English Literature books summary

English Literature books summary

all men seem scared of true feelings and true passion. There is a growing

distance between Connie and Clifford, who has retreated into the

meaningless pursuit of success in his writing and in his obsession with

coal-mining, and towards whom Connie feels a deep physical aversion. A

nurse, Mrs. Bolton, is hired to take care of the handicapped Clifford so

that Connie can be more independent, and Clifford falls into a deep

dependence on the nurse, his manhood fading into an infantile reliance.

Into the void of Connie's life comes Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper

on Clifford's estate, newly returned from serving in the army. Mellors is

aloof and derisive, and yet Connie feels curiously drawn to him by his

innate nobility and grace, his purposeful isolation, his undercurrents of

natural sensuality. After several chance meetings in which Mellors keeps

her at arm's length, reminding her of the class distance between them,

they meet by chance at a hut in the forest, where they have sex. This

happens on several occasions, but still Connie feels a distance between

them, remaining profoundly separate from him despite their physical

closeness.

One day, Connie and Mellors meet by coincidence in the woods, and

they have sex on the forest floor. This time, they experience simultaneous

orgasms. This is a revelatory and profoundly moving experience for Connie;

she begins to adore Mellors, feeling that they have connected on some deep

sensual level. She is proud to believe that she is pregnant with Mellors'

child: he is a real, "living" man, as opposed to the emotionally-dead

intellectuals and the dehumanized industrial workers. They grow

progressively closer, connecting on a primordial physical level, as woman

and man rather than as two minds or intellects.

Connie goes away to Venice for a vacation. While she is gone,

Mellors' old wife returns, causing a scandal. Connie returns to find that

Mellors has been fired as a result of the negative rumors spread about him

by his resentful wife, against whom he has initiated divorce proceedings.

Connie admits to Clifford that she is pregnant with Mellors' baby, but

Clifford refuses to give her a divorce. The novel ends with Mellors working

on a farm, waiting for his divorce, and Connie living with her sister,

also waiting: the hope exists that, in the end, they will be together

Analysis

Valuable Commentory

The greatness of Lady Chatterley's Lover lies in a paradox: it is

simultaneously progressive and reactionary, modern and Victorian. It looks

backwards towards a Victorian stylistic formality, and it seems to

anticipate the social morality of the late 20th century in its frank

engagement with explicit subject matter and profanity. One might say of

the novel that it is formally and thematically conservative, but

methodologically radical.

The easiest of these assertions to prove is that Lady Chatterley's

Lover is "formally conservative." By this I mean that there are few evident

differences between the form of Lady Chatterley's Lover and the form of

the high-Victorian novels written fifty years earlier: in terms of

structure; in terms of narrative voice; in terms of diction, with the

exception of a very few "profane" words. It is important to remember that

Lady Chatterley's Lover was written towards the end of the 1920s, a decade

which had seen extensive literary experimentation. The 1920s opened with

the publishing of the formally radical novel Ulysses, which set the stage

for important technical innovations in literary art: it made extensive use

of the stream-of-consciousness form; it condensed all of its action into a

single 24-hour span; it employed any number of voices and narrative

perspectives. Lady Chatterley's Lover acts in many ways as if the 1920s,

and indeed the entire modernist literary movement, had never happened. The

structure of the novel is conventional, tracing a small group of

characters over an extended period of time in a single place. The rather

preachy narrator usually speaks with the familiar third-person omniscience

of the Victorian novel. And the characters tend towards flatness, towards

representing a type, rather than speaking in their own voices and

developing real three-dimensional personalities.

But surely, if Lady Chatterley's Lover is "formally conservative," it

can hardly be called "thematically conservative"! After all, this is a

novel that raised censorious hackles across the English-speaking world. It

is a novel that liberally employs profanity, that more-or-less graphically-

-graphically, that is, for the 1920s: it is important not to evaluate the

novel by the standards of profanity and graphic sexuality that have become

prevalent at the turn of the 21st century--describes sex and orgasm, and

whose central message is the idea that sexual freedom and sensuality are

far more important, more authentic and meaningful, than the intellectual

life. So what can I mean by calling Lady Chatterley's Lover, a famously

controversial novel, "thematically conservative"?

