Blog #6 (LOTF)

Chapter Six: Beast From Air

The Beast Has Landed

Perspective: Piggy

What sign comes down from the grown-up world?

While everyone on the island is asleep, a dead parachutist drops down from a plane after an air battle takes place near the island. The dead pilot's parachute gets tangled up in a tree on top of the mountain, where Sam and Eric were watching the fire.

Why aren't the boys aware of it?

When the dead pilot fell on the island, all of the boys were asleep including Sam and Eric, who were supposed to take turns watching the fire that night but fell asleep since their minds work almost identically.

Why are Sam and Eric terrified?

After the twins wake up, they start to light the fire again when they see it went out while they were sleeping. After lighting the fire, Eric sees the dead parachutist and thinks he's the beast. The boys believe the flailing parachute is the beast's wings, and run off to tell the others.

How do Sam and Eric describe the beast?

Sam and Eric are so startled after seeing the dead pilot, their imagination goes wild when they tell Ralph about it. They almost spoke at once, and their interminable chatter spoke that the beast had teeth, claws and giant wings (the pilot's parachute).

What is the attitude of the boys when going off to look for the beast?

Jack and his hunters immediately thought of killing the beast when they heard about it. Ralph, however, thought we should have a strategy and plan how they were going to approach it, since their spears were obviously not enough to kill it. When they arrive to a cave at the other side of the island, they don't find the beast, so Ralph suggests they look somewhere else. Jack argues mutinously, and the rest of the hunters join him to form a new tribe. Ralph then goes waxy at Jack and his hunters, saying they should protect the littluns and keep the fire going.

Is there really a beast? How do you know?

Ralph has always said the same thing to the littluns: you only get big animals in big countries. If there really was a beast like the one Sam and Eric describe, someone would have noticed it already. Also, if the beast was already at the island when we arrived, it would have known we were there and would have attacked us a long time ago.

Why do you only have "one eye"?

A few days ago, when Jack let the fire go out so he could go hunting, him and Ralph were arguing about what our top priority was. Finding myself embroiled in their mess, I decided to speak to Jack about how foolish he was to let the fire go out. He became mad at me after a few seconds and punched me in the stomach, and then proceeding to smack me on the side of the head, dropping my spectacles on a rock.