I really like chapter eight because William Golding introduces the Lord of the Flies. The conversation between the Lord and Simon is very confusing to me, because I am not positive who is really the Lord. The sentence: "They [the flies] were black and iridescent green and without number; and in front of Simon, the Lord of the Flies hung on his stick and grinned." (123) I believe that the Lord is the pig's head, but then why would Golding say "his stick" when it was a female pig. Perhaps "his" is referring to the boys and the pig's head represents the internal conflict of the boys. After all the Beast isn't something they could kill and hunt.
Another interesting and confusing idea is what Jack says the boar's head is for. He reffers to it as a gift for the beast, but that would falsify my assumption that the pig's head is the monster. Yet Jack is the main culprit of the conflict, so he would be creating the beast, just as he kills the sow. I enjoyed analysing these two chapters and can't wait to read more about the Lord of the Flies in future chapters.
Tommy-
ReplyDeleteIt's good that you focus on the conundrum of knowing who "the Lord" is. The Lord of the Flies identifies himself as the evil in us all, such as the impending threat of giving in to evil (i.e. Lucifer). It *is* confusing that a female pig becomes the Lord of the Flies, but wasn't it Eve that introduced evil, pain, and darkness to humanity? The devil is male, but it is a strong tradition in literature for women to be responsible for introducing evil (as upsetting as that may be for us women).