Chapter 9

Summary

Simon awakes from his faint and goes to the mountaintop and there discovers the paratrooper’s body.  He untangles the parachute lines and from his vantage point sees that most of the boys are at Jack’s pig-roast. Simon is very weak from his exertions of the day, but decides to go to Jack’s camp and tell them the news about the beast. 

Ralph and Piggy are alone, so they go to Jack’s party out of curiosity and hunger for meat. Ralph tries to win back some of the boys, but Jack’s hold over them is now too strong.  Just then a storm breaks over the island and there is a downpour of rain.  Jack, the chief, orders a dance in response to the rain.  Even Ralph and Piggy join in the frenzy.

Simon crawls into the clearing, but all the boys see is a shadowy, mysterious figure, and they set upon him, killing him with their bare hands and teeth. His body is left on the beach and the high tide takes it away. At the same time, the storm lifts the parachutist’s body from the mountaintop and it floats over the clearing and out to sea.  The boys scream in terror.

Interpretation

Simon’s brutal murder strips away the last vestige of order on the island. The boys have turned into primitive beings and the last of Ralph’s allies have drifted away and joined Jack. Even Piggy was drawn up in the ritual dance around the pig-roast.  To emphasize the evil prevalent now amongst them, these scenes are set against the backdrop of a raging storm. Conveniently, the body of Simon is lost to the sea so that it will not be a reminder of their evil action the next day, and the parachutist’s body has also gone to the sea, so there will now be no proof that the beast does not exist. 

Jack has already transformed the beast into a mythical figure suggesting that it is immortal and able to change its form. He uses it as a kind of idol with which to rule his tribe.

The figures of the beast and the Lord of the Flies symbolize the dark forces at work on the island.  The only symbols for good are Ralph’s conch shell and Piggy’s glasses, which are the means for lighting the signal fire to procure a rescue.