Lord of the Flies outline

Chapter by Chapter outline of the plot of Lord of the Flies

?

Chapter 1- The Sound of the Shell

The Boys arrive at the Island after their plane crashes.

We meet first Ralph, a charismatic confident posh boy.

Then we meet Piggy, a fat asmatic lower class boy with a cokney type accent.

The boys play around in the water and find a conch (large shell).

Piggy encourages Ralph to blow on it to make everyone on the Island come to them for a meeting. Piggy likes order and system.

People start trickling in and soon there is a large group of school boys from the plane crash, including a choir lead by the strict controller Jack Merridew.

The boys decided to vote Ralph as the leader and Jack and the choir are pronounced the hunters.

Ralph, Jack and Simon decide to go esploring to see if the Island is infact an Island.

When exploring they find that it is a beautiful place. However, they start destroying it by pushing stones over etc.

After exploring, the boys return but on their journey, they come across a piglet. Jack tries to kill it but can't do it. He promises/ensures that next time he will do it.

1 of 12

Chapter 2- Fire on the Mountain

A meeting is called and Ralph reports to everyone that it is indeed an Island and that there are pigs. Jack becomes violent at the thought of people not believing that he would kill the pig.

Ralph establishes a society of order with rules such as no talking in the meetings without the conch.

A small boy, a littlun, speaks up asking about the beastie, or the snake-like thing. The older boys dismiss any rumours of a beast.

Everyone decides that there should be a large fire built so that any passing ship can see them on the Island and rescue them. They decide on the top of the mountain

They get very excited and build a large pill of wood for them to set fire to, despite saying that it would be a small fire. They then realise that none of them know how to start a fire.

Piggy clambers up the mountain to meet them and Jack steals his glasses to start the fire using the sun.

The boys return to the beach to see that the fire was too big and was spreading.

They then realised that the small boy who spoke about the 'beastie' is missing, probably burnt to death.

Piggy chastises them for this but isn't listened to by them.

2 of 12

Chapter 3- Huts on the Beach

It starts with Jack out hunting. He tries to kill a pig but it runs off before he can kill it.

Ralph and Simon are the only people still building the shelters and their latest attempt was almost garunteed not to withstand wind and rain.

Ralph complians to Jack that no one is helping out and just swimming.

The boys then go onto the topic of what the littluns are scared of. They all dismiss any sort of creature's existence.

They then think about the haunting feeling that they get in the forest, as if someone or something was following them.

They quickly choose to ignore this and focus on the hope of being rescued. Ralph complains that there isn't much smoke, Jack completely ignores him and talks about pigs.

Tension starts rising over a difference in priorities between Jack and Ralph.

Simon leaves during this confrontation and finds a safe haven in a clearing in the forest.

3 of 12

Chapter 4- Painted Faces and Long Hair

Some of the littluns are playing in the sand when Roger and Maurice come from fire duty and start kicking sandcastles over. Some sand went into a littluns eye and Maurice remembered the adult world and its manners.

Jack then appears to Roger showing him the new plan to disguise himself in the forest by painting his face.

Piggy and Raoph are at the pool, Piggy suggests getting a clock (sundial). Ralph dismisses the idea and Piggy in general but enjoys teasing him.

Ralph spots a ship but to his horror, the fire has been neglected and is going out. The ship passes the Island.

After this, Jack returns to the camp with his hunters after a successful kill. They are chanting and are wearing very little. Ralph isn't bothered about Jack's kill but is furious that the fire went out.

Ralph and Piggy chastise Jack over his lack of duty to the Island. They don't congratulate him on his kill.

Jack, clearly annoyed at this lack of recognition, lashes out at Piggy and punches him. One of Piggy's lenses are broken for his glasses.

The boys start to re-build the fire and they cook the pig from Jack's kill. He forces them all to eat it.

The boys who hunted with Jack then start acting out a strange ritual dance for the killing. Ralph calls a meeting.

4 of 12

Chapter 5- Beast from Water

It starts as an assembely. Jack identifies that the main problem is that no ideas are followed through, such as the huts not being built or the fire.

The subject of the beast is then brought up. Jack says that the littluns are stupid for believing in it, Ralph says that they need to adress the fear.

Jack says that he has been all over the Island and so he would know if there was a beast on it.

Piggy proposes that the beast is just humanity, he is laughed off.

A littlun, called Phil, then gives an account of a nightmare and then something moving in the woods when he woke up. It was later established that this was just Simon going into the woods.

Another littlun says that he thinks that Beast comes from the sea. After debate around this theory, people suggest that the Beast is a ghost.

Jack becomes defiant of Ralph's rule and a dabate as to who should be chief arises. Jack and most of the others then leave the assembely.

Ralph, Piggy and Simon are left. Piggy tells Ralph that he is scared of Jack. Piggy and Simon convince Ralph to not resign as Chief and to keep fighting of Jack.

The boys remenice of the time of adults when there was always an authority. They long for their parents.

5 of 12

Chapter 6- Beast from Air

There's an air battle above the Island during the nigiht. None of the boys wake up so they are oblivious to it. One of the pilots is killed and his body is parachuted down and caught in a tree in the forest.

