Chapter 5 Journal Entry (Simon)

Chapter 5: Ralph’s Assembly

Ralph walked away tempestuously down the mountain with his beloved conch in his hands. While the hunters roared on with their chanting the rest of us stood in silence.
“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in!” The hunters chanting began to sound like an incantation. I sat near Piggy who at the time was glaring at Jack and trying to fix his glasses at the same time.

Piggy stood “Well, we should head down to the meeting area. Ralph might call the meeting any moment now,” he said to me and the rest of the group over the chants of the hunters. The hunters quieted when Jack stopped chanting.

“Is that what you think we should do? Always listen to Ralph,” Jack laughed jeeringly.
As Piggy pondered about what he should say in return I stood, walked to his side for a moment or two and started down the mountain. Soon I could hear the loud and clumsy footsteps of Piggy following with some of the adorably quiet footsteps of the littluns. It didn’t take a while to reach the shore and when we did we scattered. Most of the littluns walked together down the beach towards the meeting area while others went off to play in the water. The rest decided to follow Piggy off into the jungle to go pick fruit while they waited for Ralph to blow the conch.

I decided to go and follow the group of littluns headed toward where we held our meetings. The littluns tripped constantly as they took their small steps in the sand. When we reached the area where our meeting were held the littluns wept disappointedly as they watched Ralph in the distance, sitting on the log they play on. They turned and decided quickly they were no longer sad and would sit and build castles in the sand.
Ralph licked his lips and picked up the conch that was always by his side. The noise made the children act ludicrous, running and screaming until they remembered the source of the sound and calmed down.

Half way into thelong meeting the hunters winded and couldn't sit still like everyone else in the assembly. Ralph had gone over the rules that had always been there but were never inforced. I recited them in my head, number 1: no going to the toilet anywhere but the rocks where the water can wash it away. Number 2: we need to help out with jobs rather than going off in the jungle. Number 3: we need to start getting clen water from the river again and store it in the coconuts. Number 4: The fire always needs to be burning. We can never let it go out again because it is the only thing that can get us rescued.

"Another thing, the beastie is nothing to be afraid of. It is in you littluns imagination's. You were dreaming, it was all in your head," Ralph stated. This caused murmurs from the littluns who full in believe in the beastie. After a while a small boy walked foward with help from the other children and began to speak.

"Well I woke up one night and saw shadows. It was horrible and I, I know, I mean I think it was the beastie," he said unsure of himself. Oh no, I thought. He had seen me walking back from my secret place in the jungle. I conffesed this to Ralph who scolded me for going out in the night and not informing anyone. The littluns were reassured and all seemed well until Jack stood and spoke.

"Me and my hunters, we'll kill this beast. It wont have a chance against us!" He screamed.
Ralph glared at him for bringing it up again.
"Yeah, we'll cut it's throat!" Someone from the hunters yelled. The biguns cheered and the littluns weeped. Their lamentation was caused by the frightening subject of the beastie and the thought that there were no adults to save them here. Maurice cheered them up by falling over and everyone was laughing and cheering at the thought of the bestie dead except for Ralph, Piggy and I.

When everyone had left Ralph told Piggy and I about his plans to stop being leader because he could not compete with Jack as leader. Piggy and I tried and succeeded in talking him out of it. The night slowly faded away and the sun appeard. I wonder who will succeed in leading, Jack or Ralph, seemed to be on everyone's mind.