Lord of the Flies: Chapter 6

"Frightened?"

"Course I'm frightened. Who wouldn't be?"

In this chapter, I think we see the boys' characters revealed even more. Sam and Eric see a beast -- who is really just a crashed parachuter -- and the older boys instantly take off on a hunt to a part of the island they've never explored. Of course, they find nothing because they weren't looking in the right place, but what I find really interesting about this chapter is the different reactions to the twins' story. 

Piggy is frightened and doesn't want to go hunting for it, and instead stays back with the younger boys, even though he's still afraid that the beast will attack them while the others are gone. This makes sense -- since the beginning of the book, he's been the one who tries to be sensible and doesn't want to rashly throw himself into things with reckless abandon. Jack is more than happy to go on another hunt, and he even makes a few sneering comments at the others who don't seem as excited. This also makes sense -- Jack is never mentioned without talking about hunting or playing tricks or being rude to another person. Ralph, however, is the person who has constantly been surprising me. He's the one who agrees to the hunt, but he doesn't rush into things like Jack; instead, he tries to be sensible about the situation and talks about lighting the fire again so they can be rescued. At the beginning of the book, he didn't seem so keen on making thought-out decisions, but as time passes, I'm beginning to see that he's growing into his role of chief properly rather than just wanting to tell everyone what to do.

I didn't like Ralph at the beginning of the story because he wasn't interesting, but now he's growing on me -- I can see that he's taking a page out of Piggy's book and trying to think about what would be best for the entire group rather than just for himself, as well as thinking about the consequences of his decisions rather than doing whatever he wants like Jack does.

The line that I think best shows this character development is when Ralph first calls for a hunt. He and Jack are talking, and this is the exchange:

"This'll be a real hunt! Who'll come?"

Ralph moved impatiently.

"These spears are made of wood. Don't be silly."

Jack sneered at him.

"Frightened?"

"Course I'm frightened. Who wouldn't be?"

Jack only cares about hunting and proving himself as worthy of being a leader. He wants to be seen as fearless and strong and courageous -- but Ralph is no longer afraid of being seen as frightened or weak at times. I think a good leader is often frightened of things they ought to be frightened of: in this case, beasts in the wild. It shows that he's still one of the other boys, and he isn't going to throw himself into the path of the beast just to show that he can. I'm beginning to think that Ralph is truly a worthy leader of this group. Now if only the other boys would see it as well.