Lord Of The Flies Chapter 7 Summary {Step by Step Guide}
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Lord of the Flies Chapter 7 Summary | Shadows and Tall Trees Summary
The boys follow the path the pigs have made. The boys find some banana trees and other fruit and stop to eat. As they eat, Ralph notices how dirty and wild they all are.
He wishes he had soap to wash with, scissors to cut his hair, and a toothbrush. While the others finish eating, Ralph goes down to the rocks by the shore. He looks at the ocean waves.
This side of the island is wilder. The water seems to go on forever because there are no reefs to make a friendly, calm pool like on the other side of the island where they had built their shelters.
As he looks at and listens to the water hitting the shore, Ralph feels that rescue is hopeless. Simon comes up behind Ralph. Simon says, “You’ll get back to where you came from.”
Ralph jokingly asks Simon if he has a ship in his pocket. Although Ralph thinks Simon is crazy for saying what will happen in an unknown future, Ralph does feel better.
Note: It is important to remember that Simon does not say that everyone will get back.
Roger calls Jack and Ralph over to see what he has found. Roger has found fresh pig poop! Jack is also excited. He tells Ralph that they will be able to hunt and get meat.
Ralph says that Jack can lead the hunters since the pig track leads back up the mountain toward the signal fire.
As Jack leads the boys, Ralph walks behind thinking of a house he had lived in before he had been sent away to school. It had been a house on the moors in Devonport, England.
Ralph’s bedroom had been comfortable, safe, and friendly. He had enjoyed reading his favorite books.
Suddenly, Ralph is surprised by the sound of boys screaming and the sound of something running through the bushes. He sees Jack falling and a wild boar (a male pig with two long teeth that curve out of its mouth) running right at him.
Ralph throws his spear (his sharpened stick) and it hits the boar’s nose. The boar cries out, but the spear falls to the ground, and the boar runs away.
Ralph is no longer thinking of his peaceful life in civilized England. Instead, he is proud of trying to kill the boar. When Jack comes back after a failed try to get the wounded boar, Ralph excitedly asks Maurice to tell Jack that Ralph had hit the boar with his spear.
Maurice does tell Jack that Ralph had indeed wounded the boar. The other boys come up, and Ralph is happy to have their respect. Now, Ralph thinks that hunting is good.
Jack shows Ralph and the other boys a wound that he says the boar made with his tusks (long teeth that stick out) on Jack’s left forearm. Simon says Jack should suck the wound “like Berengaria.”
Note: When the author, William Golding, has Simon say. “like Berengaria,” Golding is being a very smart writer. He is making an allusion, a reference to an important, well-known person from history.
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After Jack sucks his wound to clean out any poison, Ralph begins to describe again how he had thrown his spear at the boar.
Robert pretends he is the pig. The boys, including Ralph, start poking Robert with their spears. Robert cries out in real pain, but the boys don’t stop.
Ralph and the others are excited by the sight of their spears hitting Robert’s flesh. They yell about killing the pig. grab Robert by his hair, and Jack pulls out his knife.
After Jack only pretends to kill the pig (Robert), the boys rest. Jack says their game of pretending to kill the pig as played by Robert had been fun.
Robert stops crying, rubs his bottom, and pretends to agree. Ralph is uncomfortable, but he agrees that the game had been fun.
Maurice says the game would be better if they had a drum. Roger says it would be better if they had a real pig, but Jack says someone can pretend to be a pig.
Robert disagrees and says they need a real pig because the boys want to kill. Jack says they could use a littlun, and everyone laughs.
Note: The violence is increasing. Now, even Ralph is becoming uncivilized. The boys can even laugh at the idea of killing a small child.
Ralph tells Jack they now must go to the mountain to find the beast, but Maurice and the twins say they should all go back to Piggy and the littluns before dark.
Maurice is worried about the beast, but Jack says if they do find the beast, they will kill it. After Robert falls and cuts his knee, and the path toward the mountain top has become very difficult, Ralph has everyone stop.
The sun is lower in the sky, and Ralph thinks he should send someone across the island to help Piggy. Jack does not like the way Ralph always protects Piggy, but Simon says he will go to Piggy.
Everyone is surprised that Simon would be willing to go alone across the island, through the forest, and through darkening skies. Ralph thinks he needs everyone else in case they do have to kill a beast, so he lets Simon go.
Later, Jack still wants to go to the mountain top. Ralph thinks it is now too late. They won’t be able to do anything in the dark. Jack says he is not afraid to go; he will go by himself.
He makes fun of Ralph, and he says Ralph just wants to go back to Piggy. Ralph asks Jack, “Why do you hate me?” The other boys hear Ralph’s question, and they are uncomfortable. Jack does not answer.
Eventually, it is decided that Ralph and Jack will go to the mountain top. When Ralph says that two are not enough, Roger says he will go up to the mountain top with Jack and Ralph.
As Jack, Ralph, and Roger climb up the mountain, they begin to cough. Ralph realizes that they are passing through the burn area that resulted from the time they had let the signal fire get out of control. Some ashes are sticking to their feet while other ashes are rising in the air, making them cough.
Ralph stops in the darkness. After an argument about going farther or returning in the morning, Jack goes on alone. Jack had tried to shame Ralph into going farther by asking Ralph if he was afraid, but that did not work.
Ralph thinks they need to be able to see better to find out if there is really a beast. Ralph and Roger sit on a partially burned log and wait for Jack to return from the mountain top.
Jack comes back from the mountain top. Jack is shivering with fear and can barely talk. He says he saw something “bulging” and making noise.
Roger says the only thing he can think of that bulges would be a frog. Jack knows it had not been a frog. Ralph had felt that the climb up in the darkness had been as bad as going to a dentist, but he decides that he wants to learn what is on the mountain top.
He surprises Jack by saying that they should now all go to the mountain top. When they reach the mountain top, they all see what Sam and Eric had seen – a dark shadow.
With the moonlight, they see a ruined face that comes up as the wind blows on the parachute. They do not, in the dark, recognize that the face belongs to a dead man.
They just see ahead that moves up and down. They feel great fear, and they run down the mountain, leaving their three sharpened sticks behind.
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