Being part of Jack’s tribe, with its attendant rituals and subservience, allows the boys to feel as though they are relieved of all responsibility for what happens during their ritual dance. While some of the boys, such as Ralph, felt uneasy with the beating Robert received in Chapter 7, other boys simply enjoyed the “game” and thought of ways to refine it, such as Maurice suggesting they add drums. Yet they all participated, drawn in by their animal selves. In this chapter, the same effect is aggravated by the intensity of the thunder and the darkness.
Golding describes the mob murder scene: “There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.” Again savagery is connected with a lack of verbal communication; language is, of course, one of humankind’s greatest inventions and that which separates humanity most dramatically from the lower forms of creatures. Further, Golding uses the phrase “teeth and claws” (representing the primitive use of physical attributes or features as weapons) instead of spears (the use of tools as weapons). The phrase also recalls Samneric’s fanciful description of the beast as having teeth and claws (although they neither felt nor saw them in reality). In this instance, the true beast — evil — acts through the frenzied mob; those imagined teeth and claws bare themselves for real.
Once the frenzy dies down, however, the boys back off their prey and are astonished to see “how small a beast it was.” The truth of what they have done begins filtering in. Their responses to the act they have committed are explored in Chapter 10.
