LOTF Chapter 4 - Painted Faces and Long Hair

Lord of the Flies
Chapter 4 - Painted Faces and Long Hair
"The Middle of the Mess"
Perspective: Simon

1 - One of the things that I think is the hardest to adjust to, is providing my own food. My whole life I never had to hunt, or scavenge for food. It had always been put right there on my plate, and my plate right there in front of me on the table. It is very weird having to feed myself and it’s just taking a lot longer to adjust to than I’d thought.

2 - I think that the littluns are not acting as they should. They just play on the beach BLATANT and in the water, look for berries, and mess around all day. They need to begin maturing, at least to the older boy’s age. They need to help with all of the work and jobs we have on this island.

3 - All the littluns do is play in the sand and do nothing at all that has to do with work. As long as they’re playing they’re fine, but to us it’s not fine. We need help hunting, keeping the fire running, building the huts. We need help.

4 - We paint our faces so that the pigs and animals don’t see us through the bushes. We paint our faces to camouflage our faces with the forest.

5 - This foreshadows us being better hunters and a better army. I believe that we will become savages and already are, but the face paint is not only going to disguise from animals and each other, but will disguise the island from all others. The face paint is going to make this island disguised and IMPALPABLE from any other human beings.

6 - I do not paint my face, because I stay on the beach with Ralph and Piggy and help build the huts and relax on the beach.

7 - As Ralph, Piggy, and I are sitting on the beach, Ralph stands up saying that he sees smoke on the horizon. Instantly we run up the mountain to check our smoke signal. As we are running, Jack yells MALEVOLENTLY. We get to the top and see that the fire was out. The fire was Jacks job and the one time we needed it, he lets it burn out. There is no BALM this time for Ralph’s pain of failure as chief.

8 - The fire went out because Jack pulled his fire guards away from the fire to hunt. This allowed the fire to go out when most needed. As Ralph yelled at Jack, Jack’s BELLIGERENCE keeps him from understanding what has just happened all because of him.

9 - Overall everyone is wound up, wanting meat, wanting shelter, and wanting to be rescued. We are scared, always wondering about tomorrow. Everybody is acting very immature and not acting like adults how they should be.

10 - I think that Jack and Ralph are going to end up splitting up. They have not been getting along very well and I think that we are going to split in to two different groups. I’m kind of the middle man, in the middle of all the mess. I am leaning towards Ralph’s side, mainly because he has better ideas of what to do and how to survive, while Jack’s priorities are hunting and meat.