Chapter 6

Summary

As the boys sleep, there is an air battle above the island, yet none of the boys see the explosions and flashes. The two boys who watch the signal fire, Sam and Eric, have fallen asleep.  Sam and Eric are twins and are always together and finish off each other’s sentences, so the other boys call them ‘Samneric’. 

A dead parachutist floats down onto the island and his parachute becomes snagged in some rocks and flaps in the wind. The shape casts strange shadows on the ground and when Samneric awake, they mistake the figure as the mythical beast and rush back to the camp.  The group is horrified by their story and they decide that they will organize a search for the beast in the morning.  Most of the boys are afraid to go, but even more terrified of the thought of being left behind.  Armed with wooden spears they set off leaving Piggy and the littluns behind.

However, some of the boys soon get diverted and start playing around, and Ralph struggles to keep the search party under control.  They go to the only part of the island, which has not been explored, an area later to be known as ‘Castle Rock’. This part of the island is dotted with dark caves and grottos, but a thorough search finds no sign of any beast.

Interpretation

So far, the beast has only been supposedly seen by littluns, but now two of the big boys, Sam and Eric have seen it.  A search for the beast takes place, but Jack starts to manipulate the boys’ fear of the beast to gain a hold over them.  He is the best hunter amongst them all, who better to hunt and kill the beast? Little do the boys realize that if they go down the road, which Jack is taking, they will all become beast-like.

Simon is the only one to understand that the beast is not a creature, which comes out at night, but is a supernatural force, which is beginning to stir in some of the boys.