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2. Lord of the Flies William Golding S4 National 5 Prose Study

3. Learning Intentions We are learning to: Success Criteria I can identify elements of Jack and Simon’s changing characterisation. Analyse the changes in characterisation within Chapter 3. • Jotter? • Planner on the desk? • Pen or pencil? Achieving this S.C. means you are on target!

4. Chapter Summary • Jack goes pig-hunting • The boys begin to erect shelters. • Simon goes off on his own.

5. In the first two chapters, Golding established regulated speech as a hallmark of civilization, as the boys set up the platform as a site for assemblies ordered by the conch. • Ralph uses the conch to mimic the practice of "hands up," which all the boys know from school, the very place where literacy and verbal communication is systematically developed. • In this chapter, Golding further develops this theme: Whereas verbal language is the sole property of civilization, silence is a property of nature. As Jack hunts in the "uncommunicative forest," he finds the "silence of the forest was more oppressive than the heat." The conch symbolises order – through order communication, the boys remain civilized.

6. Ironically, when, in this chapter, Jack encounters Ralph at the shelters, Ralph comments on the uselessness of talk, railing about the abandoned resolutions to work everyone voices at the assemblies. "Meetings. Don't we love meetings?" Ralph says bitterly, confused by the assemblies' lack of efficacy. • He had been counting on the meetings to provide both framework and motivation for focused action but has found that, of a crowd, only a few actually follow through. Ralph's vision of order is one most of the other boys share but lack the self-discipline to carry out. With language as his only tool, Ralph's authority lacks the threat possessed by parents and schoolmasters to enforce the rules and resolutions. • Although he doesn't like building huts any better than any of the others, he is able to control his impulses and do what is necessary. Think: Is Ralph emerging as an effective leader?

7. Transformation of Jack • Jack becomes obsessed with hunting in the chapter. • Create a mind-map with information from the text (quotations) that demonstrate this change in characterisation. Remember to use quotes to justify your opinions! Jack

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9. Jack could serve as an enforcer of rightful authority and necessary discipline, but he does not share Ralph's civilized vision. • He is fast losing the traces of civilization and tuning into his animal self: crouched "dog-like" and reacting to a sudden bird cry with "a hiss of indrawn breath . . . ape-like among the tangle of trees." • Jack seems to be losing his powers of rational thought, as well: Not only does he not share Ralph's priority on rescue, he "had to think for a moment before he could remember what rescue was." • In trying to explain his feeling of being hunted while on the hunt, he finds verbalizing his experiences a great effort. • The ability to express himself verbally is a skill necessary to civilization, not to hunting. His efforts go now to communicating with the nonverbal jungle, reading the signs left by the pigs. Where as Ralph can control his impulses for the good of the community, Jack puts all his focus on developing his impulses — in this case, his need to hunt.

10. Jack’s blood lust • A sharpened stick about five feet long trailed from his right hand; and except for a pair of tattered shorts…he was naked. • They were bright blue, eyes that in this frustration seemed bolting and nearly mad. • Jack himself shrank…and for a minute became less a hunter than a furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle of trees. • Except me and my hunters…. • We want meat. (repeated) • He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up. • The madness came into his eyes. • Rescue? Yes, of course! All the same, I’d like to catch a pig first.

11. Jack’s change • Meat is not absolutely essential to their survival yet he insists on its importance. • In this sense, he represents Man the Hunter; although he sees the whole experience on the island as a game, he exhibits a basic, primeval instinct – the urge to hunt.

12. The emergence of Simon • Simon again plays a part in this chapter and we learn further information about him. • Create a mind-map of the information we learn about Simon. Remember to use quotes to justify your opinions! Simon

13. Feedback

14. Simon • He is repeatedly referred to as being strange in one way or another, but exactly what form this takes is never very certain. (He’s queer. He’s funny.) • He is helpful in building the shelters and finding food for the littluns but also content to sit alone in the forest. • The younger boys follow him about, which seems to show he is popular in spite of Ralph’s view of him as an oddity.

15. Simon - Quotes • He was a small, skinny boy, his chin pointed, and his eyes so bright they had deceived Ralph into thinking him delightfully gay and wicked. • Always darkish in colour, Simon was burned by the sun to a deep tan that glistened with sweat. • He walked with an accustomed tread. • The littluns who had run after him caught up with him.

16. Contradictory? • Simon is helpful and community-spirited (helps with shelters) yet he is on occasions reclusive and solitary. • He is “always about” yet spends a lot of time in the forest. Think: Does Simon have a role on the island? Does his character make sense?