Note that Golding uses the phrase “overmastering” to describe the urge to inflict pain, evoking the theme developed in Chapter 4 with the littlun Henry’s experiments with mastery over the tide pool creatures and the hunters imposing their collective will on the slaughtered pig. Stimulated by this chapter’s unsuccessful hunt and Robert’s vulnerability at the hands of the crowd, the boys are mastered themselves by a larger force, impulses they can neither understand nor acknowledge. Even the victim, Robert, cannot address directly the forces that were driving the group. He alludes to his narrowly averted fate when he points out that to improve this so-called game that “You want a real pig . . . because you’ve got to kill him.” His initial response, however, is to downplay his justifiable fear and attempt to regain his place within the group by saying “Oh, my bum!” as if a sore bottom were the extent of the damage. Perhaps he realizes on an instinctive level that maintaining his status as one of the group is critical to survival: The next time the boys play this game, the outsider, Simon, dies.
Ralph attempts to defuse the frightening attack in which he has just participated by placing the beating within the context of their civilization’s legitimate outlets for aggression. “‘Just a game,’ said Ralph uneasily. ‘I got jolly badly hurt at rugger once.’” Maurice, on the other hand, looks to refine the process, suggesting that they add a drum and a fire to do the dance “properly,” although he’s not sure of why he feels they need these things. Maurice seems to be speaking out of some primeval urge to recreate the rituals of a tribal sacrifice. While both Robert and Roger point out that they’ll need a pig to complete the game, realizing that this game properly ends in death, Jack looks for a human, someone who could dress up as a pig. He too must acknowledge on some level that this game will inevitably have fatal consequences and, like a true dictator, suggests using one of the littluns, the most vulnerable and, in his eyes, the least valuable of the group.
