Piggy is in full-fledged denial of anyone’s responsibility, unable to process the death without blaming Simon for his seemingly odd behavior. Ever the pragmatist, Piggy complains, “What good’re you doing talking like that?” when Ralph brings up the highly charged issue of Simon’s death at their hands. True, his involvement is somewhat limited; as Ralph mentions, Piggy stayed on the outside of the circle. Golding doesn’t provide a reason as to why Piggy remained on the outside, whether his position was due to his physical inability to make his way into the inner circle or whether he simply wasn’t able to tap into the animality of the more physically abled boys or both. Golding, however, does include Piggy in the damning description of the boys as they sit on the platform that morning, with the sun shining on their “befouled bodies.”
Piggy tries to keep life scientific and intellectual, despite the previous night’s emotionally charged incident, “searching for a formula” to explain the death. He asserts that the assault on Simon was justifiable because Simon asked for it by inexplicably crawling out of the forest into the ring. Piggy, of course, is unaware that Simon had to crawl because his visionary confrontation with the true beast had so weakened him.
In responding to the death, Jack takes an entirely different direction from logic or common sense, in direct conflict with the actual events they had all witnessed. Perhaps acting out of some guilt he is unable to acknowledge, Jack becomes paranoid, posting guards at the entrance to the castle rock area in case any of Ralph’s tribe tries to enter. One of the boys questions this concern and Jack replies, “They’ll try to spoil things we do.” Ironically, he is also taking the part of the true beast, the Lord of the Flies, who told Simon not to try and stop the “fun” that was going to take place on the island.
