Chapter 12 | lordoftheflies

C H A P T E R 12

Chapter 12: Cry of the Hunters

"...the other little boys began to shake and sob too."

Plot of Chapter

Vocabulary

Ralph finds safety in the forest, stumbles across the Lord of the Flies and angrily punched it onto the ground and takes the stake to use as a weapon
Sam and Eric gives Ralph food and also tells him that Jack plans to send his hunters to go after him
Ralph hides in a thicket away from the crazy hunters
He smells smoke and realizing Jack set the island on fire in order to find Ralph
Ralph leaves the safety of the thicket and tries to fight for his life against Jack and his hunters
He leads them to the beach where he fell in exhaustion and sees a naval officer
Naval officer suspects the boys were playing games with the body paint and wooden spears
Ralph starts to cry, followed by the other boys
The embarrassed officer turns his back so the boys can recover their composure

THICKET(204): a thick or dense growth of shrubs, bushes, or small trees

("... and sneaked forward to the edge of that impenetrable thicket..."

INIMICAL (207): unfriendly or hostile

("...and this would rouse those striped and inimical creatures from their feasting by the fire.")

ULULATION (212): to utter howling sounds, as in shrill; wail

("It was an ululation over by the seashore- and now the next savage answered and the next.")

Literary Device

"Ralph looked at him dumbly. For a moment he had a fleeting picutre of the strange glamour that has once invested the beaches. But the island was sorcged up like dead wood-Simon was dead-and Jack had..." (Narrator-224)

FLASHBACK: Ralph was having flashbacks of the numerous and heartbreaking events on the island, including the lost of his friends

As much as I enjoyed reading the novel, I did not quite enjoy the ending. It was confusing to me when I read about the naval officer's reaction to the young boys running out of the forest. He had expecations already set for them upon rescuing them. But with some more thought, it made sense that he was embarrassed. He didn't like the savagery of the children but yet he turned to his ship for comfort. I wonder what happened beyond the island and after they got rescued; did Ralph and Jack reconcil, did the boys return to their normal school boy life or was it difficult?

Passage Study

Reader's Response

"The officer, surrounded by these noises, was moved and a little embarrassed. He turned away to give them time to pull themselves together; and waited, allowing his eyes to rest on the trim cruiser in the distance." (Narrator-225)

The naval officer's reaction to the young boys was really ambiguous. Instead of lending a helping hand to Ralph, he seemed disappointed and disgusted. This was really ironic because in a sense, the naval officer was choosing warfare over the kids by looking at his warship for comfort. Was he choosing the savagery of his trim cruiser instead of the mourning children, just like the children?

"Smoke was seeping through the branches in white and yellow wisps, the patch blue sky over head turned to the colour of a storm cloud, and then the smoke bollowed round him." (Narrator-216)

IRONY Jack set the island on fire in order to try and kill Ralph, instead of a signal fire in hopes of getting rescued

"...but then he saw that the white face was bone and that the pig's skull grinned at him from the top of a stick...The teeth grinned, the empty sockets seemed to hold his graze masterfully and without effort...Lying there in the darkness, he knew he was an outcast," (Narrator-206)

I think that sometime in between his encounter of the Lord of the Flies and Jack, his realiztion kept growing. The more time he spent grieving alone, he was realzing the savagery in the boys and himself.