explain the significance of the title of chapter 3.

Huts on the beach give the reader some hint of what should happen if the boys stick to civilized behavior. In building huts, they would be able to watch over the signal fire and continue to work as a unit, focused on their survival. Huts would provide shelter and would signify some sort of organized community life. This should be part of the way they survive, but they do not take advantage of that survival tactic.

Huts on the Beach is significant because at the point in the novel we have a distinct conflict between the savage and the civilized. Jack doesn't want to build shelters, he feels the hunt is more important for the good of everyone. No one else wants to work, the 'littluns' would rather play, and yet they construct basic shelters.

Ralph continues to work, and when he calls Jack on his lack of assistance, Jack simply says they need meat.......... they need to eat. Ralph on the other hand disagrees; his feeling is that they 'need' shelters because they 'need' some kind of home. He holds onto the civilized world they've been taken from, and he wants to preserve it.