Throughout this chapter, Ralph displays and surprises himself with his coolness under pressure — despite his participation in the crazed attack on Robert and in contrast to his grief-stricken, emotional loss of control in the last chapter. Again and again, he shows a realistic grasp of their situation only to be jeered at by Jack. Despite his pride in hitting the boar, he understands immediately that boys with “foolish wooden stick[s]” as spears are no match for the large powerful animal. “But he’d do us!” he protests when Jack orders the hunters to follow the boar’s flight. Jack follows alone and is wounded for his lack of sense. Later Ralph is shocked to find himself accompanying Jack up the mountain in the dark to search for the beast, but his response does not betray him. The coolness of his reply renders invalid Jack’s supremely taunting invitation. Such instinctual calm reflects again the same strength Ralph displayed in the previous chapter when he made sure to take the lead at castle rock. While Jack’s aggressive resentment has no room for reason, Ralph is not afraid once they have set off to ask for another volunteer to accompany them or to point out that their journey up the mountain in the dark is foolish.
Despite his coolness, Ralph can’t help competing with Jack, much to the bloodthirsty crowd’s delight. Hearing Jack issue to Ralph the invitation to join him in the nighttime search for the beast, “the other boys . . . turned back to sample this fresh rub of two spirits in the dark.” The boys as a group display a certain lust for conflict, evident not only in their fascinated appraisal of the conflict of Jack and Ralph but also in their frenzied attack on Robert. The game innocently begun by Robert and Ralph is not so much boys at play as the beast at work.
