LOTF second journal entry

The second third of the book starts off with Ralph and Jack argueing over whats more important, fire or meat. Ralph ends up calling an assembly to try and get everyone to pull their weight and they also talked about the “beast” and about moving the fire closer so they wouldn’t have to go up by “the beast”. Also a parachuter lands on the island and the twins see him while tending the fire and assume that the parachuter was “the beast”. Ralph, Jack and Simon then go off to hunt for the beast. Later Jack begins his own tribe “the hunters” and tries to recruit boys with the meat from the pig they just caught.  Jack ran another huting expedition and caught a big sow and stuck it’s head onto a stick as a “gift” to the “beast”. Also Simon  wandered off into the forest and the pig’s head started talking to him, Simon was delirious and wandered back to camp and got killed savagely when he crawled out onto the beach where the boys where all pumped up from chanting and dancing.

I was horrified by the boy’s actions that they could go so far as they did to literally kill Simon. I know they were pumped up and that Simon could have possibly looked like a beast but to savagly actually take his life to me seems unforgivable and crazy. I think that Jack is definatley too power hungry for the group of boys that he is seperating them. That could end up being fatal because Jack’s tribe is just focusing on killing which does not help whatsoever with them getting off the island. I think the boys should sit down and listen to Piggy and Ralph and get themselves together. The boys seem to be getting more and more savage as the days pass and Jack is turning out to be a very bad influence as a hunter and as a chief. I hope they don’t take their “hunting”  too far again and kill another boy.

 One of the big symbols that stand out to me in “Lord of the Flies” so far is the conch. The conch in my opinion kind of stands in my mind as unity among the boys. Ralph first blew it and gathered everyone in and that was the first time all the boys were brought together as a unit. The conch was used to call assemblys and was also a kind of symbol for order on the island. The boys started getting more and more unorganized and the rules kind of dissolved along with the use of the conch. Things started to get out of control  as Jack’s tribe split away from Ralph, Piggy and their group and Ralph could no longer blow the conch to bring them together because they would not come.