Lord of Flies by William Golding

 

Lord of Flies

                                      

Summary

An English schoolboy of about twelve years old explores a jungle. A second boy soon joins the first. The first boy is tall, handsome, and athletic. The second is fat and wears glasses. The boys discuss what happened and how they got to the jungle. They're fairly sure the plane they were in was shot down and crash landed on an island, and that all the adults on the plane were killed. They wonder if any of the other schoolboys on the flight survived. 

The fat boy asks the tall boy his name. The tall boy answers, Ralph. But instead of asking the fat boy's name, Ralph wanders off. The fat boy follows, but can barely keep up because of his asthma. When the fat boy starts eating some fruit, Ralph slips away and finds a beautiful beach. 

Eventually the fat boy finds Ralph and proposes they call a meeting and make a list of everyone who survived. He lets slip that in school people called him Piggy. Ralph laughs. Piggy begs Ralph not to tell anyone. 

The boys keep exploring. Ralph finds a perfect swimming hole and says his father, who's in the Navy, will come rescue them. But Piggy is fairly certain that no one knows where they landed. Piggy says they have to do something. Just then, Ralph spots a huge conch shell. Piggy realizes they can use it as a trumpet. Piggy can't blow it himself, because of his asthma, but shows Ralph how to do it. Ralph blows, and a huge blast sound.

All the boys gather on the beach: they range in age from six to twelve. There's one set of twins, Sam and Eric. A group of the older boys are members of a choir, dressed in black. Their leader is Jack, a redhead who tries to take control of the meeting. One of the boys in the choir, Simon, faints. Jack soon tells Piggy to shut up, and calls him "Fatty." Ralph gleefully reveals that Piggy's name is "Piggy." Everyone laughs, humiliating Piggy. 

The boys decide to vote for a leader. Everyone in the choir votes for Jack, but all the other boys vote for Ralph because he blew the conch. To keep Jack happy, Ralph says that the choir will be hunters and Jack will lead them. 

Ralph decides the boys must explore their island. He and Jack will both go, of course. Ralph ignores Piggy's whining pleas to be included, and picks Simon to be the third explorer. Ralph, Jack, and Simon have a great time exploring, and stop to push a huge boulder off a cliff, which seems to them like a great accomplishment. 

The boys climb to the highest peak on the island, which they call the mountain, from where they can see that they're on an uninhabited island. They also see the "scar" where the crashing plane tore through the jungle. Ralph says of the island, "This belongs to us."

Soon the boys head back down the mountain to the beach. On the way, they spot a wild pig caught in vines. Jack pulls out his pocket knife, but pauses before striking, and the pig escapes. Jack vows not to hesitate next time.

Back at the beach, Ralph blows the conch to call another meeting. Ralph announces that they're on an uninhabited island. Jack interrupts to say that they still need an army in order to hunt pigs. 

Ralph says that without adults, they'll have to take care of themselves. He makes a rule that whoever holds the conch at meetings gets to speak. 

Jack, excited, shouts out that they can make more rules and punish whoever breaks them. 

Piggy takes the conch and says no one knows they're on the island. Ralph agrees, but describes the island as a good place where they'll have fun even if they have to stay for a long time.

A nervous little boy with a birthmark that covers half his face steps forward. After some prodding, the boy whispers to Piggy, and Piggy tells everyone what the boy said. He saw a "beastie," a "snake-thing," the previous night in the woods. Ralph and the older boys dismiss this "beastie" as just a nightmare, but the younger boys seem scared. Jack grabs the conch and says there's no snake-thing. If there is, he adds, his hunters will find and kill it. Ralph also says there's no snake-thing. 

Ralph says he's confident they boys will be rescued. He suggests they build a fire on the mountaintop to alert rescuers. 

Excited by the idea of building a fire, the boys jump up and run to collect wood and bring it to the mountain top. Piggy, left alone at the meeting place, disgustedly says that the other boys are acting like a bunch of kids.

The boys make a pile of dead wood on the mountain. They can't figure out how start the fire until Jack grabs the glasses off Piggy's face. Ralph uses the glasses to focus the sun's rays on the wood. Piggy is terrified, nearly blind without his glasses. 

The fire burns out because the wood is so dry. Piggy starts to criticize the boys, but Jack shouts him down. Simon points out that Piggy's glasses made the fire possible. 

