an extensive amount of time but are not delayed by tracking her down, as a bloody trail followed her. Finally they reach a quiet and beautiful are where butterflies dance in the humid air. The pig collapsed on the woven mat of creepers and the boys launched themselves upon her, stabbing wherever they could. Roger ran around them and tried to find a place where he could stick his spear, and when he did he leaned all of his weight on it so it slowly inched forward while the pig screamed in pain. At last, when Jack sliced her throat, the sow’s sufferings cease and she crumpled beneath them. The boys, breathing hard from their demoniac performance get off the pig and start laughing because Roger realized that where he stabbed the pig was right up her butt. Jack paunched the pig and when he was through, he cut of the head and asked for a spear from one of the boys. He stuck the pig head on the spear and said out loud, “This head is for the beast. It’s a gift”, and they all scampered off.

This scene was the most disgusting scene in the book because it is in every way horrific. It was gory and bloody, but it was also cruel and malicious. After Jack and the boys launch their spears at the pig once and followed it until it collapses, they needn’t had to jump on the pig and torture it until it died. If they had just waited for a moment, the pig would have probably died on it’s own. They tormented the pig because they were savage from being on the island. Their minds have become so twisted that they torture the pig, but it is to an extent that they aren’t killing each other. They even started laughing because they realized that Roger stuck his spear up her butt, and so basically they are laughing because they are torturing the pig. Another way this scene is the most repulsive is that when Jack’s group is torturing the pig, it all happens in Simon’s chapel when Simon is present. Simon is the purest one on the island but because the pig finally gave in to the heat and the pain precisely where he was hiding and meditating he had to witness the tormenting of the pig. That is truly horrible because Simon is good and someone like that should not be allowed to observe such a dreadful event. Finally, Simon’s chapel is very beautiful and it is disturbing that the pig had to be tortured and killed in a gorgeous place like that.

I feel that William Golding wanted this chapter to demonstrate the extreme brutality and evil of human nature. He portrayed it very well and I hope that it is one message that people will understand.