Jack becomes an immediate threat to Ralph’s leadership, obviously envious of Ralph’s ascent to chief. Actuated by his jealousy, Jack endeavours to empower himself instead by turning his choir group into “hunters”, who are responsible for hunting for meat and taking care of the fire. Together, Ralph, Jack, and a black-haired boy named Simon become the supreme trio among the children, going on a short expedition to confirm that they are indeed on an island. Piggy, the most sensible of the bunch, is quickly outcast by his fellow “biguns” and becomes an unwilling source of mirth for the other children. Ralph, in addition to supervising the project of constructing shelters, feels an instinctive need to protect the “littluns”.
The original semblance of order imposed by Ralph quickly deteriorates, with little work being done by most. They fail to put their plans of constructing shelters into action due to their idleness. At one point, Jack summons all of his hunters to hunt down a wild pig, even the ones who were supposed to be maintaining the fire. While they are preying on the pig, a ship passes near the island; however, with no one to maintain the smoke signal, the children are not discovered, let alone rescued. Although the chase of the pig turns out to be the group’s first successful hunt, Ralph is greatly infuriated upon learning that they have missed a potential rescue. Around the same time, many of the “littluns” begin to believe that the island is inhabited by a monster, quickly referred to by all as “the beast”. After the smoke signal incident and because of the legendary monster which has begun to fill the boys’ nightmares, Ralph convenes them to refute rumours of such a creature once and for all. The meeting, however, turns into something of a riot and Jack gains control of the discussion by boldly promising to kill the beast, again challenging Ralph’s authority as chief. Later, Ralph envisages relinquishing his position, though Piggy discourages him from...