Ralph says they have to keep the fire burning every day without fail. Jack volunteers himself and his hunters to do the job. 

Piggy notices that sparks from their signal fire have set the trees below them on fire. He argues that instead of running off to start a fire they should have first made shelters. The other boys shout at him again, but are disturbed. Piggy asks where the boy with the birthmark who saw the "beastie" is. No one knows.

It's weeks later. In the deep silence of the jungle, Jack tracks a pig and hurls his spear at it. As usual, he misses. Jack returns to the beach, frustrated and angry. 

On the beach, Ralph and Simon are building huts. Ralph is frustrated because only he and Simon are working on the huts, which are falling apart. He complains to Jack that everyone else is off playing or hunting.

Ralph's complaint offends Jack. Ralph points out that all the hunters except Jack came back hours ago, and are now swimming and playing. Jack tries to explain his obsession with catching and killing a pig, but can't find the words. 

Ralph and Jack argue whether hunting is as important as building shelters.

Ralph says they need shelters because many of the boys are scared. Simon observes that it is as if the island is bad, not the good island Ralph described in Chapter 2. Jack agrees. While hunting in the jungle, he says, he often feels like he's the one who's being hunted. 

Ralph puts the focus of the conversation back on getting rescued. He mentions Jack and the hunter's responsibility for the fire, which causes another argument. Jack claims hunting is work. Ralph shouts that while Jack likes hunting, he's stuck building shelters for the good of everyone, not for pleasure. They go for a swim that just barely manages to cool down their anger. 

Simon slips away into the forest. He helps some of the younger boys gather fruit, then finds a beautiful glade hidden by creeper vines. He sneaks inside and contemplates the island's sights and sounds in a kind of spiritual meditation.

The boys adjust to life on the island. The younger boys are now called 'littleuns." The older boys are "biguns." The littleuns generally play all day and become terrified at night. 

As three littleuns play in the sand, two biguns, Maurice and Roger, emerge from the forest. Maurice heads off to swim, but Roger stays behind. When one of the littleuns, Henry, wanders off, Roger follows him. Henry plays at the edge of the ocean, happily controlling the movements of the little animals living there. 

Roger watches Henry from a distance, and finds some nuts blown from a tree. After a pause, Roger throws the nuts and then some stones at Henry, but he purposely aims to miss by a few feet. 

Jack emerges from the forest and calls to Roger, telling him to follow. In the jungle, Jack paints his own face for hunting camouflage. The mask makes him feel liberated: Jack begins dancing and snarling. He gets Roger, Samneric, and some others to come hunt with him.

On the beach, a bunch of biguns, including Ralph and Piggy, rest and talk. Soon Piggy comes up with a plan for them to build sundials so they'll know the time. The other boys laugh at him: his obesity, glasses, and asthma make him an outsider. 

Suddenly Ralph spots smoke on the horizon—it's a ship! Everyone looks at the mountain, but there's no smoke from their signal fire. They run to the mountaintop and discover the fire is dead and the ship has passed. Below them they see a procession of hunters carrying a pig on a spit and chanting, "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood." The hunters come up to the mountaintop. Jack, not realizing what's happened, is triumphant after killing the pig. Furious, Ralph tells Jack about the ship. Jack responds defensively: he says he needed more hunters to circle the pig. 

Piggy and even some of the hunters start yelling at Jack. Jack, humiliated and angry, hits Piggy. Piggy's glasses fly off, breaking a lens. Jack mocks Piggy and everyone laughs. 

Eventually Jack apologizes for letting the fire die. Ralph asks Piggy's permission to use his glasses to light the fire. Ralph realizes he and Piggy have become allies.

 They cook the pig, but Jack refuses to give Piggy any meat. Simon shares with Piggy.

Jack and his boys begin to reenact the killing of the pig in a kind of ritual dance. Ralph announces that he's calling an assembly and walks away.

Ralph paces the beach, planning what he'll say at the meeting and wishing he could think as well as Piggy can. Finally, he blows the conch. 

Everyone gathers and listens to Ralph. He explains that the meeting is about setting things straight, not fun. He points out all the things they said they'd do, but didn't: store water, build shelters, keep the signal fire going. He says the fire is the most important thing on the island. 

Jack stands and reaches for the conch so he can talk. But Ralph refuses to hand it over and Jack sits back down. 

