SUMMARY: Lord of the Flies, Chapter 10
The name of the chapter ("The Shell and the Glasses") highlights two symbolic objects of our
story: the conch and Piggy's eyeglasses. Remember their symbolic meanings, and pay
attention to how these objects are treated in this chapter and Chapter 11.
It is the next morning, after the feast and ritual where the boys killed Simon. Back on the beach
(and new signal fire), Piggy, Ralph, and some of the littluns are all that is left of Ralph's tribe.
The murder of Simon is hard to discuss. Piggy refuses to take any personal responsibility (it was
the fault of "that bloody dance" and was an "accident") and even blames Simon himself ("he
hadn't no business crawling out of the dark like that"). Ralph takes more personal ownership
of what happened; obviously feeling guilty, he talks about what we did, not just what "they"
did. (Golding never makes it clear whether Piggy and Ralph actually attacked Simon, but Ralph
seems to confess that he's at least guilty of being an accomplice in the mob violence.) Sam and
Eric show up, and Piggy and the twins awkwardly talk about how the three of them were tired
and left last night's feast early -- an obvious lie.
Back at Castle Rock, Jack lords over his tribe of hunters. We see what kind of cruel tyrant he
has become; Roger and some of the hunters discuss how a boy named Wilfred is beaten and
tortured for no clear reason. At a meeting, Jack warns the hunters to watch for the Beast trying
to sneak into the fortress, because he may crawl in "disguised" as before. Jack proclaims it is
time to hunt, but one of the hunters point out they have no way to light a fire to cook the meat.
To solve that problem, Jack proposes to sneak down to Ralph's beach camp with Maurice and
Roger later, as the sun sets.
That night, Ralph realizes "the attraction of wildness had gone" and half-dreams of life back in
England, "of a tamed town where savagery could not set foot." Interrupting Ralph's nostalgia,
Piggy alerts him of sounds outside their shelters. Suddenly, Ralph and the others are attacked
by the three hunters. In the confusion of the dark, Ralph wrestles with someone he thinks is a
hunter and gets kneed between his legs. Ralph rolls around in pain. As the hunters retreat and
the boys gather themselves together, Eric proudly remarks how he hurt one of the hunters with
a "knee up . . . hit[ting] him with it in the pills." Ralph realizes that he was actually fighting Eric.
Piggy still has the conch, which he protected during the attack; he assumed that's what they
wanted. Instead, Golding's omniscient narrator goes back to the retreating hunters and reveals
their real successful objective: "From [Jack's] left hand dangled Piggy's broken glasses."
As you finish reading the last two chapters of the book, do the following:
Write three Levels of Questions (L123Qs) for Chapter 11 on your own paper, one
for each Level (1, 2, and 3).
Write a Double Entry Journal for Chapter 12; see previous directions. Make sure
you have TWO excerpts and TWO responses, with the proper format and length.