LOTF Critical Scene

A scene that I thought was very important in the Lord of the Flies was pages 176-182 because it is Jack and Ralph's last hoorah. Ralph goes to Castle Rock to confront Jack about stealing Piggy's specs and to tell him that they still need to keep a fire if they hope to be rescued. In these pages you can see the parallels between the two boys and also some key traits in Piggy and Roger. This scene is important to understand because it prefaces Piggy's death and it contributes to why Ralph cries at the end. It is a building block for the rest of the story and sets up the end. This scene is also telling of Roger's character. We knew he was messed up but this scene seals the deal. The whole time Ralph and Jack were fighting, Roger was getting closer and closer to hurting someone. As it says, "'Zup!' Someone was throwing stones: Roger was dropping them, his one hand still on the lever. Below him Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of fat." This tells us that Roger is ready to hurt if not kill someone and is one push away from dropping the boulder on someone.

In the scheme of the whole book, this scene is important for similar reasons. In the end when Ralph breaks down, it is likely a result of not only seeing his friends die but also because he was in total survival mode after this scene at Castle Rock. Also, it shows Piggy's character as the sense of reason in the group, like when he said "Ralph- remember what we came for. The fire. My specs." He always tries to reign the group in and keep them in line, even when they're fighting all around him. Overall, this scene to me, signalled the beginning of the end and was the basically the straw that broke the camel's back. The tribes could no longer work together or coexist. This was when it became war.