More chapters coming soon…
Jack: Hunting
Some time has passed and the boys have changed, as if they’re changing with the island. This chapter opens in the forest, hunting with Jack who is ‘naked’ except for a ‘pair of tattered shorts’. Golding says that his eyes ‘seemed bolting and nearly mad’. This description of hunting-madness in Jack’s eyes is repeated throughout.
All around, the silence is ‘more oppressive than the heat’.
Golding uses some interesting semantic fields: ‘primitive’, ‘abyss of ages’, ‘a furtive thing, ape-like’ (for Jack).
‘pallor’, ‘blood’, ‘shadow’, ‘darkness’
The pig hoofbeat is: ‘a castanet sound, seductive, maddening – the promise of meat’
Ralph vs Jack: at the Shelters
‘rude [crude/rough] shelter’ ‘near to falling down’ ‘wreck’ ‘shaky’ ‘ruin’ Ralph complains to Jack “All day I’ve been working with Simon. No one else.”
Jack tried to explain ‘the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.’ ‘the madness came into his eyes again’ ‘hidden passion’
They argue about which is more important – meat or shelters. Now Ralph is saying they will need shelters not just because of the ‘rain’ but also the [beast – a word he can’t bring himself to say].
Ralph: “they’re frightened.”
Jack and Ralph flinch when Simon says the littluns are behaving as if “the snake-thing, was real.”
‘Snakes were not mentioned now, were not mentionable’
Jack: “you can feel as if you’re not hunting, but – being hunted; as if something’s behind you.”
Ralph: “I was talking about smoke! Don’t you want to be rescued? All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!”
About Simon:
Jack: “Simon. He helps.”
Ralph: “He’s queer. He’s funny.”
‘a small, skinny boy, his chin pointed, and his eyes so bright’ ‘Simon found for them [the littluns] the fruit they could not reach’. Then Simon goes deeper into the forest. He’s ‘furtive’ until ‘utterly alone’ in a bush with ‘candle-like buds’. This church-like space is later re-visited.
The author, Melanie Kendry, is an Oxford graduate, outstanding-rated English Language and Literature teacher of ages 10-18 in the British education system. In 2012, she was nominated for Pearson’s Teaching Awards. As a private tutor, she raises grades often from C to A. Her writing is also featured in The Huffington Post.
