"Cliff Notes - Lord of the Flies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

For Roger and the other boys, civilization is a mirage that is slipping away. Their hair is growing long and wild, their nails are becoming claws, and they are "filthy dirty." They are also beginning to do things that would not be acceptable at home.

Jack calls Roger into the jungle to paint their faces with clay and charcoal. Their masks will camouflage them; they will be a part of the jungle when hunting pig. With his own face painted, Jack "looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger." He is ceasing to be himself, and the mask is becoming "a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness." Jack dances and his laughter becomes "a bloodthirsty snarling." Jack is losing his human identity and his self-awareness. He can even act like an animal in front of the others; he no longer cares what they think. And the others feel "compelled" to follow the creature with the masked face. Jack goes off with his hunters to track pig.

In the second scene, Ralph spots a passing ship on the horizon. "Balanced on a high peak of need, agonized by indecision, Ralph cried out: 'Oh God, oh God!'" Till now Ralph has childishly believed--needed to believe--that they would be rescued, that someone would come along and save them. This vague notion has allowed him to play away his time as though he were just one of the little boys. Jack and the hunters have betrayed Ralph by abandoning what is most important to him, the fire. Ralph realizes he will have to take action.

From around the "unfriendly side of the mountain," where the beast supposedly lives, come the chanting choirboys led by Jack. The twins, who are part of the procession, are described as "errant"--a word that foreshadows the twins' eventual betrayal of Ralph. And what Simon sees, looking from Ralph to Jack, "seemed to make him afraid." The final, irreversible split has taken place between Jack and Ralph. Simon understands that the two can no longer be friends. This is the first in a series of mounting crises between Jack and Ralph.

Jack is triumphant as he leads his frenzied mob back with a slaughtered pig. He cannot contain his joy at the power he felt "when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink." Jack and the boys have found a way of not feeling their fears; killing another living creature helps them to forget the beast in the jungle.

Enraged by betrayal and dashed hope, Ralph thrusts himself into the role of leader. "There was a ship," he says, making it clear that hunting is less important to the chief than fire. When the hunters begin to understand "the dismal truth" about going home, their sentiments betray Jack's sense of the importance of the kill.

"The two boys faced each other. There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill; and there was the world of longing and baffled common-sense." For Ralph and Jack this is the beginning of all-out war. The battle will be between the thrill of power and force and the difficult and disillusioning struggle to maintain hope and good sense. Ralph and Jack will struggle without either of them fully understanding the forces at work in him.

Ralph's stance is much more passive, a waiting that must be done and a very uncertain waiting. Who is it that will come for them? Rescuers or the beast? There's no wait on Jack's side, only the illusory but exhilarating feel of gaining power over the fear which haunts them.

That Jack breaks Piggy's glasses out of spite is inevitable. Piggy's link to civilization is partly destroyed, making his situation with Jack and the jungle even more dangerous. Simon returns the broken glasses, and "passions beat about Simon on the mountain-top with awful wings." With their hopes dashed, violence and blood lust simmering, and civilization receding, Simon knows they are endangered.

Power plays between Ralph and Jack fill the rest of the scene. Jack apologizes for breaking the glasses and gains the hunters' admiration. Ralph, no longer fooled by Jack's empty words, insists that he rebuild the fire immediately. But then Ralph refuses to move out of the way, which forces Jack to build the fire in a different place.

For the first time Ralph recognizes Piggy's importance. "Not even Ralph knew how a link between him and Jack had been snapped and fastened elsewhere. 'I'll bring 'em back,'" he says to Piggy as he borrows his glasses to light the fire.

New allegiances have been made. The friendship between Ralph and Jack is broken; their relationship is now that of enemies. And Ralph has bonded himself in friendship to Piggy.

More power struggles! Ralph tries not to eat roast pig and Jack tries not to give him any "as an assertion of power." Piggy the powerless leaves himself open to further ridicule from Jack when he asks for food. It's Simon who shows compassion by sharing his food.

"Inexpressible frustrations combined to make his rage elemental and awe-inspiring," and Jack begins a chantlike recitation of the kill: "I painted my face--I stole up. Now you eat--all of you--and I-" Jack's words are becoming more primitive all the time. He is an early hunter learning to grunt out the first words that represent thought. But instead of enlarging his thinking, Jack is slipping backward.

As Jack tells the story of the killing, a brutal joy infects the group. The boys join in making primitive sounds, "pig-dying noises." Jack is calling them backward into mindlessness. A reenactment begins with Maurice playing pig. They are little boys playing at a good game; at the same time, they are dangerously close to being savages. Ralph, who is part boy, part man, watches "envious and resentful." The leader side of him won't allow his little boy side to play; it makes him angry that he has to act like a man.

"I'm calling an assembly. With the conch." With his belief in the conch, symbol of communication and awareness, Ralph has no choice but to call the boys away from Jack and toward self-consciousness.

^^^^^^^^^^LORD OF THE FLIES: CHAPTER FIVE

Ralph calls a meeting to talk about what's important for the boys' survival. Jack breaks up the assembly with a frenzied dance.

NOTE: THE USE OF IRONY Golding's use of irony becomes more obvious as the story continues. You can recognize irony when something is said to be true and you know that the exact opposite is in fact true. For example, Jack says that the boys are not "savages," but that's exactly what they turn out to be. And not only can we spot the irony in the events and conversations of the story, but Ralph, the character in the story, is also aware of irony. This shared perception allows us to be close to Ralph and to experience the situation along with him, yet the irony forces us to step back and think about what the author is saying.

Bringing us close to the action while keeping us distant from it is a deliberate device that Golding uses repeatedly. It will force us to think about our own attitudes, and it will give us a picture of the world beyond ourselves.

The irony of Ralph's situation begins to present itself to him. As he walks along the beach, trying to think, he can't help "remembering that first enthusiastic exploration as though it were part of a brighter childhood." Once he had daydreamed and pretended, like the characters he'd read about in books; now he considers how wearisome life really is. He has to figure out everything for himself: "every path was an improvisation." Suddenly he realizes that a big part of life is just keeping alive and out of danger: "a considerable part of one's waking life was spent watching one's feet." Ralph smiles "jeeringly." He sees the gap between what he hoped life on the island would be and what that life is turning out to be. He also recognizes that the Ralph he used to be and the Ralph he's becoming are opposites.

And he doesn't like "perpetually flicking the tangled hair out of his eyes." Ralph wants civilization back; he doesn't want to be dirty and wild. He is slowly moving toward an adult awareness of his needs.

Ralph tries to think about leadership of the boys. Being chief is beginning to mean he has to act like a chief! ("You had to think, you had to be wise.") Again there is irony. Recall how playfully Ralph took on the role; it was all a game then, but now he thinks that "the meeting must not be fun, but business." Ralph is growing up, and he has to "adjust his values." What he thought once is no longer true; he is being forced to change.

Ralph's growing up creates in him a dawning awareness of others. He appreciates Piggy's friendship more and respects his ability to think. Ralph talks to the assemblies in such a way that everyone, even the littlest boys, will understand what he has to say. He wants to establish in everyone's mind--but also in his own--what is important. He calls it "what's what," meaning what's really important.

For the first time Ralph recognizes the seriousness of the situation and acts responsibly. And Ralph wants the others to understand and adjust their values also. He takes an adult stand.