Lord of the Flies, Chapter 5

Key Characters

• Ralph:  Here, we see the DYNAMIC aspect of Ralph's character.  He started off relatively carefree.  However, with the weight of responsibility, he has begun to grow up and think more logically.  Ralph knows that the boys are on the edge of chaos and that he must have a stern meeting to bring them back to a civil lifestyle.  Unfortunately, he is unsuccessful.  In fact, at the end of the chapter, he almost decides to give up being the chief.  However, Piggy and Simon convince him otherwise.

Key Things and Moments

• The Meeting:  Ralph knows that this meeting will be extremely important--that he needs to reign in the boys and make them understand that they need to follow the rules to survive.  He brings up 4 major points:

1. The boys need to follow through with their promises (keeping coconuts full of fresh water, actually helping to build the shelters)
2. The boys should not just "do their business" anywhere they please, they should go to the bathroom at the rocks by the bathing pool.
3. They must work together to keep the rescue fire going.  The fire should only be located on the mountain (no one is allowed to make small cooking fires).
4. The Beast: Ralph feels like the boys really need to talk through this:  what are they afraid of?  What do they think the "beast" is?  Ralph hopes that talking about it will cure the boys' irrational fear.  

Unfortunately, the meeting ends in chaos, with Jack saying "Who cares" about the rules (91).  Ralph has failed in his attempt to have an orderly and meaningful meeting.

• The Beast:  At the meeting (as mentioned above) Ralph brings up the idea of the Beast.  We hear some interesting ideas from the characters that foreshadow later events:
• Piggy says the beast or "fear" could be of "other people," (84).  The boys laugh at this idea, but Golding puts this detail in for a reason!
• Simon furthers Piggy's point by saying that maybe the beast is "only us," (89).
• Ralph still wants to believe that there IS no beast:  he truly wants to believe that we are inherently good.
• The other boys all seem, now, to think that the beast is, in fact, a ghost.