CHAPTER EIGHT

At dawn, shaken by the mountain encounter, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack argue over the “beast.” Jack blows the conch, declares Ralph unfit, and calls a vote to unseat him. No hands rise, and, humiliated, Jack quits the group to form his own tribe. Simon tentatively suggests climbing the mountain; Piggy instead proposes moving the signal fire to the beach.

Ralph’s diminished group builds a new fire by the platform. They struggle with damp wood but manage smoke, and Piggy’s confidence grows in Jack’s absence. Ralph realizes many biguns have drifted off, likely to Jack. They share fruit in a small “feast,” while Simon slips away into the forest.

Jack gathers followers, proclaims himself chief, and leads a hunt. Tracking a sow, the painted hunters pursue and kill her with savage frenzy. Jack orders a “gift” for the beast: the sow’s head on a sharpened stake. He plans to raid Ralph’s group for fire and to hold a meat feast to lure more boys to his tribe.

Simon, alone in his hidden place, confronts the spiked sow’s head, which he perceives as the Lord of the Flies. In a feverish vision, the head “speaks,” mocking him and revealing that the beast is part of the boys themselves. Overwhelmed, Simon collapses.

Back on the beach, Jack’s painted raiders burst from the forest, seize burning branches, and proclaim their new camp and a feast of meat. Ralph tries to refocus his group on rescue and the necessity of smoke, but hunger and fear pull at the boys as thunder gathers overhead.