Lord of the Flies: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Back at the beach, Ralph blows the conch to call another meeting. Ralph announces that they're on an uninhabited island. Jack interrupts to say that they still need an army in order to hunt pigs.

Ralph says that without adults, they'll have to take care of themselves. He makes a rule that whoever holds the conch at meetings gets to speak.

Jack, excited, shouts out that they can make more rules and punish whoever breaks them.

Piggy takes the conch and says no one knows they're on the island. Ralph agrees, but describes the island as a good place where they'll have fun even if they have to stay for a long time.

A nervous little boy with a birthmark that covers half his face steps forward. After some prodding, the boy whispers to Piggy, and Piggy tells everyone what the boy said. He saw a "beastie," a "snake-thing," the previous night in the woods. Ralph and the older boys dismiss this "beastie" as just a nightmare, but the younger boys seem scared. Jack grabs the conch and says there's no snake-thing. If there is, he adds, his hunters will find and kill it. Ralph also says there's no snake-thing.

Ralph says he's confident they boys will be rescued. He suggests they build a fire on the mountaintop to alert rescuers.

Excited by the idea of building a fire, the boys jump up and run to collect wood and bring it to the mountain top. Piggy, left alone at the meeting place, disgustedly says that the other boys are acting like a bunch of kids.

The boys make a pile of dead wood on the mountain. They can't figure out how start the fire until Jack grabs the glasses off Piggy's face. Ralph uses the glasses to focus the sun's rays on the wood. Piggy is terrified, nearly blind without his glasses.

The fire burns out because the wood is so dry. Piggy starts to criticize the boys, but Jack shouts him down. Simon points out that Piggy's glasses made the fire possible.

Ralph says they have to keep the fire burning every day without fail. Jack volunteers himself and his hunters to do the job.

Piggy notices that sparks from their signal fire have set the trees below them on fire. He argues that instead of running off to start a fire they should have first made shelters. The other boys shout at him again, but are disturbed. Piggy asks where the boy with the birthmark who saw the "beastie" is. No one knows.