Lord of the Flies Chapter 10 Summary

Piggy and Ralph try to keep the fire going and discuss what happened to Simon. (We’re thinking they must have realized it was Simon sometime in between “Kill that thing!” and waking up the next morning.)
Ralph shouts that it was murder and Piggy shrieks that it was not, it was just an accident.
They continue on with this kind of talk, trying to convince each other that they didn’t really participate like the others had, that they were on the outside of the circle so it couldn’t be their fault.
Samneric show up and similarly refuse to acknowledge their part in the murder.
The four of them continue to rationalize until they’ve decided that they never even attended the dance, that they had left early before anything bad happened. This is, of course, denial, in its purest form.
The scene changes to Roger, who is climbing up Castle Rock. Someone calls for him to halt, and Roger isn’t surprised as he thinks of people hiding from “the horrors” of the previous night.
It’s Robert; he and Roger comment, half-proudly, that Jack is a real chief.
As Roger climbs up the cliff, Robert shows him a log that’s been jammed under a huge rock. When Robert leans on the protruding end of the log, the rock groans. Roger thinks this is super-nifty.
They then discuss the fact that Jack has tied up Wilfred (a character we haven’t seen until now) and is going to beat him – but they don’t know why.
When they get back to the cave, Jack is sitting, naked from the waist up with his face painted in white and red. Wilfred, untied but “newly beaten,” is crying.
Jack announces that they will hunt again tomorrow – except he’s now referred to in the text as “the chief.”
He explains away the whole last-night-murder thing by saying that the beast came disguised, and may come again. He refuses to think at all about the fact that it was Simon.
They discuss that they will have to steal fire from the others again, in order to roast the meat.
Back at the shelter on the beach, Piggy yammers on about building a radio.
Sam and Eric wonder if they’ll be captured by “The Reds,” but think that would be better than you-know-who.
Ralph gets a little nutty. He can’t remember why he wants to make a fire, he gives up on it for the night, and then he’s dancing about as he thinks of a bus station and how wonderful it would be to go home.
He is interrupted by shouts as Sam and Eric start fighting with each other.
They’ve never acted like this before, and Piggy whispers desperately to Ralph that they’ve got to get out of this somehow before they go “barmy,” or “bomb happy,” as he puts it.
Ralph pushes the “damp tendrils of hair out of his eyes” (there’s that hair again) and suggests sarcastically to Piggy that he write a letter to his auntie to come rescue them.
Piggy replies seriously that he has no envelope and no stamp.
As the strange noises of nighttime set in, they have trouble falling asleep.
They most definitely hear something moving outside – it must be the beast, they think.
Ralph and Piggy cling desperately to each other inside the shelter. Ralph, in a not-so-noble moment, prays that the beast will prefer littluns to him.
Tension builds until something crashes into their shelter and pounces on them, beating them viciously. The shelter collapses.
After the attackers leave, Samneric come in to see if they are all right.
They aren’t.
Piggy says he thought they came for the conch (the attackers were members of Jack’s tribe), but he then realizes with horror that they’ve taken his glasses.

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