46 pages • 1 hour read
William GoldingLord of the Flies
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1954A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary: “Cry of the Hunters”
After fleeing the hunters, Ralph hides in the bushes not far from Castle Rock. When night falls, he climbs up the cliff to where Sam and Eric are on watch and tries to reason with them. He says he only wanted to be rescued. Sam and Eric tell him he needs to leave. They say the hunters will be coming after him in the morning. He wakes to the sound of their calls and hides in a thicket, but Sam and Eric tell Jack where Ralph said he would be hiding. Jack has the other boys push great rocks down on the thicket, then start a fire to smoke Ralph out. Ralph flees, stabbing one of the hunters on his way. He runs to the far end of the island, then doubles back when the pursuit comes close. The whole island is on fire now. Ralph hides again, but Roger finds him, and Ralph stabs Roger, fleeing all the way down to the beach, where he looks up to see a naval officer standing on the beach. After hearing some of the story, the officer says he will rescue them.
Chapter 12 Analysis
The fire on the island symbolizes the war. The hunters—everyone but Ralph—has descended into savagery. They have become a military, and their warlike ways burn the island, much the way the world they left behind became consumed by atomic war. Ralph symbolizes the futility of government and the helpless attempts at order and civility in an increasingly savage world. The two smartest of the bunch, Piggy and Simon, are dead. Their deathsindicate that intelligence leads nowhere because in a savage world, only the strong survives. When the military officer shows up, he seems to understand instinctively what has happened, perhaps because he has seen it before in “Coral Island” (202) or perhaps because he knows war. In contrast to the boys, the officer wears an impeccable uniform. He stands dignified, even embarrassed by their show of emotion. Fundamentally, the officeris no better than the boys because behind him, his ship is heavily armed with machine guns. He will lead the boys back into the world war. While the marooned boys have been “playing” (178) war, the officer is a part of a civilization where a real war is destroying the world, just as the boys have destroyed the island.