Ralph observes that people are becoming afraid. He doesn't know why, but he thinks they should discuss their fear to overcome it. Jack takes the conch. He calls the littleun's crybabies. He says he's been all over the island, and there's no beast. Piggy agrees with Jack.

A littleun named Phil stands up and says he saw the beast in the forest the previous night. To everyone's shock, Simon says the boy probably just saw him—Simon went walking in the forest that night. 

Another littleun stands and identifies himself as Percival Wemys Madison. He gives his London address, and tries to give his telephone number, but can't remember it and begins to cry. 

When Percival recovers his voice, he tells the other boys that the beast comes from the sea. This idea terrifies the boys. 

Simon takes the conch. He says maybe the boys themselves are the beast. Piggy thinks this idea is crazy. Many of the boys think Simon's saying the beast is a ghost. Ralph holds a vote on whether the boys believe in ghosts. A majority raises their hands. 

Piggy grabs the conch and shouts that ghosts don't exist. He asks the boys if they're humans or savages? He mentions the hunters letting the fire go out. Jack furiously rips the conch from him. 

Ralph accuses Jack of breaking the rules. Jack questions Ralph's leadership. He says he doesn't care about the rules, that he'll hunt the beast and kill it. He starts a chant on the beach. Everyone but Ralph, Piggy, and Simon join him. 

Piggy tells Ralph to blow the conch, but Ralph refuses. What if no one responded? Ralph considers stepping down as chief, but Piggy protests. He says everything would descend into chaos, and then Jack would target Piggy. 

The three boys wish adults were around to make everything better. Ralph wishes the adults would at least send them a sign.

That night, airplanes battle in the night sky, high and far enough away that none of the boys wake. A dead pilot from one of the destroyed planes drifts down on a parachute and lands on the mountain top next to the signal fire. 

Samneric are on fire duty on the mountain top, but they are asleep. When they wake in the early morning before dawn, they see the dead pilot in the shadows. It sits up and falls down when the wind catches the parachute, which they think are wings. They run to the beach in terror to tell the others that the beast chased them down the mountain. 

Ralph calls a meeting that quickly becomes heated. Jack questions Ralph's decisions and leadership, mocks Piggy, and claims the conch no longer matters. For an instant it seems as if Jack might take over leadership of the boys, but Ralph turns the tables and wins everyone to his side by asking if they want to be rescued or not. 

Ralph and the biguns agree to search the island. Piggy stays behind to look after the littleuns. At the far tip of the island, the biguns find a rock formation Jack calls the "castle." The rock is accessible only by a piece of stone forty feet above the water below. They think it might be the beast's hideout. Ralph, as the leader, volunteers to search it. Jack follows behind him.

The boys find no beast, but Jack is excited because the rock protects a cave and would make a terrific fort. It even has boulders, which, if pushed in the right way, could roll down to crush approaching enemies.

 

Jack and the other biguns want to stay and play at the fort, but Ralph says they have to go search the mountain for the beast and relight the signal fire.

While resting on the hike to the mountain, Ralph wishes he could cut his hair, clip his nails, and get cleaned up. Remembering his past in England, he stares at the ocean and thinks how big it is and how it separates the boys from civilization. Simon seems to read Ralph's mind, and reassures him. "You'll get back alright," he says.

A while later as they head through the jungle toward the mountain, the boys find signs of pigs. Ralph agrees that as long as they're going in the right direction, they can hunt. Soon, they come upon a wild boar. The boar gets away, but not before Ralph hits it in the side with a spear. Flushed with pride, Ralph reenacts the hunt with a bigun named Robert. Soon all the boys are involved, chanting "Kill the pig. Cut its throat." For a brief, moment, it seems like they might actually kill Robert. 

The boys finally stop and discuss how to do the dance properly. Maurice suggests a drum and fire. Robert says they need to use a real pig next time, so they can really kill it. Jack suggests they use a littleun. All the other boys laugh. 

Darkness falls before they reach the mountain. Ralph realizes that they need to send someone to tell Piggy they won't be back that night. Everyone's too frightened to volunteer, except Simon.

Jack mocks Ralph's concern for Piggy. Ralph asks Jack why he hates him. The question makes all the boys nervous. 

