Knocking the skull to the ground and breaking it into pieces is a small victory over the beast for Ralph. More to the point, he takes the stake on which the head rested so that he has his own stick sharpened at both ends. Like a blade that cuts both ways, he’ll use the savage’s stick to defend himself from them. Preoccupied with keeping on the move, he doesn’t realize until late in the hunt that he is himself carrying a stick sharpened on both ends. At this point he realizes that his head is meant to become the ultimate offering to the beast, the beast’s greatest victory yet on the island.
The officer of the gunboat that Ralph encounters simultaneously represents Ralph’s original moral naiveté and Jack’s propensity toward evil and destruction. As Ralph encounters the officer, he sees not a face but all the markings of the officer’s “tribe”: the cap with the crown, anchor and gold leaves, the uniform with epaulettes and buttons, and the revolver. The decorative elements of his uniform symbolize his civilized war paint. From the officer’s point of view, Ralph is hardly the prey of a deadly tribe but a boy who “needed a bath, a haircut, a nose-wipe, and a good deal of ointment.” When he sees Jack’s tribe wearing war paint and carrying spears, he assesses the situation as “Fun and games.” Although he doesn’t recognize it or understand his complicity in his own “fun and games,” the naval officer has correctly identified the hunt: It’s the sort of fun the Lord of the Flies assured Simon would take place on the island; the type of fun that, even at the time of the boys’ rescue, is taking place on a larger scale with the war.
