Chapter 2: Fire on the Mountain

Lord of the Flies

Chapter 2: Fire on the Mountain

The Beastie

Perspective: Jack

I need to get Ralph to seem like I am on his side, and I also need to win over the kids somehow, and scaring them with this “Beastie” thing that that kid with the maroon mark on his face said he saw could be my golden ticket. Ralph doesn’t want to have to deal with the hysteria that this beastie could cause, and I said that the hunters and I would look for it, and this island is great for that kind of scaring thing, because he says that it was a snake, and when the sun shone on it, it transformed into creepers! If I induced the kids into thinking that it was real, and that Ralph was trying to hide it from them, then I could be leader! Ralph was trying to get the kids to forget, so he decided to put their minds on being rescued, and personally, I’d rather be the leader on this island and die here than be rescued, but he told them we would have to build a signal fire on top of the mountain. The errant kids started their way up to the mountain, and I realized that this was my chance to strike, “Come on!” I cried, and Ralph tried to call them back, but all of them were too officious to respond.

We raced to the top of the mountain, and Ralph caught up with us, and spotted some rotting, dry wood, and we started to build the fire and when we finished, the dreadful truth appeared, we didn’t have anything to light it with. In the nick of time Piggy walked into sight and then we realized we could use his specs to burn the dry wood and we took them, we burned a dead leaf, and the smoke rose and soon the fire was yellow with ebullience, and everyone was capering around it, and Piggy was upset, he was the one with the conch, and he was trying to say something and no one was listening. He lost his temper; I told him that the conch didn’t count up here on the mountain. And he asked Ralph, and he says that where ever the conch was, there was a meeting, and that right now, Piggy had the conch. I couldn’t disagree; I need to be on his good side if my plan is to work. All the sudden the fire died and the logs fell, Piggy said, “you got your small fire alright.” We realized the forests below were on fire as well as ours, when the logs fell, they caught other trees on fire, the other kids were in awe at the power that they had unleashed upon the island, and Ralph was glad everyone was on the mountain. Piggy’s argument became a recrimination, where was the kid with the maroon birthmark? Ralph’s face became one of martyred. There must be loss in order to gain, and I was probably the only kid on the island who had that feeling. As I went to bed that night, I thought that every day was one step closer to ruling the island.