Chapter Twelve Summaries

This chapter starts with Ralph wounded in the forest, trying to keep himself safe from Jack and his tribe of boys. He starts heading further away from castle rock when he reaches a clearing and meets the Lord of the Flies. He hits it in fear and rage until the skulled laid in two pieces and his knuckles were bruised. He then backs away and heads back to the thicket in front of castle rock where he peeks to see what was going on in Jack’s tribe. A feast was occurring and Ralph could hear the familiar chant of the dance. He sees Samneric guarding castle rock and his hopes of making an outlaw tribe on the other side of the island died. He calls out to them and they tell him that he has got to go because of their new and shameful loyalty they had to Jack and his tribe. He talks to Samneric about how Jack and Roger were going to hunt for him the next day and continues to tell him that he has to go when someone else in the tribe comes up and starts arguing with Samneric, while Ralph hides in the thick bushes. The next day Jack and his tribe go out hunting for Ralph before going back to castle rock and pushing off a couple huge boulders. After the boulders fall, the boys find Ralph and begin chasing him across the island, he runs through the forest and the clearing where the Lord of the Flies resided, all the way thinking about what he should do in order to survive. He decides to hide once he finds the mat where Simon used to spend much of his time and told no one about. One of the tribe members finds his hiding place, causing him to scream and burst out of the mat and into the forest and start running as fast as possible. As he’s getting tired he stumbles onto the beach where he finds a naval officer who had seen the smoke waiting and begins to speak to him. The chapter ends with the officer deciding that he would take the boys back with him and them all beginning to cry.