At the base of the mountain, the boys stop for the night. But Jack questions Ralph's courage, and so Ralph agrees to climb right then. Only Roger agrees to accompany them. Halfway up the mountain, Ralph decides it's foolish to go up in the dark. Jack insists on going ahead as Ralph and Roger wait behind. A few minutes later Jack returns saying he saw something. The three boys climb the mountain to the peak, blinded by darkness. The wind blows. The parachutist sits up. The boys run for it.

Back on the beach, Piggy can't believe the beast is real. He asks what they should do. Ralph isn't sure. He says the beast is sitting up by the signal fire as if trying to intercept their rescue. 

Jack says his hunters could kill the beast. Ralph says they're just boys with sticks. Infuriated, Jack blows the conch to call a meeting. Ralph begins to talk but Jack says he called the meeting with the conch, so he should get to speak. Ralph lets him. Jack says they've seen the beast: it's a hunter. 

Next Jack accuses Ralph of belittling the hunters. He says Ralph is like Piggy and isn't a proper chief. Jack calls for a vote to remove Ralph and make Jack chief. Nobody votes for Jack. 

Jack storms off, humiliated and crying. He vows to form a new group, and says anyone can join him when he hunts. He disappears into the forest. Everyone is stunned, but the meeting continues. Simon suggests they climb the mountain. Piggy considers the suggestion insane. He says they should just build a signal fire on the beach.

The boys build the fire and the littleuns dance and sing. After the fire, Ralph realizes that all the biguns but Samneric and Piggy have disappeared. Most have gone to join Jack. 

Simon has wandered alone into the forest. He enters a secret glade and sits there in the sun. Though he gets thirstier and thirstier, he continues to sit. 

Elsewhere in the jungle, Jack declares himself chief of the boys who have joined him. As chief, he says he's going to get more "biguns away from the conch." He also says that when his tribe hunts they'll leave some of the kill for the beast. That way, it won't bother them. Jack leads the boys into the forest. 

The boys track, corner, and kill a big sow (a female pig). Jack cuts off its head. He decides they'll raid Ralph's camp fore fire to cook the pig, and invite everyone to a feast. Roger, meanwhile, sharpens a stick at both ends. They stake the pig head on the stick and leave it as an offering to the beast. 

Simon witnesses the killing and staking of the pig from his secret spot in the glade. Simon is thirsty and exhausted, and the pig's head seems to talk to him. It tells him to leave and go back to the others. He stares at the pig's head, at the Lord of the Flies, and seems to recognize it. 

Jack emerges from the forest into Ralph's camp. As his followers steal fire from the signal fire, he invites Ralph's group to come his feast, then disappears. 

Simon is on the verge of having a fit in the forest. The pig's head, the Lord of the Flies, speaks to him: "I'm the Beast … You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you?" As Simon descends into a faint, the Lord of the Flies says, "We are going to have fun on this island!" The beast warns Simon that if he tries to interfere Jack, Roger, Maurice, Robert, Bill, Piggy, and Ralph will "do" him.

Simon wakes as a storm gathers over the island. He climbs the mountain even though he's staggering with exhaustion. He sees the "beast" and realizes that it's just a dead parachutist. He untangles the cords holding the parachutist in place, and heads down the mountain to tell the others. 

Meanwhile, everyone but a few littleuns and Ralph and Piggy have gone to Jack's feast. Ralph mocks the feast as a bunch of boys "pretending" to act like a tribe. But the lure of food proves too much for Piggy, who suggests they go to the feast "to make sure nothing happens."

Jack acts like a savage chief at the feast. His face is painted and he wears a crown of leaves. Jack commands and the other boys obey him. 

When Ralph arrives, Jack asks the gathered boys who will join his tribe. Ralph says that he's still chief and has the conch, but Jack says the conch has no authority on this side of the island.

It starts to rain, and Ralph laughs that Jack's tribe had no foresight to build shelters. In response, Jack whips the group into "their dance." They form a chanting circle: "Kill the beast! Cut his throat!" Roger pretends to be a pig at the center of the circle, but eventually stops. Even Ralph and Piggy press forward. The circle of boys becomes a frenzied mob. 

Suddenly, Simon staggers from the forest, shouting the news about the dead parachutist. In their frenzied dance, though, the other boys think that he's the beast. They surround him, and beat and claw him to death. The rain pours down. Wind lifts the parachutist and sails it toward the boys, who run screaming. Simon's body washes out to sea.