Well, it is important to remember not only precisely what this novel

seems to advocate, but also the purpose of that advocacy. Lady

Chatterley's Lover is not propaganda for sexual license and free love. As

D.H. Lawrence himself made clear in his essay "A Propos of Lady

Chatterley's Lover," he was no advocate of sex or profanity for their own

sake. The reader should note that the ultimate goal of the novel's

protagonists, Mellors and Connie, is a quite conventional marriage, and a

sex life in which it is clear that Mellors is the aggressor and the

dominant partner, in which Connie plays the receptive part; all who would

argue that Lady Chatterley's Lover is a radical novel would do well to

remember the vilification that the novel heaps upon Mellors' first wife, a

sexually aggressive woman. Rather than mere sexual radicalism, this

novel's chief concern--although it is also concerned, to a far greater

extent than most modernist fiction, with the pitfalls of technology and

the barriers of class--is with what Lawrence understands to be the

inability of the modern self to unite the mind and the body. D.H. Lawrence

believed that without a realization of sex and the body, the mind wanders

aimlessly in the wasteland of modern industrial technology. An important

recognition in Lady Chatterley's Lover is the extent to which the modern

relationship between men and women comes to resemble the relationship

between men and machines.

Not only do men and women require an appreciation of the sexual and

sensual in order to relate to each other properly; they require it even to

live happily in the world, as beings able to maintain human dignity and

individuality in the dehumanizing atmosphere created by modern greed and

the injustices of the class system. As the great writer Lawrence Durrell

observed in reference to Lady Chatterley's Lover, Lawrence was "something

of a puritan himself. He was out to cure, to mend; and the weapons he

selected for this act of therapy were the four-letter words about which so

long and idiotic a battle has raged." That is to say: Lady Chatterley's

Lover was intended as a wake-up call, a call away from the hyper-

intellectualism embraced by so many of the modernists, and towards a

balanced approach in which mind and body are equally valued. It is the

method the novel uses that made the wake-up call so radical--for its time--

and so effective.

This is a novel with high purpose: it points to the degradation of

modern civilization--exemplified in the coal-mining industry and the

soulless and emasculated Clifford Chatterley--and it suggests an

alternative in learning to appreciate sensuality. And it is a novel, one

must admit, which does not quite succeed. Certainly, it is hardly the

equal of D.H. Lawrence's great novels, Women in Love and The Rainbow. It

attempts a profound comment on the decline of civilization, but it fails

as a novel when its social goal eclipses its novelistic goals, when the

characters become mere allegorical types: Mellors as the Noble Savage,

Clifford as the impotent nobleman. And the novel tends also to dip into a

kind of breathless incoherence at moments of extreme sensuality or

emotional weight. It is not a perfect novel, but it is a novel which has

had a profound impact on the way that 20th-century writers have written

about sex, and about the deeper relationships of which, thanks in part to

Lawrence, sex can no longer be ignored as a crucial element. Characters

Lady Chatterley - The protagonist of the novel. Before her marriage, she

is simply Constance Reid, an intellectual and social progressive, the

daughter of Sir Malcolm and the sister of Hilda. When she marries Clifford

Chatterley, a minor nobleman, Constance--or, as she is known throughout

the novel, Connie--assumes his title, becoming Lady Chatterley. Lady

Chatterley's Lover chronicles Connie's maturation as a woman and as a

sensual being. She comes to despise her weak, ineffectual husband, and to

love Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper on her husband's estate. In the

process of leaving her husband and conceiving a child with Mellors, Lady

Chatterley moves from the heartless, bloodless world of the intelligentsia

and aristocracy into a vital and profound connection rooted in sensuality

and sexual fulfillment.

Oliver Mellors - The lover in the novel's title. Mellors is the

gamekeeper on Clifford Chatterley's estate, Wragby. He is aloof,

sarcastic, intelligent and noble. He was born near Wragby, and worked as a

blacksmith until he ran off to the army to escape an unhappy marriage. In

the army he rose to become a commissioned lieutenant--an unusual position

for a member of the working classes--but was forced to leave the army

because of a case of pneumonia, which left him in poor health.

Disappointed by a string of unfulfilling love affairs, Mellors lives in

quiet isolation, from which he is redeemed by his relationship with

Connie: the passion unleashed by their lovemaking forges a profound bond

between them. At the end of the novel, Mellors is fired from his job as

gamekeeper and works as a laborer on a farm, waiting for a divorce from

his old wife so he can marry Connie. Mellors is the representative in this

novel of the Noble Savage: he is a man with an innate nobility but who

remains impervious to the pettiness and emptiness of conventional society,

with access to a primitive flame of passion and sensuality.

Clifford Chatterley - Connie's husband. Clifford Chatterley is a minor

nobleman who becomes paralyzed from the waist down during World War I. As

a result of his injury, Clifford is impotent. He retires to his familial

estate, Wragby, where he becomes first a successful writer, and then a

powerful businessman. But the gap between Connie and him grows ever wider;

obsessed with financial success and fame, he is not truly interested in

love, and she feels that he has become passionless and empty. He turns for

solace to his nurse and companion, Mrs. Bolton, who worships him as a

nobleman even as she despises him for his casual arrogance. Clifford

represents everything that this novel despises about the modern English

nobleman: he is a weak, vain man, but declares his right to rule the lower

classes, and he soullessly pursues money and fame through industry and the

meaningless manipulation of words. His impotence is symbolic of his

failings as a strong, sensual man.

