Lord of the Flies- Chapter 7 Analysis

In your group, answer the questions about Chapter 7.

  • Make sure you answer all parts of each question.
  • Copy important parts of the quotes you discuss.
  • Use quotes from the text to support your answers and explain HOW the quote supports your answers.
  1. Find the quotes on pages 109 and 110 that show Ralph noticing his own physical appearance and the appearance of the other boys he is exploring with.
  1. What does he notice?
  2. What is significant about his observations? What do these observations reveal about Ralph? What do they reveal about the other boys? What do they reveal about human nature?
  1. Find the dialogue between Simon and Ralph on page 111.
  1. What are the boys talking about?
  2. Why does Simon say what he says to Ralph?
  3. What further impression does the exchange give us about Simon’s character?
  4. Predict- What might Golding be foreshadowing here?
  1. Find the section describing Ralph’s daydream on page 112.
  1. What does his daydream reveal about Ralph?
  2. What difference between Ralph and the hunters does this daydream highlight?
  3. Is there any relationship between the daydream and what is presently going on in the story at the moment Ralph has it? What might that be? How do you know (look at the language!)?
  1. Find the section where Ralph joins in the pig hunt for the first time.
  1. How does Ralph feel about his first experience hunting pig? How do you know? Find a quote that supports your idea.
  2. What can you infer about Ralph from his reaction to hunting?
  3. What can you infer about Golding’s opinion of human beings in general from Ralph’s reactions?
  1. Find the section on pages 114-115 where the boys play a “game.”
  1. What are the boys doing?
  2. What seems significant about this?
  3. What is revealed in this scene about Ralph? About Jack? About the other boys? About human nature? Find a quote to support each answer here and explain how each quote supports your answer.
  1. Notice the underlying tension in this section. What seems to be going on between Ralph and Jack on pages 118-121? What seems significant about this? Find quotes to support you inferences. Explain HOW your quotes support your inferences.
  1. Look closely at the exchange between Ralph and Jack at the top of page 121. Read closely the line, “A stain in the darkness, a stain that was Jack, detached itself and began to draw away.”
  1. What do you notice about Golding’s word choice in this sentence?
  2. What does it suggest about Jack’s character?
  1. “Now that his physical voice was silent the inner voice of reason, and other voices too, made themselves heard. Piggy was calling him a kid. Another voice told him not to be a fool; and the darkness and desperate enterprise gave the night a kind of dentist’s chair unreality” (122).
  1. What is happening in this quote (plot)?
  2. Make an observation about Golding’s use of language in this quote. What seems important to you about some of his word choices?
  3. What does this quote reveal about a character? How does it reveal this?
  4. What does this quote reveal about human nature or life in general?
  1. “In front of them, only three or four yards away, was a rock-like hump where no rock should be. Ralph could hear a tiny chattering noise coming from somewhere-perhaps from his own mouth. He bound himself together with his will, fused his fear and loathing into a hatred, and stood up. He took two leaden steps forward” (123).
  1. What is happening in this quote (plot)?
  2. Make an observation about Golding’s use of language in this quote. What seems important to you about some of his word choices?
  3. What does this quote reveal about a character? How does it reveal this?
  4. What does this quote reveal about human nature or life in general?
  1. Based on the events of this chapter and what you know so far, what predictions can you make about the story’s outcomes?