Merridew's Savagery

In the beginning of the story, a number of the boys began to display their first signs of savagery by having a constant hunger for killing pigs. Even though killing pigs was clearly necessary for survival, the boys who hunted, especially power-hungry Jack Merridew, started going a bit too far when it came to hunting them. He started coming up with various chants and songs about blood and murder during his hunts. Even though he was referring to pigs, the song still conveyed the meaning that he was well on his way towards his descent to madness because of his constant description of death and blood:”Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!...Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!” (115, 153) During their first

The change from “pig” to “beast” happens right before the boys “lept on the beast [Simon] screamed, struck, bit, tore” (153) leading to his eventual murder. This signifies that a majority of the boys have indeed become savages for in their eyes, Simon was a beast, as signified in their chant. Simon was considered a beast at the moment for the song truly riled up the group to the point where they lost all their prior humanity and attacked whatever was looked upon as a beast, in this case Simon, who was struggling out of the jungle. Also in the song, the boys say “do him in”, adding to the fact that they see the beast as a person, not a thing, therefore, they become a danger for each other, contributing to their savagery. The original “person” to say the phrase, “do you in” was in fact, the rotten pig head, also known as lord of the flies, that Simon saw in the jungle. The author used foreshadowing to depict that the group would kill Simon, giving clues of the savagery that awaited later in the story as a result. All in all, the progression of killing the pig and the pig chant plays an important role in exemplifying their decline in