Analysis of Chapter One, Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies
Analysis of chapter One

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is recognized as a literary masterpiece. From the opening chapter, ‘The Sound of the Shell’, Golding vividly introduces his experimental world and each individual personality of the main characters. He allows us to see the situation as it is, and how each boy approaches their new environment. By the end of the chapter we can already understand the roles of the main characters, due to the extensive use of foreshadowing and literary devices such as metaphors and similes. The first chapter of Lord of the Flies lays the foundations for many themes, symbols and character development which will be expanded throughout the rest of the book.
Our introduction to Ralph, trailing his ‘school sweater’ (pg 11) suggests he is already casting off his strict middle class upbringing; typical of one raised by a ‘commander in the Navy’ (pg 19). Son of a powerful man, Ralph quickly takes the initiative and is the first of the boys to search for other survivors. Ralph, an attractive boy, is tall and broad shouldered with the build of a ‘boxer’ (pg 15), ‘fair hair’ (pg 11) and ‘eyes that proclaimed no devil’ (pg 15). He is generally portrayed as a good character who gives no indication that he will succumb to fear and cruelty, he’s projected as a natural leader, and there’s a ‘stillness’ (pg 30) to him that the other older boys lack. These attributes made him the favoured choice for leader, not to mention the fact that he was the one who blew the conch. Golding suggests that he will be a leader throughout the rest of the story, but also that his leadership might be threatened by Jack who thinks he ‘ought to be chief’ (pg 29).
Jack and his choir boys are first introduced as a metaphorical beast, they were a ‘creature’ (pg 26) coming out of the haze. This image sends an ominous message to the reader; they are presented as something frightening, something unknown. This metaphor is all the more menacing because choir boys are typically presented as angelic beings, not fearsome ones. Jack, their leader, is ‘tall, thin, and bony’ (pg 27) underneath his cloak, he has devilish red hair and his ‘face [is] crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness’ (pg 27). He is angered quickly; his blue eyes are ‘ready to turn, to anger’ (pg 27) in a moment and he has a fearsome aura which makes his choir members grudgingly respect him. Jack is power hungry, he wanted, and was arrogant enough to assume that he should be chief just because he was ‘chapter chorister and head boy’ (pg 29) and can ‘sing C sharp’ (pg 29). At first he argues with Ralph over who will lead, but then settles for the position of head hunter. At the end of the chapter Jack tries to kill a piglet, but fails to because killing an animal and seeing its blood was an ‘unbearable’ (pg 41) thought. Jack fears killing the pig in Chapter 1, a fear he vows to overcome as he begins to shed civilization, he promises to kill the pig and that next time there’ll be ‘no mercy’ (pg 41).
Piggy is a representative of social order and democracy, he’s scientific and rational, thinks things through and realises the true meaning of being stuck on an island alone. While Ralph is overjoyed that there aren’t any adults, Piggy appreciates the consequences of the pilot’s death. He has a brilliant mind, but the other boys don’t like him because of his ugly appearance. Piggy’s name is a metaphor for his looks; he is ‘shorter than [Ralph] and very fat’ (pg 12), giving him a pig like appearance. Piggy has asthma and has ‘been wearing specs since [he] was three’. He sees these differences as attributes that make him special, he’s proud of them, though the other boys only see them as weaknesses and they look down on him for them. Ralph first meets Piggy as he detangles himself from some plants, he is stuck and looks helpless, and this adds to the image of Piggy being feeble. Piggy was raised by an aunt, since his parents died and it is assumed that he came from a slightly lower class then the other boys, as for example , he keeps going on about the cost of the conch. He says, “I bet if you wanted to buy one, you’d have to pay pounds and pounds and pounds” (pg 22). Piggy is bullied and his ideas, generally good ones, are often shut down or credited to someone else. Jack constantly says ‘Shut up, Fatty’ (pg 28) and Ralph betrays him by telling everyone his secret. The reader gets the impression that Piggy, the symbol of order and democracy, will be ostracised and looked down upon for the duration of the novel .
