lord of the flies

Jack thinks about why he is still unsuccessful as a hunter. He believes that the animals see him, so he wants to find some way to camouflage himself. Jack rubs his face with charcoal and laughs with a bloodthirsty snarl when he sees his reflection in a pool of water. From behind the mask, Jack appears liberated from shame and self-consciousness.

Jack explained to Roger as he worked. “Theydon’tsmellme. Theyseeme, Ithink. Somethingpink, underthe trees.” He smeared on the clay. “If only I’d some green!” He turned a half-concealed face up to Roger and answered the incomprehension of his gaze. “For hunting. Like in the war. You know—dazzle paint. Like things trying to look like something else—” He twisted in the urgency of telling. “—like moths on a tree trunk.” Roger understood and nodded gravely. The twins moved toward Jack and began to protest timidly about something. Jack waved them away. “Shut up.” He rubbed the charcoal stick between the patches of red and white on his face. “No. You two come with me.” He peered at his reflection and disliked it. He bent down, took up a double handful of lukewarm water and rubbed the mess from his face. Freckles and sandy eyebrows appeared. Roger smiled, unwillingly. “You don’t half look a mess.”

Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw. He looked in the pool for his reflection, but his breathing troubled the mirror.