Sam and Eric, looking after the fire, wake up and see the parachutist's body. They get scared, thinking that its the beast.

They go to Ralph saying that they saw the beast.

Ralph decides to call a meeting. The twins tell a dramatised version of their meeting the beast with extra details, such as his fur and teeth.

Jack tries to convince people to go hunting for the Beast. During the debate over this, Jack critices the conch.

Ralph is angered by Jack's defiance and sends Jack on an exploring mission to see if the Beast can be found.

On the journey, Jack and Ralph's friendship starts to rekindle. The other boys get lost in the fun of the new space. Ralph gets annoyed at this and reminds them of their purpose for going up the hill.

They decide to return to the mountain to maintain the fire.

6 of 12

Chapter 7- Shadows and Tall Trees

This starts with Ralph pondering whilst en route to the mountain. He thinks sadly about all the boy's decent into chaos. Simon reassures him that they will be home soon.

Later, the boys go on a hunt after finding pig droppings. Ralph scrapes the pig with his spear and Jack gets poorly injured.

The group reenact their great hunt in triumph with Robert playing the boar.

The boys soon forget in their ritual what is real and what isn't and Robert is nearly killed.

After this, Jack, Ralph and Roger go up the mountain to hunt for the Beast. They all see the parachutist and think it is the Beast, as the twins did.

They rush down to tell everyone.

7 of 12

Chapter 8- Gift for the Darkness

Jack calls a meeting without Ralph's permission. He talks about the Beast and says that Ralph should be voted out of power as he is a coward.

Very few vote Ralph out and so the enraged Jack leaves taking anyone who was willing to go.

Ralph gets agitated over this. Simon suggests trying to find the Beast but no one agrees to. Piggy cheers Ralph up with the idea of buillding a new signal fire on the beach.

As they begin to build the fire, many people sneak off to join Jack. Piggy comforts Ralph through this as well.

In Jack's group, he announces himself as the chief and they go on a hunt, leaving a dead pig's head in the middle of the forest clearing.

During the night, Jack's tribe sneak up on the beach lot and steal their fire. Jack offers food to whoever wants it, if they come to him.

Simon also sneaks off into his private clearing. However, instead of finding just nature, Simon finds the decapitated pigs head from Jack's hunt.

The head has flies swarming around it and Simon, who is mesmerised by it names it the 'Lord of the Flies'. He talks to Simon in his head.

8 of 12

Chapter 9- A View to a Death

Simon finds the parachutist's body in the tree and realises that it must have been what all the boys were seeing as the Beast. He untangles it, wanting to take it off and show it it people.

Ralph and Piggy (and the others) go to Jack's meal in the hope to control some things. However, many people join Jack's tribe.

Jack starts a hunting dance and Ralph and Piggy get swept up in it.

Simon appears from the woods but in their frenzie, the people don't recognise him and think he is the Beast.

The boys tear Simon apart with their bare hands. A storm then comes and the boys all rush for shelter.

9 of 12

Chapter 10- The Shell and the Glasses

The next moring and Ralph and Piggy are deeply ashamed of what they have done. Piggy tries to ignore it and Ralph laughs it off hysterically.

At Jack's camp, Jack rules as a totaltarian. He advices the boys against Ralph's group and convinces everyone that Simon was indeed the Beast but the Beast will never die so they must keep hunting.

He then asks Maurice and Roger to steal fire from Jack's camp.

Ralph is sleeping poorly when boys from Jack's tribe attack them. Ralph is badly hurt and the others are confused as to why they were attacked as they would have given the fire away happily.

Piggy works it out as his glasses are stolen which means they have no way of making fire anymore.

10 of 12

Chapter 11- Castle Rock

After failed attempts to make fire, the boys decide to go to Jack's Camp and try and make them see sense.

Ralph isn't welcomed at the camp and the guards throw stones, aiming to miss.

Jack then arrives and has a fight with Ralph. Ralph tries to make Jack understand the importance of the signal fire and Jack captures the twins. They then have a second fight.

During this, Piggy is holding the conch and is off to the side. Roger then pushes a rock off the mountain side. Ralph dodges it but Piggy is knocked by it.

Piggy drops the conch, shattering it, and then falls off the mountain to his death.

Ralph is then attacked by Jack and the others and the twins are forced to join Jack's tribe.

11 of 12

Chapter 12- Cry of the Hunters

Ralph runs into the forest to hide. He finds the Lord of the Flies (the pig's head) but in disgust, kicks it over.

He then returns to Jack's tribe to see the twins guarding the door. They tell him of Jack's plans to send everyone out to kill Ralph.

Ralph falls asleep in a thicket. Here, people try to attack him but he fends them of. He then realises that the forest has been set fire to by Jack and runs away, getting to the beach eventually.

Ralph then meets a naval officer who saw the forest burning and came to save them. He thinks that the boys have been up to 'fun and games'.

However, when learning about what really happened, he is shocked.

When the boys start crying, the officer turns his back so the they can compose themselves again.

'Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy.'

12 of 12

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar English Literature resources:

See all English Literature resources »See all Lord of the Flies resources »