Lord of the Flies #2: Chapter 2!

   When starting Chapter 2, Fire on the Mountain, of Lord of the Flies, I had to ask myself what in the world the title meant. My first assumption was right! They built a fire to get the attention of a boat so that they could be saved, but there has to be a deeper meaning, right?
    At the very beginning of the chapter the boys meet to talk about their duties on the island. I think it was very intelligent of them to start to create rules for their make shift society. One problem I see with this is that none of the boys are sticking to the rules. "Why is this?" I ask. Maybe it is because that despite the vote, there isn't actually a true leader; Ralph and Jack kind of are sharing the position. Maybe it is because they are sharing most of the power, the conch, with all of the boys.
   When the "birth-mark" boy mentioned the beastie, I truly got a little bit scared! The presence of the beast presents a ever-present evil on the island. When Golding writes, "the small boy twisted further into himself" Golding may be conveying the idea that there is evil inside each and every one of us. Ralph repeats "there isn't a beastie on this island" five times, trying to prove to the other boys, as well as himself, that there IS NOT an evil on that island. (Foreshadowing anyone?)
   Piggy shows up again and again as the voice of reason. He describes the boys "like a crowd of kids" showing that they maybe should be taking the whole situation more seriously. Piggy's character is kind of annoying me. He is constantly whining that the group should be doing something differently, and he is probably right, but this is no excuse to make everyone in the camp even madder at you! No wonder why you aren't the leader Piggy! Piggy seems to want to be a leader so bad, and he seems to be most fit to be the group leader. Golding really emphasizes the character traits, especially of Piggy. His mood snap at the very end of the chapter is huge foreshadowing for later in the book. I predict that more people's moods will snap as the stress increases.
   The chapter ends in a very sad, destructive note. The boys spend so much time gathering materials for their fire, that when the fire spreads it makes the aftermath that much worse! The fire obviously symbolizes utter destruction. Piggy asks about the "littl’uns." The author shows that they did actually lose boy(s) in the fire. The situation is very sad, but it seems like this is only the beginning of the end for the camp.