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Lord Of The Flies Chapter 9 Summary {Step by Step Guide}
Hello Friend, In this post “Lord Of The Flies Chapter 9 Summary“, we will read about the Summary Of Chapter 9 Lord Of The Flies in detail with in-depth analysis. So…
Lord Of The Flies Chapter 9 Summary | A View to a Death Summary
When Simon wakes up from his faint, his nose is bleeding, the sky is getting darker, and the pig’s head is looking down on him.
Simon stands up and says aloud, “What else is there to do?” He turns away from the pig’s head and starts up the mountain to see if there really is a beast.
Simon makes it to the top of the mountain. He sees the remains of the parachutist’s body. He sees the straps of the parachute pulling the head of the body up when the wind blows. He sees flies, facial bones, and rotting flesh. Simon vomits.
Simon pulls on the parachute straps to free the body from the rocks. He looks down toward the beach and sees the boys down the beach, not at the shelter area.
(He has no idea that Jack has taken control.) Simon goes to tell the boys that there is no beast – there is only the body of a parachutist. Simon is still very weak after his faint. His legs can barely support his body.
Ralph and Piggy are bathing in the pool. Ralph does not like the gathering clouds or the fact that only he, Piggy, Sam, Eric, and the littluns remain in his group.
Note: The author increases the idea that something terrible is about to happen by having it become stormier and by describing the littluns as playing near the edge to get “comfort from a wetness warmer than blood.”
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Ralph is surprised when he splashes Piggy and Piggy splashes him back angrily. Piggy does not want the good lens of his glasses to get wet.
Ralph is surprised that Piggy is being stronger, and he is surprised when Piggy says they should go to Jack’s feast “to make sure nothing happens.”
Ralph and Piggy do go to the feast where they see boys eating pig meat and drinking water from coconut shells. Jack sits on a log like a king on a throne.
Everyone becomes silent when they see Piggy and Ralph come into Jack’s camp. Piggy is bumped by two boys carrying a big piece of meat by the fire. Piggy is burned and the pain causes him to dance around, and all of the boys laugh. The whole group relaxes.
Jack stands, waves his spear, and tells the boys carrying the meat to give some to Ralph and Piggy. Ralph and Piggy eat.
Jack asks the boys if they have had enough food. No one answers. They just eat faster. Jack orders a boy to bring him some water. Then he orders everyone to sit down.
The boys sit, except for Ralph and Piggy who continue eating. Then Jack asks Ralph’s boys if they will join his tribe.
Jack says he has given the boys food and his hunters can protect them from the beast. Ralph says he is the chief, not Jack. Ralph says it is more important to keep the fire going than to “run after food.”
Jack tells Ralph to look at the bone in his hand. Ralph has chosen to run after food, too. Ralph says he has the conch.
Jack says Ralph left the conch in the shelter area, and the conch does not mean anything at Jack’s end of the island. Thunder booms. Ralph says the conch does control who speaks and leads, and Jack asks Ralph what he is going to do. Ralph is upset and cannot think.
Piggy reminds him to talk about the importance of keeping the signal fire going.
Jack asks the boys who will join his tribe. One by one, boys start saying they will join Jack. Ralph says he will blow the conch and call a meeting.
Jack says no one will come. Piggy tells Ralph that they need to leave because there is going to be trouble.
Ralph does not leave. He tells the boys that a storm is coming. They will need the shelters. Jack responds by getting his spear and telling the boys to do their dance where they act out the killing of a pig.
All of the boys, including Piggy and Ralph, as well as the littluns, join Jack in dancing. No one wants to be by himself in the coming storm. Roger plays the part of the pig.
As the thunder grows louder, so do the boys’ chants: “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” Roger stops pretending to be a pig, and he joins the dance as a hunter. Now the center of the dance circle is empty.
Suddenly, one of the littluns runs forward, screaming. He says a beast is coming out of the forest! It is not a beast. It is Simon who is weak because of his faint, lack of food, the effort of freeing the parachutist’s cords from the rocks, and the long trip down the mountain.
The boys do not recognize him because of the stormy darkness and their own fear and excitement.
Simon is so weak that he can only crawl. He tells the boys about the beast really being a dead parachutist, but the boys hear only the littluns’ screams and their own chant-“Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!”
The “mouth of the… [dance] circle crunched and screamed.” Simon tries to escape the boy’s teeth and fingers as they bite and claw at him. He falls off the rock and ends up on the sand near the water.
The rain comes, hard and fast. The savages leave. Looking back, they see what they had thought was a beast. They see what they have killed.
It is not a beast. It is Simon. His blood stains the sand. The wind blows hard. On the mountain top, the parachute fills with air. The boys see a shadowy beast hitting treetops and coming toward them. The boys run away, screaming.
The parachute carries the man’s body out to sea. Around midnight, the wind and rain stop. Small sea creatures with glowing bodies light up the dark water.
The tide brings the silver creatures and water around Simon’s body. Simon’s hair is “dressed… with brightness.” His cheek becomes silver and “the turn of his shoulder [becomes] sculptured marble.”
The small, glowing sea creatures are funeral “attendants,” and with the help of the moon pulling the tide, they carry Simon’s body out to sea.
Note: To understand symbolism, readers need to read book and chapter titles and look for repeated images. They also need to look up allusions to references to people, places, or events that were famous to the author.
In Chapter 9, the boys’ dance is again a dance of death, but this time the dance takes a human life. When Simon had faced the Lord of the Flies- symbolically, the devil – and his own fear, he fainted and felt as if the pig’s round mouth had swallowed him.
At the end of Chapter 9, a round mouth is made by the boys who dance in a circle around Simon and kill him. Every dance shows the boys becoming more savage. Now, even Ralph and Piggy are killers.
Simon is like Jesus. Simon looked for the truth about the beast and died. Jesus, too, Iooked for truth and died.
Both were killed by humans, not animals. Simon’s body is treated better by the sea creatures than by the boys. Jesus was tortured and killed on a cross by humans.
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