Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Please can you help me find some quotes demonstrating Ralph, Piggy or Simon having the courage to go against the group?

In Chapter 5, when Jack and his hunters catch a pig, Ralph, Piggy, and Simon show their assertiveness. First, Ralph scolds Jack for choosing to hunt and let the fire go out, even though the majority of the boys seem to feel meat is more important than the signal fire: "Ralph flung back his hair. One arm pointed at the empty horizon. His voice was loud and savage, and struck them into silence." Here, Ralph's actions and voice show that he is taking control of the situation to scold Jack for letting the fire go out, even though the rest of the boys are excited about the hunt.


Then Piggy speaks up to ask for meat, because Jack gives some to everyone except Piggy: "Piggy spoke, also dribbling. 'Aren’t I having none?'" This shows that even though Jack and the others are cruel to him, Piggy is not afraid to stand up for his rights and to get his needs met. Simon goes against the general dislike of Piggy by giving his meat to Piggy: "Simon, sitting between the twins and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy, who grabbed it. The twins giggled and Simon lowered his face in shame." This shows that although everyone else is mean to Piggy, Simon is willing to give up his own sustenance and help Piggy.


Later, in Chapter 7 when the group splits into two, Ralph and Piggy refuse to be lured by the excitement of savagery or the delicious meat Jack promises, and continue to be responsible for building a signal fire, even though most of the boys follow Jack to the fun life he offers on the other side of the island. Piggy gathers fruit to share with Ralph and says, "'Do all right on our own... It’s them that haven’t no common sense that make trouble on this island. We’ll make a little hot fire—'" Meanwhile, Simon goes to investigate the beast by himself. Even though most of the boys are terrified of the beast on top of the mountain, so much so that they won't even go up to rebuild their signal fire, Simon slips into the forest to find out for himself what the beast really is. Simon finds the pig head on a stick left by Jack, and thinks it is the beast, but he is not scared and doesn't run away: "...in front of Simon, the Lord of the Flies hung on his stick and grinned." Simon doesn't succumb to the mob mentality that causes all the boys to be terrified of a beast that most of them have never seen. This shows that he is courageous and goes against the group.

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