NovelGuide: Lord of the Flies: Novel Summary: Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The beginning of chapter four details the events of life as a littlun. Percival, Johnny, and Henry, three littluns who suffer from unknown terror during the night but play happily during the day, are on the beach, near the ocean water, engaged in their usual trivialities. Soon Roger and Maurice, two of Jack’s hunters, begin to harass the boys, kicking over their sand-castles and throwing stones near them. These events are precursors to the actual violence Roger and Maurice will use later in the novel to threaten Ralph and Piggy. Yet for the time being, there is an invisible wall of protection around Henry, whom Roger throws stones near. Roger’s conditioning of the old world is still present but will soon wear off.

The second major theme of the chapter is the adoption of face paint by Jack and the hunters. Wearing masks of green and other colors, the boys feel compelled to hunt the pig, being much more brave than normal. Golding explains that with the masks, the boys were "liberated from shame and self-consciousness."

Meanwhile, Piggy is thinking about a sun-dial. This again shows how Piggy is thinking logically about tools which could help the boys. Yet not even Ralph accepts this, saying that it’s not practical. The other boys on the island dislike Piggy in general. Golding explains, "There had grown up tacitly among the biguns the opinion that Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, but by fat, and ass-mar, and specs, and a certain disinclination for manual labor." The others hate Piggy because he is the only one (except Ralph) unwilling to give up the logic and order of the old world of adults.

Soon the rivalry between the two schools of thought are again in conflict when Jack and his hunters abandon the fire to hunt. When the fire goes out, Piggy and Ralph are enraged, seeing a ship which wasn’t able to see them because there was no smoke signal. When confronted, Jack shrugs off the whole thing, starting a group chant and dance with his hunters concerning the pig hunt. Golding explains the two sides, saying, "There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill, and there was the world of longing and baffled common sense."