Ralph, Piggy, and Simon assume that adults could solve the problems they face on the island. After the assembly, the three boys detail the advantages adults bring, crediting adults with the greatest efficacy and civility: “Grownups know things . . . They ain’t afraid of the dark. They’d meet and have tea and discuss. Then things @‘ud be all right.” Ralph has been trying to uphold that model, using discussion as a means to set things right, but this chapter sees him lose faith in it. When the other boys have been once again led off by Jack, Ralph cannot bring himself to summon them back.
Although Piggy is an undoubted representative of logic and science, he is the first to address the idea that the fear could be based on a fear of self and each other, of something inherent in humanity. Piggy developed his shrewd understanding of human nature during the time spent bedridden by asthma — the equivalent for him of Simon’s secret place in the jungle. For Piggy, the fear is less a concept rooted in knowledge of humanity’s dark side than the practical fear of an outsider, a vulnerable boy disliked by the stronger, more aggressive boys.
Like Piggy, Simon is different from the others: He has fainting spells, sticks up for Piggy even if unobtrusively, and has the special hidden place in the forest; later chapters reveal him as a visionary. Because the other boys don’t understand Simon, they fear him. When he reveals that it was he who inadvertently frightened one of the littluns by venturing into the jungle at night, he gives them a concrete reason to chastise him. Jack holds him up for ridicule; the “derisive laughter that rose had fear in it and condemnation” — two emotions that go hand in hand as the condemnation makes the group feel protected from the fear they’ve experienced.