Mrs. Bolton - Ivy Bolton is Clifford's nurse and caretaker. She is a

competent, complex, still-attractive middle-aged woman. Years before the

action in this novel, her husband died in an accident in the mines owned by

Clifford's family. Even as Mrs. Bolton resents Clifford as the owner of

the mines--and, in a sense, the murderer of her husband--she still

maintains a worshipful attitude towards him as the representative of the

upper class. Her relationship with Clifford--she simultaneously adores and

despises him, while he depends and looks down on her--is probably the most

fascinating and complex relationship in the novel.

Michaelis - A successful Irish playwright with whom Connie has an affair

early in the novel. Michaelis asks Connie to marry him, but she decides

not to, realizing that he is like all other intellectuals: a slave to

success, a purveyor of vain ideas and empty words, passionless.

Hilda Reid - Connie's older sister by two years, the daughter of Sir

Malcolm. Hilda shared Connie's cultured upbringing and intellectual

education. She remains unliberated by the raw sensuality that changed

Connie's life. She disdains Connie's lover, Mellors, as a member of the

lower classes, but in the end she helps Connie to leave Clifford.

Sir Malcolm Reid - The father of Connie and Hilda. He is an acclaimed

painter, an aesthete and unabashed sensualist who despises Clifford for his

weakness and impotence, and who immediately warms to Mellors.

Tommy Dukes - One of Clifford's contemporaries, Tommy Dukes is a

brigadier general in the British Army and a clever and progressive

intellectual. Lawrence intimates, however, that Dukes is a representative

of all intellectuals: all talk and no action. Dukes speaks of the

importance of sensuality, but he himself is incapable of sensuality and

uninterested in sex.

Charles May, Hammond, Berry - Young intellectuals who visit Wragby, and

who, along with Tommy Dukes and Clifford, participate in the socially

progressive but ultimately meaningless discussions about love and sex.

Duncan Forbes - An artist friend of Connie and Hilda. Forbes paints

abstract canvases, a form of art both Mellors and D.H. Lawrence seem to

despise. He once loved Connie, and Connie originally claims to be pregnant

with his child.

Bertha Coutts - Although Bertha never actually appears in the novel, her

presence is felt. She is Mellors' wife, separated from him but not

divorced. Their marriage faltered because of their sexual incompatibility:

she was too rapacious, not tender enough. She returns at the end of the

novel to spread rumors about Mellors' infidelity to her, and helps get him

fired from his position as gamekeeper. As the novel concludes, Mellors is

in the process of divorcing her.

Squire Winter - A relative of Clifford. He is a firm believer in the old

privileges of the aristocracy.

Daniele, Giovanni - Venetian gondoliers in the service of Hilda and

Connie. Giovanni hopes that the women will pay him to sleep with them; he

is disappointed. Daniele reminds Connie of Mellors: he is attractive, a

"real man." Context

Lord of the Flies by W.Golding

William Gerald Golding was born in September of 1911 in the city of

Cornwall, England. Growing up in the life of luxury, Golding soon realized

that he was very talented at his school studies. He attended both the

prestigious colleges of Malboro and Oxford, studying both natural science

and English. Despite his father’s protests, Golding eventually decided to

devote his career to literature, where he became one of the most famous

English novelists ever. Soon World War II started, compelling Golding to

enlist in the Navy. It was war where Golding lost the idea that men are

inherently good. After witnessing the evil of war, both from men of the

enemy and his own side, Golding lost the belief that humans have an

innocent nature. Even children he learned are inherently evil, thus

foreshadowing his future and most famous novel, Lord of the Flies. In later

years, Golding received many noteworthy awards for his contribution to

English and world literature. Finally in 1983, he was awarded the Nobel

prize for his literary merits. Golding’s other interests include Greek

literature, music and history. Yet William G. Golding will be remembered

mostly for his great contributions to modern literature.

Chapter One: The Sound of the Shell:

The novel begins in the aftermath of a plane crash in the Pacific

Ocean during an unnamed war in which a group of English schoolboys are

isolated on what they assume to be an island under no adult supervision.

The pilot died in the crash and the plane has been swept to sea by a storm.

