Lord of the Flies Chapter 9 Summary

Evening comes. The unconscious Simon gets a bloody nose.
When he wakes, The Lord of the Flies is still hanging on his stick “like a black ball.”
Simon wakes and asks (as he did before): “What else is there to do?” We know what that means.
With dried blood covering his mouth and chin, Simon staggers out of his hiding place and begins making his way up the mountain, still intending to face the beast like a man. Or, like a young boy who just happens to be very brave and wise.
When he gets to the top, he of course sees that the beast is just a dead body on a parachute, all tangled up in the rocks.
Simon pukes up everything (the dead body is a rather hideous and smelly sight) and then frees the parachute line from the rocks.
He looks down at the fire on the beach and realizes he must tell the others that the “beast,” although horrible, is harmless.
He staggers downward, almost collapsing with each step.
Piggy and Ralph decide to bathe. Everyone else has gone to Jack’s party, and they decide to go as well, but only “to make sure nothing happens.”
When they get to the party, they see that everyone is having a grand old time. Jack is sitting on a great log, “painted and garlanded” like an idol. He graciously offers Piggy and Ralph some food, which they take, and then bosses everyone about to get him a drink and tell him he’s the fairest one of all and so forth.
After everyone eats, Jack demands to know who is going to join his tribe. His seriousness and bossiness is a real downer, and the party stops feeling like a party.
In response, Ralph says he’s the chief, but his voice trembles as he speaks and no one really believes him.
A storm is brewing and thunder booms out above them.
Ralph says he will blow the conch and call an assembly, but Jack says no one will hear it.
Everyone knows Jack is right about this.
Piggy suggests quietly to Ralph that this would probably be a good time for them to get the hell out of there.
Lightning flashes and they all decide to (what else) reenact the pig’s death scene for the umpteenth time.
Only this time, instead of chanting about the pig, they shout: “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!”
As they dance wildly, something crawls toward them from the forest and stumbles into the circle of boys.
It is Simon, who cries out something about a “dead man on a hill.”
The boys, who are in some kind of a fury of wild chanting and blood lust, are not in the greatest condition to hear Simon’s explanation. In fact, they don’t even recognize Simon – they think he is the beast.
Pouncing on him, they scream, strike, bite, and tear. “There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.”
Rain pours down, suddenly, and the boys straggle away, leaving the pitiful heap that is Simon lying in the dirt, his blood “staining the sand.”
As the wind blows, it picks up the other “beast” (the dead man in the parachute) and carries him out to sea – the boys “rush screaming into the darkness.” (This is an amazing paragraph – you should take a look at it.)
Eventually the rain ceases, and as the water rises under the moon, “Simon’s dead body [moves] out toward the open sea.” Yes, they have actually killed him – even Ralph and Piggy helped.

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