The boys focus on the most entertaining possibilities of the island, such as hunting, playing, and eating, to the detriment of such mundane but necessary tasks as building shelters. They are free to set their own priorities and agenda on an individual basis, allowing some of the boys the chance to develop the application of their own worst impulses. Henry, for example, assumes a dictatorial manner, experimenting further with mastery over other creatures as he traps tiny transparent beach scavengers in his footprints. His experience is a microcosm of another kind: Describing how Henry “became absorbed beyond happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things,” Golding alludes not only to Henry and Johnny’s persecution of Percival but also to Jack’s compulsion to hunt and to the probable cause of the nuclear war that landed the boys on this island.
The link between Henry’s activities and Jack’s is further strengthened by the image of Henry’s attempt to verbally control the transparent creatures — “He talked to them, urging them, ordering them” — which evokes the image of Jack in the previous chapter staring at the traces of the pig trail “as though he would force them to speak to him.” Both boys try to force their verbal communication on nonverbal entities, an effort doomed to failure. Henry cherishes what little control he feels he has and does not mind that his orders go unheeded. His efforts at mastery over another are still in the play stage, although cruel nonetheless to the vulnerable Percival. Jack, on the other hand, has a much more difficult time tolerating resistance.