Among the survivors are a young, fair-haired boy of twelve named Ralph and

a pudgy boy referred to only by the derisive nickname from school that he

dislikes: Piggy. Piggy insists that he can neither run nor swim well

because of his asthma. Ralph insists that his father, a commander in the

Navy, will come and rescue them. Both of Piggy's parents had already died.

Piggy doubts that anybody will find them, and suggests that the boys should

gather together. Ralph finds a conch shell, which Piggy tells him will make

a loud noise. When Ralph blows the conch, several children make their way

to Ralph and Piggy. There were several small children around six years old

and a party of boys marching in step, dressed in eccentric clothing: black

cloaks and black caps. One of the boys, Jack Merridew, leads the group,

which he addresses as his choir. Piggy suggests that everyone state their

names, and Jack insists on being called Merridew, for Jack is a kid's name.

Jack, a tall thin boy with an ugly, freckled complexion and flaming red

hair, insists that he be the leader because he's the head boy of his choir.

They decide to vote for chief: although Jack seems the most obvious leader

and Piggy the most obviously intelligent, Ralph has a sense of stillness

and gravity. He is elected chief, but concedes that Jack can lead his

choir, who will be hunters. Ralph decides that everyone should stay there

while three boys will find out whether they are on an island. Ralph chooses

one of the boys, Simon, while Jack insists that he comes along. When Piggy

offers to go, Jack dismisses the idea, humiliating Piggy, who is still

ashamed that Ralph revealed his hated nickname. The three boys search the

island, climbing up the mountain to survey it. On the way up, they push

down the mountain a large rock that blocks their way. When they finally

reach the top and determine that they are on an island, Ralph looks upon

everything and says "this belongs to us." The three decide that they need

food to eat, and find a piglet caught in a curtain of creepers. Jack draws

his knife, but pauses before he has a chance to stab the pig, which frees

itself and runs away. Jack could not stab the pig because of the great

violence involved, but he vows that he would show no mercy next time.

Chapter Two: Fire on the Mountain:

Ralph called another meeting that night. The sunburned children had

put on clothing once more, while the choir was more disheveled, having

abandoned their cloaks. Ralph announces that they are on an uninhabited

island, but Jack interjects and insists that they need an army to hunt the

pigs. Ralph sets the rules of order for the meeting: only the person who

has the conch shell may speak. Jack relishes having rules, and even more

so, having punishment for breaking them. Piggy reprimands Jack. He says

that nobody knows where they are and that they may be there a long time.

Ralph reassures them, telling them that the island is theirs, and until the

grown-ups come they will have fun. A small boy is about to cry; he wonders

what they will do about a snake-thing. Ralph suggests that they build a

fire on the top of the mountain, for the smoke will signal their presence.

Jack summons the boys to come build a fire, leaving only Piggy and Ralph.

Piggy shows disgust at their childish behavior as Ralph catches up and

helps them bring piles of wood to the top.

Eventually it proves too difficult for some of the smaller boys, who

lose interest and search for fruit to eat. When they gather enough wood,

Ralph and Jack wonder how to start a fire. Piggy arrives, and Jack suggests

that they use his glasses. Jack snatches them from Piggy, who can barely

see without them. Eventually they use the glasses to reflect the rays of

the sun, starting a fire. The boys are mesmerized by the fire, but it soon

burns out. Ralph insists that they have rules, and Jack agrees, since they

are English, and the English are the best at everything so must do the

right things. Ralph says they might never be saved, and Piggy claims that

he has been saying that, but nobody has listened. They get the fire going

once more. While Piggy has the conch, he loses his temper, telling the

other boys how they should have listened to his orders to build shelters

first and how a fire is a secondary consideration. Piggy worries that they

still don't know exactly how many boys there are, and mentions the snakes.

Suddenly, one of the trees catches on fire, and one of the boy screams

about snakes. Piggy thinks that one of the boys is missing.

Chapter Three: Huts on the Beach:

Jack scans the oppressively silent forest. A bird startles him as he

progresses along the trail. He raises his spear and hurls it at a group of

pigs, driving them away. He eventually comes upon Ralph near the lagoon.

Ralph complains that the boys are not working hard to build the shelters.

The little ones are hopeless, spending most of their time bathing or

eating. Jack says that Ralph is chief, so he should just order them to do

so. Ralph admits that they could call a meeting, vow to build something,

whether a hut or a submarine, start building it for five minutes then quit.

