Forebodings that the assembly called by Ralph will not go
well are indicated in Chapter Five of Lord of the Flies as Golding
writes that the place of assembly is roughly a triangle, but "Piggy came and stood
outside the triangle." Around the place of assembly there are trees, and on two sides
lie the beach; however, behind the lagoon, there is the "darkness of the island." Yet,
Ralph feels the need to "put things straight" because the boys have neglected the fire,
they have gathered no rain water, and they are not cleaning up after themselves; in
short they have degenerated. Ralph attempts to reorganize the boys so that their
shelters and the rescue fire will be maintained and conditions will be
sanitary.
When the issue of the beast is broached, Ralph
urges the boys to talk so they can decide that there is nothing to this idea. Jack,
then, accuses the little boys of having started the notion of a beast out of their fear;
he explains that he hunts all over the island and would have seen something if there
really were a beast. "...there is no beast in the forest." At this point, Piggy, who
has the conch, says indignantly, that there is nothing to the beast, but they need to
talk and put things right. So, he calls on Phil who says he has seen the beast. When
little Percival speaks, Jack grabs him, asking him what the beast says. Percival cannot
answer, so Jack lets him go. Finally Simon tries to speak, but he
becomes
inarticulate in his effort to express mankind's
essential illness
until he
tries to compare it to something disgusting to the boys. But they laugh at him. Just
then,
Two grey
trunks rubbed each other with an evil speaking that one had noticed by
day.
These are the trees
within the triangle of the assembly. But, now they appear sinister as the evil within
man emerges although Simon is unable to express it. Jack usurps the power of the
meeting and ridicules Piggy, and declares himself chief. When Ralph says that he is
breaking the rules, Jack retorts, "Who cares?...Bollocks to the rules!" He declares
himself a hunter, and the hunters can chase down any beast and beat and beat it. Giving
a "wild whoop," Jack runs off with others following
him.
After this, Piggy worries, "What's grownups going to
say?" He urges Ralph to make the boys obey him. Piggy fears that Jack will do him
harm; Simon urges Ralph to continue to be chief. Clearly, theirs is a tenuous situation
as they are all "drifing and things are going rotten," as Ralph says. Piggy and Ralph
wish there were adults to direct them. Simon urges them to "keep the fire
going."
"If only they could get a message to us," cried
Ralph desperately. "If only they could send us something grownup...a sign or
something. Ralph wishes that he could return to being a boy as he and Piggy and Simon
feel premonitions that anarchy will soon break out on the
island.
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