What happens to the animal on the island — the one they actually hunt? And that's a shame, because the hunting scenes in William Golding's novel aren't filler. Here's the part of Lord of the Flies people tend to remember vaguely, or skip over entirely. They're the engine of the whole story It's one of those things that adds up. Which is the point..
The short version is this: the boys hunt pigs. But how they hunt, and what the hunting turns into, is where Golding does some of his most unsettling work. Let's break it down properly Worth knowing..
What "The Hunt" Actually Means in Lord of the Flies
When Golding wrote about hunting in the novel, he wasn't just throwing in action scenes to keep things moving. The hunt is a mirror. It shows the boys shifting from scared children stranded on an island into something more primal, more tribal, and eventually more violent.
The specific animal hunted throughout Lord of the Flies is the pig — a wild boar, to be exact, native to the tropical island. Also, pigs aren't introduced as a one-time event. The hunt starts as a way to get food and ends as something nobody on the island wants to look at directly.
Jack Merridew and his choir boys are the first to push the hunting idea. The boys need protein. Someone has to step up and actually provide. At first it sounds reasonable. Think about it: fruit isn't enough. Jack steps forward, spear in hand, paint on his face.
The First Hunt — Failure and Frustration
The first real hunting attempt fails. Because of that, jack is humiliated. Because of that, that humiliation matters. The boys creep through the jungle, flushed with excitement, and the pig gets away. It plants a seed.
See, Jack doesn't just want food. The hunt becomes a way to prove he's the real leader — not Ralph, with his conch shell and his talk of rules and rescue. The pig is the excuse. He wants power. The kill is the trophy.
Why the Hunting Scenes Matter So Much
Here's what most readers miss. On top of that, the hunt isn't really about the pig. It's about what's happening inside the hunters Worth keeping that in mind..
When Jack finally succeeds in killing a pig, the language Golding uses is graphic and deliberate. But the boys don't just kill the animal — they savagely kill it. Consider this: the scene is written to make you uncomfortable. And it should. Because Golding wants you to feel that the line between "playing at hunting" and "actually hunting" is thinner than you'd like to think Simple, but easy to overlook..
And the pig's head — mounted on a sharpened stick in the forest, covered in flies, speaking to Simon in one of the most famous scenes in 20th-century literature — that's the symbol of what the hunt has unleashed. Golding called the pig's head "the Lord of the Flies," which is a translation of Beelzebub. The devil, basically. And the devil in this story isn't something external. It comes from inside the boys Which is the point..
The hunting scenes also split the group. Jack's side represents the hunt, the kill, the feast. Ralph's side represents order, signal fires, rescue. The pig becomes the dividing line between civilization and savagery That's the part that actually makes a difference. No workaround needed..
How the Hunting Progresses Through the Novel
The hunting doesn't stay the same. It escalates. And tracking that escalation is one of the best ways to understand what Golding is really saying.
Stage 1: Hunting as Survival
At first, the hunt is practical. Which means that's the pitch, anyway. And jack frames it as his contribution to the group. Food. He's the provider. Plus, he can do something Ralph can't. The choir boys sharpen a stick at one end — a spear — and venture out.
The boys aren't great hunters. The jungle is thick, the pigs are fast, and the kids are, well, kids. There's a clumsy, almost comedic quality to these early attempts. On top of that, the tension is low. It feels more like a game than a threat That's the whole idea..
Stage 2: The Thrill of the Chase
After the first kill, something changes. In practice, the boys start to enjoy it. In real terms, not just the food — the act. The creeping through the undergrowth, the painted faces, the whooping and chanting. It's become sport.
Golding describes how the boys smear clay and charcoal on their faces, how they move in a crouch, how the hunt becomes a kind of ritual. Worth adding: they're becoming something else. The paint hides them — not just from the pigs, but from themselves. This is where the language shifts. The boys are no longer just kids. They can do things behind that mask that they wouldn't do as plain-faced children It's one of those things that adds up..
This is also the stage where the hunt starts interfering with the signal fire. Think about it: he complains. And ralph notices. On the flip side, boys who should be watching for ships are out in the jungle, stalking prey. Nobody listens.
Stage 3: The Hunt Turns on the Boys
Here's where it gets dark. The same skills, the same tactics, the same group-think that worked on pigs eventually gets aimed at something else. Practically speaking, first, it's Simon — mistaken for "the beast" in the dark, torn apart by a frenzied mob at the beach. Here's the thing — then it's Piggy, killed by a rock. And Ralph himself becomes the target, flushed from the thicket like prey.
