The dangers of mob mentality

Question 1

“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.”

Answer 1

• Jack’s hunters chant as a group, showing that they prefer to enact violence as a mob, rather than as individuals
• Their chanting shows their cohesion, and their delight over killing becomes ritualistic

Question 2

“Simon was crying out something about a dead man on a hill… The sticks fell and the mouth of the new circle crunched and screamed. The beast was on its knees in the center, its arms folded over its face. It was crying out against the abominable noise, something about a body on the hill… At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore.”

Answer 2

• Moral beings will subject themselves to immorality for the purpose of joining a group
• They kill as a mob, nobody stepping in to disrupt the collective fantasy or prevent injustice

Question 3

“There had grown up tacitly among the biguns the opinion that Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, but by fat, and ass-mar, and specs, and a certain disinclination for manual labor.”

Answer 3

• Piggy’s lack of physical prowess and his tendency toward thoughtfulness make him a bad fit for mob mentality
• His virtues–wisdom, patience, goodness–are not immediately apparent or attractive to the rest of the boys

Question 4

“Memory of the dance that none of them had attended shook all four boys convulsively.”

Answer 4

• Only Ralph recognises Simon’s death as murder
• Wilful ignorance and delusion enables mobs to behave brutally or immorally

Question 5

“… the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.”

Answer 5

• In order for the boys to commit violence, they need to subjugate their individual morality, and senses of shame to the will of the group
• Golding reflects the psychology of mob mentality here, showing that Jack uses his face paint to silence the good in him, and enable him to be ruthless and shameless