In Chapter Four of Lord of the Flies,
this question of Piggy's comes after pivotal action in the plot of Golding's narrative.
For, while Jack and the older boys hunt for a pig, a ship has passed without knowing
anyone is on the island because the signal fire has gone out. Enraged at the careless
irresponsibility of the boys, Ralph accuses Jack with costing their rescue because he
took them from their task of building the fire. And, when Piggy joins in the scolding,
the "wails of agreement from some of the hunters, drove Jack to violence"; he smack's
Piggy's head, knocking off his glasses and breaking one of the
lenses.
Piggy
grabbed and put on the glasses. He looked malevolently at
Jack.
Already appearing in a
bad light with the others for allowing the fire to go out, Jack is further humiliated
when Ralph tells him that knocking over Piggy is "a dirty
trick."
So
Ralph asserted his chieftainship....Jack was powerless and raged without knowing
why.
In an act of defiance,
when the boys go to relight the fire, Jack goes to Piggy and takes the glasses from
him:
Not even
Ralph knew how a link between him and Jack had been snapped and fastened
elsewhere.
This newly created
division between Ralph and Piggy and Jack is reflected in Jack's telling Piggy that he
cannot have any meat. Golding writes that Jack neglects to give Piggy meat just to
leave him in doubt until Piggy asks and makes his omission
public:
Jack
had meant to leave him in doubt, as an assertion of power;
but Piggy by advertising his omission made more cruelty
necessary.....Numberless and inexpressible frustrations combined to make
his rage elemental and
awe-inspiring.
It is in his
actions towards Piggy that the reader discerns Jack emergence as a savage force in
conflict with the rational Piggy who in his
response explains to Jack why he wants meat: "There isn't more than a
ha'porth of meat in a
crab."
Significantly, Piggy and Ralph will soon only have
a "ha'porth," half portion of the leadership on the island. Unwittingly, then, Piggy
has established his position of the island with his own response. This question, "What
is Piggy's response when Jack tells him, 'You didn't hunt'? is, indeed, intrinsic to the
understanding of the novel's theme and characters as suggested by chocolate 975's tags
below the
post.
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