Ralph tells Jack that most of his hunters spent the afternoon swimming. A

madness comes to Ralph's eyes as he admits that he might kill something

soon. Ralph insists that they need shelters more than anything. Ralph

notices that the other boys are frightened. Jack says that when he is

hunting he often feels as if he is being hunted, but admits that this is

irrational. Only Simon has been helping Ralph, but he leaves, presumably to

have a bath. Jack and Ralph go to the bathing pool, but do not find Simon

there. Simon had followed Jack and Ralph, then turned into the forest with

a sense of purpose. He is a tall, skinny boy with a coarse mop of black

hair. He walks through the acres of fruit trees and finds fruit that the

littlest boys cannot reach. He gives the boys fruit them goes along the

path into the jungle. He finds an open space and looks to see whether he is

alone. This open space contains great aromatic bushes, a bowl of heat and

light.

Chapter Four: Painted Faces and Long Hair:

The boys quickly become accustomed to the progression of the day on

the island, including the strange point at midday when the sea would rise.

Piggy discounts the midday illusions as mere mirages. The northern European

tradition of work, play and food right through the day made it possible for

the boys to adjust themselves to the new rhythm. The smaller boys were

known by the generic title of "littluns," including Percival, the smallest

boy on the island, who had stayed in a small shelter for two days and had

only recently emerged, peaked, red-eyed and miserable. The littluns spend

most of the day searching for fruit to eat, and since they choose it

indiscriminately suffer from chronic diarrhea. They cry for their mothers

less often than expected, and spend time with the older boys only during

Ralph's assemblies. They build castles in the sand. One of the biggest of

the littluns is Henry, a distant relative of the boy who disappeared. Two

other boys, Roger and Maurice, come out of the forest for a swim and kick

down the sand castles. Maurice, remembering how his mother chastised him,

feels guilty when he gets sand in Percival's eye. Henry is fascinated by

the small creatures on the beach. Roger picks up a stone to throw at Henry,

but deliberately misses him, recalling the taboos of earlier life. Jack

thinks about why he is still unsuccessful as a hunter. He thinks that the

animals see him, so he wants to find some way to camouflage himself. Jack

rubs his face with charcoal, and laughs with a bloodthirsty snarl when he

sees himself. From behind the mask Jack seems liberated from shame and self-

consciousness.

Piggy thinks about making a sundial so that they can tell time, but

Ralph dismisses the idea. The idea that Piggy is an outsider is tacitly

accepted. Ralph believes that he sees smoke along the horizon coming from a

ship, but there is not enough smoke from the mountain to signal it. Ralph

starts to run to the up the mountain, but cannot reach it in time. Their

own fire is dead. Ralph screams for the ship to come back, but it passes

without seeing them. Ralph finds that the hunters have found a pig, but

Ralph admonishes them for letting the fire go out. Jack is overjoyed by

their kill. Piggy begins to cry at their lost opportunity, and blames Jack

for letting the fire go out. The two argue, and finally Jack punches Piggy

in the stomach. Piggy's glasses fly off and break on the rocks. Jack

eventually does apologize about the fire, but Ralph resents Jack's

misbehavior. Jack considers not letting Piggy have any meat, but orders

everyone to eat. Maurice pretends to be a pig, and the hunters circle

around him, dancing and singing "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her

in." Ralph vows to call an assembly.

Chapter Five: Beast From Water:

Ralph goes to the beach because he needs a place to think and is

overcome with astonishment. He understands the weariness of life, where

everything requires improvisation. He calls a meeting near the bathing

pool, realizing that he must think and must make a decision but that he

lacks Piggy's ability to think. He begins the assembly seriously, telling

them that they are there not for making jokes or for cleverness. He reminds

them that everyone built the first shelter, which is the most sturdy, while

the third one, built only by Simon and Ralph, is unstable. He admonishes

them for not using the appropriate areas for the lavatory, and reminds them

that the fire is the most important thing on the island, for it is their

means of escape. He claims that they ought to die before they let the fire

out. He directs this at the hunters, in particular. He makes the rule that

the only place where they will have a fire is on the mountain. Ralph then

speaks on their fear. He admits that he is frightened himself, but their

fear is unfounded. Jack stands up, takes the conch, and yells at the

littluns for screaming like babies and not hunting or building or helping.

Jack tells them that there is no beast on the island. Piggy does agree

with Jack on that point, telling the kids that there is no beasts and there

is no real fear, unless they get frightened of people. A littlun, Phil,

tells how he had a nightmare and, when he awoke, how he saw something big

and horrid moving among the trees. Ralph dismisses it as nothing. Simon

admits that he was walking in the jungle at night. Percival speaks next,

and as he gives his name he recites his address and telephone number; this

reminder of home causes him to break out into tears. All of the littluns

join him. Percival claims that the beast comes out of the sea, and tells

them about squids. Simon says that maybe there is a beast, and the boys

speak about ghosts. Piggy says he does not believe in ghosts, but Jack

attempts to start a fight again. Ralph stops the fight, and asks the boys

how many of them believe in ghosts. Piggy yells at the boys, asking whether

they are humans or animals or savages. Jack threatens him again, and Ralph

intercedes once more, complaining that they are breaking the rules. When

Jack asks "who cares?" Ralph says that the rules are the only thing that

they have. Jack says that they will hunt the beast down. The assembly

breaks up as Jack leads them on a hunt. Only Ralph, Piggy and Simon remain.

