Chap­ter 7: In Lord of the Flies, Chap­ter 7, Ralph fol­lows Jack through a nar­row pig-run, trac­ing the rocky coast­line as the after­noon heat bears down on them. Ralph, uncom­fort­able and dirty from the harsh envi­ron­ment, reflects on how much he has changed since being strand­ed on the island. The dis­com­fort of the heat and the grime on his body serve as a reminder of how far the boys have strayed from their pre­vi­ous lives. The famil­iar­i­ty of these con­di­tions has led him to accept the filth as a new nor­mal, which is evi­dent as he looks at the oth­ers around him. Look­ing out towards the sea, Ralph expe­ri­ences a deep sense of iso­la­tion, con­trast­ed sharply with the mem­o­ries of home—a place filled with com­fort and safe­ty, now a dis­tant and unreach­able con­cept.

Ralph is abrupt­ly drawn from his thoughts when Simon approach­es, offer­ing some com­fort by speak­ing of the pos­si­bil­i­ty of return­ing home. Ralph, how­ev­er, dis­miss­es Simon’s words with sar­casm, stat­ing that he doesn’t believe in the hope of ships com­ing. Despite this, Simon’s words cre­ate a brief moment of con­nec­tion between the two, where they exchange a smile, rec­og­niz­ing that, despite the chaos sur­round­ing them, there is still some mutu­al under­stand­ing. As Ralph and Simon share this moment, Jack, still fix­at­ed on the hunt, leads the group to fresh pig drop­pings, stir­ring their excite­ment and deter­mi­na­tion. The hunt is no longer just about sur­vival but about the pri­mal urge to dom­i­nate and over­come the fear of the unknown, rep­re­sent­ed by the elu­sive pig they are chas­ing.

Jack­’s influ­ence grows stronger as he leads the hunt with increas­ing con­fi­dence, while Ralph remains dis­tract­ed by thoughts of his past, now seem­ing far away. These mem­o­ries of warmth and safe­ty feel unreach­able, as the group’s behav­ior becomes more chaot­ic and dis­con­nect­ed from the civ­i­lized world they once knew. The mood of the group shifts from a sim­ple hunt­ing mis­sion to an intense chase after a wild boar. Ralph, caught up in the thrill, suc­cess­ful­ly strikes the boar with a spear, feel­ing a mix of pride and fear. The boys’ reac­tions to the kill stir both exhil­a­ra­tion and dis­com­fort, and Ralph grap­ples with the real­iza­tion that their play­ful activ­i­ties have begun to turn dark­er. Their descent into sav­agery is marked by their vio­lent behav­ior, as they cel­e­brate the hunt and the fear that dri­ves them to kill.

As the group con­tin­ues to engage in their hunt­ing rit­u­als, the lines between play and real vio­lence blur. In a dis­turb­ing moment of mim­ic­ry, Ralph and the oth­ers near­ly injure Robert, show­cas­ing how eas­i­ly their play­ful behav­ior trans­forms into gen­uine aggres­sion. Though Ralph feels uneasy about the grow­ing vio­lence, he can­not resist the rush of excite­ment and adren­a­line that surges through the group. The boys, who once played togeth­er inno­cent­ly, now embrace their sav­agery with increas­ing fer­vor, leav­ing their for­mer iden­ti­ties and inno­cence behind. The thrill of the hunt and the chaot­ic ener­gy of the group become the dri­ving forces, over­whelm­ing any sense of remorse or hes­i­ta­tion Ralph may have had. The once-clear divi­sion between right and wrong becomes cloud­ed, and Ralph finds him­self strug­gling to hold onto the rem­nants of the civ­i­liza­tion he once believed in.

Lat­er, as the boys pre­pare to climb the moun­tain to search for the so-called beast, the ten­sion between Ralph and Jack becomes more appar­ent. Fear grips the group as they set out, but Jack’s chal­lenge to Ralph’s lead­er­ship brings their rival­ry to a boil­ing point. Ralph, still cling­ing to the hope of being res­cued and return­ing to civ­i­liza­tion, feels the weight of their cur­rent sit­u­a­tion. Jack, on the oth­er hand, embraces the sav­agery and pow­er he has gained over the group. As the boys ascend the moun­tain, the dark­ness of the night mir­rors the grow­ing uncer­tain­ty and fear with­in Ralph. The moun­tain climb rep­re­sents not just their search for the beast but also Ralph’s inter­nal strug­gle between main­tain­ing his lead­er­ship and accept­ing the bru­tal real­i­ty of their cir­cum­stances. The chap­ter con­cludes with the boys con­fronting the unknown, both the phys­i­cal dan­gers on the island and the emo­tion­al tur­moil each one is fac­ing. The divi­sion between Ralph’s dwin­dling hope for res­cue and Jack’s com­plete sur­ren­der to sav­agery becomes the cen­tral theme of this chap­ter.