Chapters 11 and 12

Chapter 11: Castle Rock

Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric and the littluns still with them realise they are unable to light a fire without Piggy's glasses. Ralph is beginning to find it hard to reason. He still feels passionately that the fire has to be kept going and that smoke must be made, but he cannot always remember why. Piggy helps him to remember that it is so that they can be rescued.

The four decide to go to Castle Rock and try to get Piggy's glasses back. Piggy, who cannot see anything, declares he'll take the conch and try to appeal to any sense of morality Jack may still have.

The twins are frightened of approaching Jack and his tribe. They are aware of how savage those boys become when they are painted up. They are also losing faith in Ralph's ability to lead.

They get to Castle Rock. The four wait on the thin strip of rock connecting it to the island while Ralph blows the conch. They are greeted with a war cry and the painted tribe emerges holding spears. Ralph tells them he has come for Piggy's glasses.

He is interrupted by Jack who has returned from a hunt in the forest. Ralph and Piggy try to reason with the savages and remind them of the importance of reason and rescue. Ralph and Jack come to blows with their spears.

Jack orders the tribe to capture and tie up Sam and Eric. Roger, who is guarding Castle Rock from the top of the cliff, levers a large boulder down onto the area where the boys are standing. It hits Piggy and knocks him off the thin strip of rock and smashes him onto other rocks far below. He dies instantly and is swept away by the sea. As Piggy was holding the conch, it too is smashed into many pieces.

Jack tells Ralph he meant that to happen and throws a spear at him. The tribe advances towards Ralph, also throwing their spears. Ralph escapes into the jungle and Jack orders the tribe back to Castle Rock.

Jack goes back to where Sam and Eric are tied up on the ground. He prods them with his spear and then leaves them to Roger.

Chapter 12: Cry of the hunters

Ralph hides in the jungle. Guessing that the others are having a feast he decides that he is safe for now but does not know what the hunters will do once they've finished. Thinking over the deaths of Simon and Piggy and the breaking of the conch shell, he worries that the tribe will go further and further in their savagery.

Ralph also knows that because Jack is jealous of him and sees him as a threat to his dominance, he will not rest until Ralph is out of the way.

Ralph wanders back towards his camp but decides to try once more to achieve some kind of sense amongst the boys, even if only the twins. On his way back towards Castle Rock he comes across the clearing with the pig's head on the stake. Like Simon, he gets a sense of the head mocking him. He pushes the stake over, smashing the pig's skull on the ground.

When he gets near to Castle Rock he can hear another feast and chant in progress. To his dismay, he sees the twins guarding the fort. Nevertheless he approaches them in the hope of drawing them away from the savagery.

It is clear that the twins are ashamed of themselves but they are terrified of Jack and Roger, who appears to have become Jack's henchman. It appears that Roger inflicted some kind of torture on them while they were tied up.

The twins repeatedly warn Ralph to go away. They tell him that Jack has planned to hunt him down the next day but they won't tell him what will be done to him if he is caught. They tell him the plan is to do a sweep of the whole island using a call, or ululation, to signal to each other in the process.

Ralph, repeating sentiments he has expressed ever since things started to go wrong on the island, protests that he has done nothing to deserve this treatment. He insists that he has done nothing wrong except to try to make the others see sense.

Ralph tells the twins that he will hide in the thicket right near Castle Rock in the hope that the others won't think to look for him so close by. He asks them to make sure they keep the hunters away from the thicket. When Ralph retreats to the thicket he hears one of the twins being tortured again by Roger.

The next day Ralph, hidden in the thicket, hears the ululation start up. After a while he hears Jack and Roger quite close to him. They are talking to one of the twins who, by the sound of things, is still being menaced by Roger. It becomes clear that in the process the twins have given away Ralph's hiding place.

Jack and some of the other savages return to Castle Rock. They heave some more huge boulders off the top of it towards the thicket where Ralph is hiding. Neither boulder crushes him but the next move of the savages is to set the thicket alight. The fire spreads through the jungle.

Ralph flees the thicket and races through the jungle. The hunters' cry starts up again as they pursue him. He hides under a thick mat of creeper. He hears both the fire and the hunters approaching through the jungle. Then a savage appears and finds him.

Ralph starts to scream and bursts into the open. He flees through the burning jungle, pursued by the hunters, and stumbles onto the beach. He is crying out for mercy as he stands up. Then he sees a naval officer standing on the beach in front of him.

The hunters gather behind him on the beach and stop their chanting. The officer tells Ralph he had seen the smoke. He makes light of what he thinks is just a war-game taking place in front of him, but then realises from Ralph's reactions that the situation is more serious than that.

The officer is surprised that the boys don't know how many of them there are - a sign that they have not shown as much sense as he would have expected them to. Ralph starts to explain that they had started off well but is overcome by his memories of all that has happened. He becomes grief-stricken, as do the other boys who have now gathered nearer.

The officer waits for them to recover before taking them off the island.