Ralph says that if he blows the conch to summon them back and they refuse,

then they will become like animals and will never be rescued. He does ask

Piggy whether there are ghosts or beasts, but Piggy reassures him. Piggy

warns him that if Ralph steps down as chief Jack will do nothing but hunt,

and they will never be rescued. The three reminisce on the majesty of adult

life. The three hear Percival still sobbing his address.

Chapter Six: Beast From Air:

Ralph and Simon pick up Percival and carry him to a shelter. That

night, over the horizon, there is an aerial battle. A pilot drops from a

parachute, sweeping across the reef toward the mountain. The dead pilot

sits on the mountain-top. Early the next morning, there are noises by a

rock down the side of the mountain. The twins Sam and Eric, the two boys on

duty at the fire, awake and add kindling to the fire. Just then they spot

something at the top of the mountain and crouch in fear. They scramble down

the mountain and wake Ralph. They claim that they saw the beast. Eric tells

the boys that they saw the beast, which has teeth and claws and even

followed them. Jack calls for a hunt, but Piggy says that they should stay

there, for the beast may not come near them. When Piggy says that he has

the right to speak because of the conch, Jack says that they don't need the

conch anymore. Ralph becomes exasperated at Jack, accusing him of not

wanting to be rescued, and Jack takes a swing at him. Ralph decides that he

will go with the hunters to search for the beast, which may be around a

rocky area of the mountain. Simon, wanting to show that he is accepted,

travels with Ralph, who wishes only for solitude. Jack gets the hunters

lost on the way around the mountain. They continue along a narrow wall of

rocks that forms a bridge between parts of the island, reaching the open

sea. As some of the boys spend time rolling rocks around the bridge, Ralph

decides that it would be better to climb the mountain and rekindle the

fire, but Jack wishes to stay where they can build a fort.

Chapter Seven: Shadows and Tall Trees:

Ralph notices how long his hair is and how dirty and unclean he has

become. He had followed the hunters across the island. On this other side

of the island, the view is utterly different. The horizon is hard, clipped

blue and the sea crashes against the rocks. Simon and Ralph watch the sea,

and Simon reassures him that they will leave the island eventually. Ralph

is somewhat doubtful, but Simon says that it is simply his opinion. Roger

calls for Ralph, telling him that they need to continue hunting. A boar

appears; Jack stabs it with a spear, but the boar escapes. Jack is wounded

on his left forearm, so Simon tells him he should suck the wound. The

hunters go into a frenzy once more, chanting "kill the pig" again. Roger

and Jack talk about their chanting, and Jack says that someone should dress

up as a pig and pretend to knock him over. Robert says that Jack wants a

real pig so that he can actually kill, but Jack says that he could just use

a littlun. The boys start climbing up the mountain once more, but Ralph

realizes that they cannot leave the littluns alone with Piggy all night.

Jack mocks Ralph for his concern for Piggy. Simon says that he can go back

himself. Ralph tells Jack that there isn't enough light to go hunting for

pigs. Out of the new understanding that Piggy has given him, Ralph asks

Jack why he hates him. Jack has no answer. The boys are tired and afraid,

but Jack vows that he will go up the mountain to look for the beast. Jack

mocks Ralph for not wanting to go up the mountain, claiming that he is

afraid. Jack claims he saw something bulge on the mountain. Since Jack

seems for the first time somewhat afraid, Ralph says that they will look

for it then. The boys see a rock-like hump and something like a great ape

sitting asleep with its head between its knees. At its sight, the boys run

off.

Chapter Eight: Gift for the Darkness:

When Ralph tells Piggy what they saw, he is quite skeptical. Ralph

tells him that the beast had teeth and big black eyes. Jack says that his

hunters can defeat the beast, but Ralph dismisses them as boys with sticks.

Jack tells the other boys that the beast is a hunter, and says that Ralph

thinks that the boys are cowards. Jack says that Ralph isn't a proper

chief, for he is a coward himself. Jack asks the boys who wants Ralph not

to be chief. Nobody agrees with Jack, so he runs off in tears. He says that

he is not going to be part of Ralph's lot. Jack leaves them. Piggy says

that they can do without Jack, but they should stay close to the platform.

