Lord of the Flies Summary & ending explained

Ralph pushed out of the trees and stopped. Behind him the crash had ripped a raw path through the jungle. In front of him, palms leaned over a lagoon as warm as bathwater.

A fat boy in thick glasses came struggling out of the undergrowth too.

"No grown-ups," he gasped. "None at all."

Sand, sea, sun. No pilot, no teachers. Ralph stood on his head out of pure joy.

The fat boy wheezed after him and explained, between breaths, that he had asthma, that his aunt kept a sweet shop, and that there had been an atom bomb, so everyone they knew was probably dead. Then he made a mistake. He told Ralph what the boys at school used to call him.

"Piggy!" Ralph shrieked, and laughed till he fell over.

In the shallows, something cream-coloured glinted among the weeds. A shell, big and spiralled. Piggy knew what it was. You could blow it, he said, like a trumpet. Ralph tried, and got a rude noise. He tried again from deep in his chest, and the sound boomed out over the water and into the forest.

They came. Little ones, older boys, twins with the same grin. And then, out of the shimmer along the beach, a double line of boys in black cloaks, marching. At their head walked a tall, red-haired boy with a hard face.

The tall boy looked for an adult to report to. There was none. There was Ralph, holding the shell. Jack Merridew announced that he was head of the choir and should be in charge. Someone said they should vote. They chose the boy with the shell.

Jack flushed scarlet. Ralph, wanting to be fair, gave him the choir to keep. They could be hunters.

So Ralph, Jack and a quiet, dark boy called Simon went to see where they were. From the top of the pink-granite mountain they saw it all: the reef, the lagoon, the forest, the endless blue all round. An island. Theirs.

On the way down, a piglet thrashed caught in a tangle of creepers. Jack drew his knife and raised it high. Then he stopped. The piglet tore loose and was gone.

Jack's face went white. He slammed the blade into a tree trunk.

"Next time," he said, "I won't wait."