Chapter Four

Painted Faces and Long Hair (Pages 60-80)

Plot
Life on the island develops a daily rhythm, in the mornings it's cool but in the afternoons it becomes oppressively hot, making the boys see strange images on the water, but Piggy dismisses these images as mirages caused by sunlight striking the water. Night time is frightening and difficult.

Talks of the 'Beastie' still linger and the large amout of fruit give the boys stomach aches. Although the littluns’ lives are largely separate from those of the older boys, there are a few instances when the older boys torment the littluns. One vicious boy named Roger joins another boy, Maurice, in cruelly stomping on a sand castle the littluns have built.

Jack, obsessed with the idea of killing a pig, camouflages his face with clay and charcoal and enters the jungle to hunt, accompanied by several other boys. On the beach, Ralph and Piggy see a ship on the horizon—but they also see that the signal fire has gone out. They hurry to the top of the hill, but it is too late to rekindle the flame, and the ship does not come for them. Ralph is furious with Jack, because it was the hunters’ responsibility to see that the fire was maintained.

Jack and the hunters return from the jungle, covered with blood and chanting a bizarre song. They carry a dead pig on a stake between them and Ralph finds this extremely irrerponsible. W hen Piggy shrilly complains about the hunters’ immaturity, Jack slaps him hard, breaking one of the lenses of his glasses. R alph and Jack have a heated conversation. At last, Jack admits his responsibility in the failure of the signal fire but never apologizes to Piggy. The group eats the pig and dances round the fire in celebration of finally gettin some meat, reenacting the savage killing.

Roger
Maurice