Simon suggests that they climb the mountain. Piggy says that if they

climb the mountain they can start the fire again, but then suggests that

they start a fire down by the beach. Piggy organizes the new fire by the

beach. Ralph notices that several of the boys are missing. Piggy says that

they will do well enough if they behave with common sense, and proposes a

feast. They wonder where Simon has gone; he might be climbing the mountain.

Simon had left to sit in the open space he had found earlier. Far off along

the beach, Jack says that he will be chief of the hunters, and will forget

the beast. He says that they might go later to the castle rock, but now

will kill a pig and give a feast. They find a group of pigs and kill a

large sow. Jack rubs the blood over Maurice's cheeks, while Roger laughs

that the fatal blow against the sow was up her ass. They cut off the pig's

head and leave it on a stick as a gift for the beast at the mountain-top.

Simon sees the head, with flies buzzing around it. Ralph worries that the

boys will die if they are not rescued soon. Ralph and Piggy realize that it

is Jack who causes things to break up. The forest near them suddenly bursts

into uproar. The littluns run off as Jack approaches, naked except for

paint and a belt, while hunters take burning branches from the fire. Jack

tells them that he and his hunters are living along the beach by a flat

rock, where they hunt and feast and have fun. He invites the boys to join

his tribe. When Jack leaves, Ralph says that he thought Jack was going to

take the conch, which Ralph holds as a symbol of ritual and order. They

reiterate that the fire is the most important thing, but Bill suggests that

they go to the hunters' feast and tell them that the fire is hard on them.

At the top of the mountain remains the pig's head, which Simon has dubbed

the Lord of the Flies. Simon believes that the pig's head speaks to him,

calling him a silly little boy. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon that he'd

better run off and play with the others, who think that he is crazy. The

Lord of the Flies claims that he is the Beast, and laughs at the idea that

the Beast is something that could be hunted and killed. Simon falls down

and loses consciousness.

Chapter Nine: A View to a Death:

Simon's fit passes into the weariness of sleep. Simon speaks aloud to

himself, asking "What else is there to do?" Simon sees the Beast the body

of the soldier who parachuted onto the island and realizes what it

actually is. He staggers down the mountain to tell them what he has found.

Ralph notices the clouds overhead and estimates that it will rain again.

Ralph and Piggy play in the lagoon, and Piggy gets mad when Ralph squirts

water on him, getting his glasses wet. They wonder where most of the other

boys have gone, and remark that they are with the hunters for the fun of

pretending to be a tribe and putting on war paint. They decide that they

should find them to make sure that nothing happens. They find the other

boys grouped together, laughing and eating. Jack sits on a great log,

painted and garlanded as an idol. Jack orders the boys to give Ralph and

Piggy some eat, then orders a boy to give him a drink. Jack asks all of the

boys who will join his tribe, for he gave them food and his hunters will

protect them. Ralph and Jack argue over who will be chief. Ralph says that

he has the conch, but Jack says that it doesn't count on this side of the

island. Piggy tells Ralph that they should go before there is trouble.

Ralph warns them that a storm is coming and asks where there shelters are.

The littluns are frightened, so Jack says that they should do their pig

dance. As the storm begins, Simon rushes from the jungle, crying out about

the dead body on the mountain. The boys rush after him, striking him and

killing him. Meanwhile, on the mountain, the storm blows the parachute and

the body attached to it into the sea. That night, Simon's body washes out

to sea.

Chapter Ten: The Shell and the Glasses:

Back on the other side of the island, Ralph and Piggy discuss Simon,

and Piggy reminds him that he is still chief, or at least chief over them.