The next morning, Piggy and Ralph discover that every bigun except them and Samneric has joined Jack's tribe. Ralph tells Piggy that the "beast" that came out of the forest was Simon, and that they murdered him. Piggy screams that it was an accident. When Samneric show up, all four boys pretend they left the feast early, before the dance. 

Jack moves his tribe to Castle Rock. He orders his savages to post a guard and beat anyone who disobeys or displeases him. Jack says that the thing that crawled out of the forest the previous night was the beast. But he says that they didn't kill it, because it's impossible for them to ever kill it.

 

Jack says they'll go hunting tomorrow and have a feast. To cook the meat, they'll raid Ralph's group for Piggy's glasses. Meanwhile, Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric discover four people aren't enough to keep the fire going. They decide to keep it burning only during the day. That night, Jack and his hunters attack while everyone is asleep. Ralph and Eric beat each other up, and Piggy protects the conch, while Jack steals Piggy's glasses.

Though only Piggy, Ralph, and Samneric remain in their group, Piggy tells Ralph to blow the conch to call an assembly. He does. They decide to go to Castle Rock. Piggy plans to ask Jack to give back his glasses because "what's right's right." Ralph, Sam, and Eric decide to carry spears, but Piggy insists on holding only the conch.

 

At Castle Rock, Ralph blows the conch. Roger throws a rock, though he purposely misses the twins and the other savages remain quiet. 

Jack appears from the forest behind Ralph's group, followed by hunters carrying a pig on a spit. Ralph calls Jack a thief. Jack attacks him. The two boys fight, but only with the sides of the spears, and soon wear themselves out. 

Ralph demands that Jack return Piggy's glasses. He mentions again the importance of the signal fire. Jack's tribe has only a cooking fire, he points out. In response, Jack orders his hunters to surround and tie up Samneric. He says to Ralph, "See? They do what I want."

Ralph and Jack start to fight again, but Piggy asks to speak and Ralph relents. Piggy raises the conch and once more calls them all kids, and argues that it's better to be sensible than savage. 

Roger pushes a boulder from the fort. Ralph dives out of the way, but Piggy can't see without his glasses: the boulder hits him head on, and the conch explodes. The boulder pushes Piggy over the cliff onto the rocks below. Blood leaks from his head, and a wave pulls his dead body into the sea. 

Stunned silence descends over the tribe. But suddenly Jack screams and throws his spear at Ralph, aiming to kill. Ralph runs into the jungle, dodging as more boys throw their spears at him. 

The tribe brings Samneric into the fort. Jack prods them with his spear to terrorize them into joining his tribe. Roger brushes past Jack, making it clear that he knows how to inflict torture.

Ralph spies on Castle Rock from a hiding place in the forest. He thinks the boys have become savages and knows Jack will try to kill him. 

In the jungle, Ralph comes upon the skull of a pig hung on a spear staked into the ground. He punches it and the skull splits. 

Ralph returns to spy on Castle Rock. Samneric are guarding the gates. He sneaks up to them. Frightened of Jack and Roger, Samneric beg Ralph to leave. But first they give him meat and tell him the tribe will hunt him tomorrow. Roger, they say, has sharpened a stick at both ends. Ralph doesn't understand what this means. 

Ralph tells Samneric he's going to hide in a nearby thicket so they can misdirect the tribe. As he runs off, he hears Samneric arguing with someone.

The next morning Ralph hides in the thicket. But it's soon surrounded: Samneric have been tortured into revealing Ralph's location.

The tribe first rolls boulders at the thicket and then tries to storm it. They can't get in, so they set the thicket on fire. Ralph breaks from the thicket and runs into the jungle. The tribe follows, spreading out behind to search for him. 

As the jungle burns, the tribe chases Ralph from hiding place to hiding place. He has no time to think or plan: he can only run or hide or attack. 

The tribe slowly surrounds him, until Ralph is forced onto the open beach, where he'll surely be killed. But in front of him stands an officer of the British Navy. The smoke from the burning jungle caught the ship's attention. 

The savages trickle out of the forest behind Ralph. The officer asks who's in charge. Ralph says he is. Jack is quiet. Percival Wemys Madison tries and fails to say his own name. 