By the end of the novel, the hunters aren't really hunting animals anymore. They're hunting each other. Even so, the techniques are identical. The language is identical. The painted faces, the spears, the savage rhythm — all of it. Golding is making a point, and he's making it hard to ignore.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Hunting Scenes
A lot of readers — and a lot of students writing essays about the book — treat the hunting as straightforward. But boys need food. On the flip side, boys get food. Done.
That's not what Golding is doing. The hunting is a metaphor, and a layered one at that.
First, the hunt represents the loss of innocence. The hunt is the mechanism for that transformation. You don't go from "British schoolboy" to "savage" in one dramatic moment. The boys start as schoolchildren. They end as killers. It happens gradually, kill by kill, mask by mask That's the part that actually makes a difference..
Second, the hunt represents a particular kind of masculine violence. Jack's group is all about strength, dominance, blood. And ralph's group is about cooperation, signal fires, democracy. Golding is suggesting that without social structure — without rules, without adults, without consequences — the louder, more aggressive version of masculinity wins. And it wins fast.
Third — and this one's often missed — the hunt is also about belonging. They chant together. Meat. That said, jack's tribe offers something Ralph's group doesn't. The hunters eat together. Day to day, the hunt gives them identity, ritual, and group cohesion. That's why so many boys defect from Ralph's side. They sleep in a new camp. Excitement. Belonging.
Practical Tips for Reading (or Teaching) the Hunting Scenes
If you're reading the book for the first time, slow down during the hunting chapters. Because of that, don't skim. Pay attention to the verbs Golding chooses. Think about it: notice how the boys' language changes when they talk about the hunt. Watch for words like "liberation," "hunting," "kill," and "blood" — they appear more and more as the book goes on Most people skip this — try not to..
If you're teaching the novel, the hunting scenes are a goldmine for discussion. Day to day, you can ask why Jack wants the hunt so badly. You can ask why Ralph doesn't. You can ask whether any of the boys ever feel guilty, and what that guilt looks like. (Hint: pay attention to the moments of silence after a kill That's the part that actually makes a difference..
And if you're writing about it, avoid the trap of treating the hunt as a simple "boys being boys" story. Golding is sharper than that. He's asking whether civilization is something we build, or just a thin layer we peel off when nobody's watching Simple, but easy to overlook..
FAQ
What animal is hunted in Lord of the Flies? A wild pig, specifically a boar. The hunt for pigs drives much of the plot and serves as a symbol of the boys' descent into savagery Surprisingly effective..
Who leads the hunting in the novel? Jack Merridew leads the hunters. He starts as the leader of the choir boys and ends as the leader of a savage tribe Worth knowing..
Why is the pig's head important? The pig's head, mounted on a stick and called the "Lord of the Flies," is left as an offering to the beast. It speaks to Simon in a hallucination and represents the evil that has taken root on the island.
Does the hunt change as the book goes on? Yes. It begins as a practical attempt to get food and becomes a ritual, a sport, and eventually a form of violence directed at the boys themselves.
**What does
the hunt symbolize in Lord of the Flies?** The hunt symbolizes the boys' descent into primal savagery, the triumph of aggressive masculinity over cooperative civilization, and the human capacity for violence when social structures collapse.
Is the hunt the climax of the novel? Not exactly — the hunt for Ralph at the end is the climax, but the earlier pig hunts set it up. Each one escalates the violence and the boys' comfort with brutality.
Why does Golding include so many hunting scenes? Because the hunt is where Golding's themes live. It's where he shows what happens when the rules come off. The hunting scenes aren't filler or background — they are the argument the novel is making, scene by scene, kill by kill Turns out it matters..
Final Thoughts
The hunt in Lord of the Flies is more than a plot device. It is the engine of the novel's moral collapse and the clearest expression of Golding's central argument: that civilization is fragile, that violence is never far from the surface, and that without the structures we build to contain it, the loudest, hungriest version of ourselves takes over.
Jack doesn't hunt pigs because he's hungry. Ralph's group is already working out how to gather food, build shelters, and keep a signal fire burning. Jack hunts because the hunt gives him what he actually craves — power, ritual, and the worship of his peers. The pig is the excuse. The hunt is the point The details matter here..
And that is why the scene matters. Consider this: it is about us. Still, it isn't about boys on an island. Also, it is about what happens when the rules fall away, when the adults leave the room, when the consequences disappear. It is about the version of ourselves that waits, patient and hungry, just beneath the surface of every polite conversation and every democratic vote and every quiet evening at home.
Golding trusted his readers to see it. He buried it in verbs and silence, in paint and chant, in the small changes of language that accumulate, kill by kill, mask by mask, until the island is no longer an island at all but a mirror.
The hunt is the mirror. The question is whether we are willing to look And that's really what it comes down to..
