Given Simon’s need to solitude, it’s not surprising that he volunteers to take Ralph’s message to Piggy by crossing the island alone. His loner tendencies make the other boys think he’s odd, but, for the reader, Simon’s credibility as a mystic is established in this chapter. As if he is reading Ralph’s mind, Simon interrupts Ralph’s strained, tense regard of the ocean’s vastness by telling him, “You’ll get back to where you came from.” Ralph responds with the opinion all the boys hold of Simon: “You’re batty.” Simon knows he’s right, however, and he repeats his prophecy with emphasis. Note that he uses “you” instead of “we,” realizing, perhaps, on some level that he, himself, will not make it back. Consumed by his own concerns, Ralph doesn’t question Simon’s omission of himself but takes comfort in the express certainty of the other boy’s prophecy.
Ralph seeks comfort throughout this chapter in images of home, indulging in a fantasy of bathing and grooming and a recollection of the peaceful life of ponies, cereal and cream, and children’s books he had once known. Ralph’s perspective on the island has changed drastically from the first day, when “A kind of glamour was spread over . . . the scene.” Now as he looks at the other boys and sees how thoroughly grimy they are, he finds their condition very different from “the spectacular dirt of boys who have fallen into mud,” a temporary dirtying probably initiated by some good-natured horseplay and easily remedied by a warm bath. This dirtiness is an outer manifestation of the darkening of the soul — the emergence of the evil within.