Piggy tries to stop Ralph from talking about Simon's murder. Piggy says

that he took part in the murder because he was scared, but Ralph says that

he wasn't scared. He doesn't know what came over him. They try to justify

the death as an accident caused by Simon's crazy behavior. Piggy asks Ralph

not to reveal to Sam and Eric that they were in on the killing. Sam and

Eric return, dragging a long out of the forest. All four appear nervous as

they discuss where they have been, trying to avoid the subject of Simon's

murder. Roger arrives at castle rock, where Robert makes him declare

himself before he can enter. The boys have set a log so they can easily

cause a rock to tumble down. Roger and Robert discuss how Jack had Wilfred

tied up for no apparent reason. Jack sits on a log, nearly naked with a

painted face. He declares that tomorrow they will hunt again. He warns them

about the beast and about intruders. Bill asks what they will use to light

the fire, and Jack blushes. He finally answers that they shall take fire

from the others. Piggy gives Ralph his glasses to start the fire. They wish

that they could make a radio or a boat, but Ralph says that they might be

captured by the Reds. Eric stops himself before he admits that it would be

better than being captured by Jack's hunters. Ralph wonders about what

Simon said about a dead man. The boys become tired by pulling wood for the

fire, but Ralph resolves that they must keep it going. Ralph nearly forgets

what their objective is for the fire, and they realize that two people are

needed to keep the fire burning at all times. This would require that they

each spend twelve hours a day devoted to it. They finally give up the fire

for the night. Ralph reminisces about the safety of home, and he and Piggy

conclude that they will go insane. They laugh at a small joke that Piggy

makes. Jack and his hunters arrive and attack the shelter where Ralph,

Piggy and the twins are. They fight them off, but still suffer considerable

injuries. Piggy thought that they wanted the conch, but realizes that they

came for something else. Instead, Jack had come for Piggy's broken glasses.

Chapter Eleven: Castle Rock:

The four boys gather around where the fire had been, bloody and

wounded. Ralph calls a meeting for the boys who remain with them, and Piggy

asks Ralph to tell them what could be done. Ralph says that all they need

is a fire, and if they had kept the fire burning they might have been

rescued already. Ralph, Sam and Eric think that they should go to the

Castle Rock with spears, but Piggy refuses to take one. Piggy says that

he's going to go find Jack himself. Piggy says that he will appeal to a

sense of justice. A tear falls down his cheek as he speaks. Ralph says that

they should make themselves look presentable, with clothes, to not look

like savages. They set off along the beach, limping. When they approach the

Castle Rock, Ralph blows the conch. He approaches the other boys

tentatively, and Sam and Eric rush near him, leaving Piggy alone. Jack

arrives from hunting, and tells Ralph to leave them alone. Ralph finally

calls Jack a thief, and Jack responds by trying to stab Ralph with his

spear, which Ralph deflects. They fight each other while Piggy reminds

Ralph what they came to do. Ralph stops fighting and says that they have to

give back Piggy's glasses and reminds them about the fire. He calls them

painted fools. Jack orders the boys to grab Sam and Eric. They take the

spears from the twins and Jack orders them to be tied up. Ralph screams at

Jack, calling him a beast and a swine and a thief. They fight again, but

Piggy asks to speak as the other boys jeer. Piggy asks them whether it is

better to be a pack of painted Indians or to be sensible like Ralph, to

have rules and agree or to hunt and kill. Roger leans his weight on the

lever, causing a great rock to crash down on Piggy, crushing the conch and

sending Piggy down a cliff, where he lands on the beach, killing him. Jack

declares himself chief, and hurls his spear at Ralph, which tears the skin

and flesh over his ribs, then shears off and falls into the water. Ralph

turns and runs, but Sam and Eric remain. Jack orders them to join the

tribe, but when they only wish to be let go he pokes them in the ribs with

a spear.

Chapter Twelve: Cry of the Hunters:

Ralph hides, wondering about his wounds. He is not far from the Castle

Rock. He thinks he sees Bill in the distance, but realizes that it is not

actually Bill anymore, for he is now a savage and not the boy in shorts and

shirt he once knew. He concludes that Jack will never leave Ralph alone.

Ralph can see the Lord of the Flies, now a skull with the skin and meat

eaten away. Ralph can still hear the chant "Kill the beast. Cut his throat.

Spill his blood." He crawls to the lookout near Castle Rock and calls to

Sam and Eric. Sam gives him a chunk of meat and tells him to leave. They

tell him that Roger has sharpened a stick at both ends, but Ralph cannot

attach a meaning to this. Ralph crawls away to a slope where he can safely

sleep. When he awakes he can hear Jack and Roger outside the thicket where

he hides. They are trying to find out where Ralph is hiding. The other boys

are rolling rocks down the mountain. Ralph finally runs away, not knowing

what he should do. He decides to hide again, then realizes that Jack and

his boys were sitting the island on fire to smoke Ralph out, a move that

would destroy whatever fruit was left on the island. Ralph rushes toward

the beach, where he finds a naval officer. His ship saw the smoke and came

to the island. The officer thinks that the boys have been only playing

games. The other boys begin to appear from the forest. Percival tries to

announce his name and address, but cannot say what was once so natural.

Ralph says that he is boss, and the officer asks how many there are. He

scolds them for not knowing exactly how many there are and for not being

organized, as the British are supposed to be. Ralph says that they were

like that at first. Ralph begins to weep for the first time on the island.

He weeps for the end of innocence and the darkness of man's heart, and for

the fall of Piggy. The officer turns away, embarrassed, while the other

boys await the cruiser in the distance.

Middlemarch by G.Eliot

Chapter 1:

The novel begins in the upper-class Brooke household in Tipton,

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