In Chapter 8 of Lord of the Flies, as
Jack challenges Ralph's leadership, he asks the boys to vote against Ralph. But "the
silence continued, breathless and heavy and full of
shame."
In answer to this uncomfortable silence, Jack says,
"all right then." He lays the conch down as "humiliating tears run down his
cheek":
'I'm
not going to play any longer. Not with you....I'm not going to be a part of Ralph's
lot--....I'm going off by
myself.
As he blunders out of
the triangle, Jack turns and glances back at Ralph:
readability="7">
For a moment he paused and then cried out,
high-pitched, enraged.
"--No!"
Jack
recalls the first time he contended for leadership. In Chapter 1 as he and the choir
marched up to where Piggy and Ralph were standing with the conch, Jack challenged Ralph
then for the position of leader:
readability="7">
'Who wants Jack for
chief?'
With dreary obedience the choir raised their
hands.
'Who want me?"
[Ralph]
Every hand outside
the choir except Piggy's was raised immediately. Then, Piggy, too, raised his hand
grudgingly into the air.
readability="5">
....Jack's face disappeared uder a blush of
mortification.
Jack's scream
of "--No!" is denial that he will be humiliated again. Instead Jack runs, returning to
the hunters over whom he becomes chief of the hunters.
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