Chapter 4 Painted Faces and Long Hair Significance

Chapter 4 Painted Faces and Long Hair

Significance of title: Boys become tribal begin to lost their outer veneer of civilisation Their lives start to be dominated by the cycles of light and dark. Not questioning life – they accepted that the mirages and the stars were there but did not question what they meant.

Introduced to the ‘littluns’ A generic title which depersonalized the younger children. “they were very brown, and filthily dirty” (p. 75) – they lived their own lives and only answered to the conch because Ralph represented adult authority and the meetings provided a break from the mundane. The littluns has no power over the older children so exerted their own power over their games. Henry made footprints and channels in the sand that filled with water and tiny insects, “exercising control over living things”, giving him “the illusion of mastery” (p. 77).

New characters - littluns: Percival and Johnny were the smallest boys on the island. “Percival was mouse-coloured and had not been very attractive even to his mother” (p. 62) “Johnny was well built, with fair hair and a natural belligerence” (p. 62) Henry – a distant relative of the boy with the birth mark on his face

New characters cont: Roger – walked straight through the sandcastles. He had a “shock of black hair, down his nape and low on his forehead, [that] seemed to suit his gloomy face and made what seemed at first an unsociable remoteness into something forbidding” (p. 63) In your own words, write an explanation of Roger’s character.

Roger cont: Roger targeted Henry. He threw the stones but there was a distance of about “six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child [Henry] was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger’s arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins” (pp. 64 -65). Explain in your own words what this quote means and its significance.

Roger cont: Roger is disturbing, solitary, unsociable, forbidding, sly, sneaky and has a wish to inflict pain on others. Is Roger the most evil of the boys? How does his evil manifest itself? Golding said that if the veneer of civilisation is removed ie parents, schools, police etc people of all ages will revert to more primitive behaviour as their dark sides surface. Do any of the characters resist the darkness? Who? Do any of the characters recognize evil and attempt to resist it? Who? How?

New characters cont: Maurice – followed Roger, kicking over more of the sandcastles. Sand was kicked in Percival’s eye. “In his other life Maurice had received chastisement for filling a young eye with sand. Now, though there was no parent to let fall a heavy hand, Maurice still felt the unease of wrong-doing” (p. 63). Explain what the above quote means and its significance in this chapter.

Painted faces: Begins initially as a camouflage to help with hunting. “Jack planned his new face…He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger…the mask was a thing on its own behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness” (p. p. 66) “The mask compelled them” (p. 67) What does the painting of the faces signify?

Long hair: Piggy was the only boy on the island whose hair did not seem to grow. He was the only one who was not going to succumb to savagery. He longed to be one of the biguns, “Piggy saw the smile and misinterpreted it as friendliness. 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 labour” (p. 81). Piggy, as the outsider, is the only one to see what is happening on the island.

Tribal savagery: “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood. ” (p. 86) – celebration of the ability to hunt something down and kill it. “There was lashings of blood” (p. 87) Piggy voices the reality, “You and your blood Jack Merridew! You and your hunting! We might have gone home-” (p. 88) “Passions beat about Simon on the mountain-top with awful wings” (p. 75). Explain what this means.

Tribal loyalties change: “Then to his surprise, Ralph went to Piggy and took the glasses from him. Not even Ralph knew how a link between him and Jack had been snapped and fastened elsewhere” (p. 77). Ralph had asserted his authority over Jack, forcing him to rebuild the fire in a slightly different position. But at the same time, he aligned himself with Jack as a hunter and a provider of food. He was given meat, even though he meant to refuse it. Simon gave his meat to Piggy, embarrassed that he was given food and Piggy wasn’t, even though neither of them had hunted.

Chapter significance: In a well-constructed paragraph, discuss the significance of this chapter in the narrative to this point of the novel. Does this chapter support Golding’s claim that mankind is inherently evil? Explain.

Extension questions Both Maurice and Roger torment the littluns, but they still feel guilty and are still conditioned by the civilization they knew before. How much time do you think has passed since the boys arrived on the island? Do you think a further passage of time will have any effect on their feelings of guilt and their previous conditioning? Jack masks himself with clay and charcoal. What effect does this have on his behaviour? What is the purpose of the mask, either real or imagined? Do all of us wear masks from time to time? Explain. Watching the hunters dance and chant, Ralph feels envy and resentment. Why do you think he is feeling these emotions? Of what is he envious? What does he resent?