The officer asks if they're having a war, and jokingly asks if they've had any casualties. He's stunned when Ralph says two. The officer says he would have expected more from British boys. Ralph begins to cry, thinking of Piggy. All of the other boys begin to cry as well. 

The officer, uncomfortable at this outpouring of emotion, turns to look at the more comforting sight of his warship anchored out at sea.

Themes

 

Human Nature

William Golding once said that in writing Lord of the Flies he aimed to trace society's flaws back to their source in human nature. By leaving a group of English schoolboys to fend for themselves on a remote jungle island, Golding creates a kind of human nature laboratory in order to examine what happens when the constraints of civilization vanish and raw human nature takes over. In Lord of the Flies, Golding argues that human nature, free from the constraints of society, draws people away from reason toward savagery.

The makeshift civilization the boys form in Lord of the Flies collapses under the weight of their innate savagery: rather than follow rules and work hard, they pursue fun, succumb to fear, and fall to violence. Golding's underlying argument is that human beings are savage by nature, and are moved by primal urges toward selfishness, brutality, and dominance over others. Though the boys think the beast lives in the jungle, Golding makes it clear that it lurks only in their hearts.

Civilization

Although Golding argues that people are fundamentally savage, drawn toward pleasure and violence, human beings have successfully managed to create thriving civilizations for thousands of years. So that disproves Golding's theory about human nature being savage, right? Wrong. The famous psychologist Sigmund Freud argued that without the innate human capacity to repress desire, civilization would not exist. In Lord of the Flies, Golding makes a similar argument. He depicts civilization as a veil that through its rules and laws masks the evil within every individual. So even while civilizations thrive, they are merely hiding the beast. They have not destroyed it.

The Lord of the Flies is a chronicle of civilization giving way to the savagery within human nature, as boys shaped by the supremely civilized British society become savages guided only by fear, superstition, and desire. And even before the boys become fully savage under Jack, Golding shows hints of the savage beast within society by showing Piggy's love of food, the way the boys laugh when Jack mocks Piggy, and all the boys' irrational fear of the "beast." And as the boys on the island shed civilization for savagery, the adults of the supposedly "civilized" world outside the island are engaged in a savage and brutal worldwide nuclear war.

Savagery and the Beast

The "beast" is a symbol Golding uses to represent the savage impulses lying deep within every human being. Civilization exists to suppress the beast. By keeping the natural human desire for power and violence to a minimum, civilization forces people to act responsibly and rationally, as boys like Piggy and Ralph do in Lord in the Flies. Savagery arises when civilization stops suppressing the beast: it's the beast unleashed. Savages not only acknowledge the beast, they thrive on it and worship it like a god. As Jack and his tribe become savages, they begin to believe the beast exists physically—they even leave it offerings to win its favor to ensure their protection. Civilization forces people to hide from their darkest impulses, to suppress them. Savages surrender to their darkest impulses, which they attribute to the demands of gods who require their obedience.

Spirituality and Religion

Most of the boys on the island either hide behind civilization, denying the beast's existence, or succumb to the beast's power by embracing savagery. But in Lord of the Flies, Golding presents an alternative to civilized suppression and beastly savagery. This is a life of religion and spiritual truth-seeking, in which men look into their own hearts, accept that there is a beast within, and face it squarely.

Simon occupies this role in Lord of the Flies, and in doing so he symbolizes all the great spiritual and religious men, from Jesus to Buddha to nameless mystics and shamans, who have sought to help other men accept and face the terrible fact that the beast they fear is themselves. Of all the boys, only Simon fights through his own fear to discover that the "beast" at the mountaintop is just a dead man. But when Simon returns with the news that there's no real beast, only the beast within, the other boys kill him. Not just the savages, not just the civilized boys—all the boys kill Simon, because all of the boys lack the courage Simon displayed in facing the beast.

The weak and the Strong

Within the larger battle of civilization and savagery ravaging the boys's community on the island, Lord of the Flies also depicts in great detail the relationships and power dynamics between the boys. In particular, the novel shows how boys fight to belong and be respected by the other boys. The main way in which the boys seek this belonging and respect is to appear strong and powerful. And in order to appear strong and powerful, boys give in to the savage instinct to ignore, pick on, mock, or even physically abuse boys who are weaker than them. Over and over, Lord of the Flies shows instances where a boy who feels vulnerable will save himself by picking on a weaker boy.