Lord of the Flies: Chapter 5 - Beast from the Water

The tide was coming in and there was only a narrow strip of firm beach between the water and the white, stumbling stuff near the palm terrace.

The tide was coming in and there was only a narrow strip of firm beach between the water and the white, stumbling stuff near the palm terrace.

Suddenly, pacing by the water, he was overcome with astonishment.

He found himself understanding the wearisomeness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one’s waking life was spent watching one’s feet.

The time had come for the assembly and as he walked into the concealing splendors of the sunlight he went carefully over the points of his speech.

This palm trunk lay parallel to the beach, so that when Ralph sat he faced the island but to the boys was a darkish figure against the shimmer of the lagoon.

“I got the conch!” said Piggy indignantly.

The littluns began to jabber among themselves, then one stood forward.

He paused, half-frightened by the recollection yet proud of the sensation he was creating.

Jack settled the question for them with that contempt in his voice that could sound so funny and so final.

With a feeling of humiliation on Simon’s behalf, Ralph took back the conch, looking Simon sternly in the face as he did so.

“Well, don’t do it again. Understand? Not at night. There’s enough silly talk about beasts, without the littluns seeing you gliding about like a—” The derisive laughter that rose had fear in it and condemnation.

But that time Piggy had coaxed and bullied.

Tormented by the silence and the refusal the assembly broke into a chant.

At first he was a silent effigy of sorrow; but then the lamentation rose out of him, loud and sustained as the conch.

Ralph held out the glimmering conch and Maurice took it obediently.

The meeting subsided.Home

In a moment the platform was full of arguing, gesticulating shadows.

Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness.

“Very well then. I suppose what’s what is whether there are ghosts or not—” He thought for a moment, formulating the question.

A shadow fronted him tempestuously.

The sound of mock hunting, hysterical laughter and real terror came from the beach.

The dispersed figures had come together on the sand and were a denseHome Page Title Page Contents JJ II J I Page 131 of 290 Go Back Full Screen Close Quit black mass that revolved.

They were chanting something and littluns that had had enough were staggering away, howling.

“They ain’t afraid of the dark. They’d meet and have tea and discuss. Then things ’ud be all right—” “They wouldn’t set fire to the island. Or lose—” “They’d build a ship—” The three boys stood in the darkness, striving unsuccessfully to convey the majesty of adult life.

Percival Wemys Madison, of the Vicarage,Home Page Title Page Contents JJ II J I Page 134 of 290 Go Back Full Screen Close Quit Harcourt St. Anthony, lying in the long grass, was living through circumstances in which the incantation of his address was powerless to help him.