By the end of the chapter relationships between the boys have already been made, broken and remade. They have learned each other’s names, Simon has already fainted, and Samneric have already confused the other boys. Piggy looks up to Ralph, as do most of the other boys, due to his chieftainship, but Ralph sees Piggy as a nuisance, and a bother. Jack and Piggy have a mutual dislike for each other, though Jack acts on his feelings. Ralph and Jack’s relationship was initially hostile, as Jack felt threated by Ralph’s position as chief, but after Jack was told that ‘the choir belongs to’ (pg 31) him he was reassured and a fondness of sorts grew between them. They ‘smiled at each other in shy liking’ (pg31) representing the beginning of what, at this stage, looks to be a friendship. As the boys take stock of their situation after the crash, their first order of business is to find a chief, someone to make decisions and replicate the kind of society they were all familiar with. When Ralph is voted chief his first priority is to make sure they are rescued and to ascertain that they were, in fact, on an island. When Ralph, Jack and Simon climb to the top of the mountain they feel like ‘explorers’ (pg 33) they start to experience a sense of adventure, they become discoverers of a new land and begin to have fun ,describing their situation as ‘smashing’ (pg 35). They start to actually enjoy themselves and you can see their need to be rescued slip away.
From the top of the mountain, the island appears to be a Garden of Eden, but all is not as it appears and from the first page Golding is already foreshadowing terrible events. When Ralph is first seen, he is walking through a ‘long scar smashed into the jungle’ (pg 11), this shows that the island has already been ruined by the boys, and that it will be most likely hurt again. Superficially the island is a paradise but in Golding’s detailed description we learn that this is not the case. Golding uses a lot of violent and sinister imagery in this chapter to suggest that the island isn’t the paradise that it seems to be with ‘coarse grass’ (pg 14), ‘fallen trees’ (pg 14) and ‘decaying coconuts’ (pg 14). The forest is described as having ‘darkness’ (pg 14) and the lagoon was caused by a ‘typhoon perhaps’ (pg 18), this shows that the island possesses the ability to be dangerous. There are many small things that Golding does to suggest that all is not well. Golding raises many themes in this chapter, including nature’s beauty, the ruining of nature, friendship, and violence. The island is a utopia at first, fresh water, a coral reef, a stunning lagoon, lots of fruit and everything else needed for survival. It shows that nature can be beautiful, and it can provide you with all you need; people don’t have to mess it up to survive. Nature’s beauty, however, is also threatened by the boys and this is another theme brought up in the chapter. The scar through the jungle at the beginning of the book represents a theme that recurs throughout the rest of the novel; man ruining nature. It foreshadows the violence the boys will wreck on the island and it shows that within a few short seconds a manmade machine ruined a piece of previously untouched land. The boys have complicated relationships between each other, but in the first chapter, there is no real hatred. For the most part, the boys want to be friends, they have an almost childish notion of being friends with everyone and they all laugh with each other. Finally, another theme that is brought to our attention in this chapter is that we all possess the ability to be violent. When Jack doesn’t kill the pig he slams his ‘knife into a tree trunk’ (pg 41) and threatens to kill it, ‘Next time’ (pg 41).
I believe that Golding chose to strand the boys on an island because there are no boundaries on an island. There’s no one to control them, no one to tell them right from wrong, and no one to guide them. On an island there is no chance that you’ll stumble across someone by accident. William Golding made the island ‘roughly boat shaped’ (pg 38), I think he did this to represent the fact that the adventure that takes place in the novel is a voyage, the island is also in the middle of the pacific because it represents a trip that each person must make alone. It is a journey to discover human instinct, the consequences of lack of civilisation, how far a seemingly innocent boy will go and it’s a journey to discover who they really are. The first chapter of Lord of the Flies gives us an insightful impression of the events that will occur throughout the remainder of the novel. ‘The Sound of the Shell’ shows us the traits of the main characters and it gives us a chance to see the roles that each of them will play. We are shown how good life on the island can be, but we also see bad times ahead in the extensive foreshadowing. Some of the most important themes that appear in the book, and in our lives, are introduced in this chapter and it gives a great impression on the rest of the book. After having finished the first chapter the reader is left with apprehension, they want to know what will happen to the boys, if they’ll survive, and if Jack will kill his pig.