After his messy encounter with the Lord of the Flies, Simon wakes up on top of the mountain with a bloody nose. Soon after that, Simon realizes that the so-called beast that everyone on the island is scared of is a dead parachuter. Simon is taken aback by the dead parachuter but is ultimately determined to go back to the boys and prove to them that their fights are not worth it as there is nothing to be scared of.
On the other side of the island, Piggy and Ralph make their way to Jack’s feast in hopes of convincing the rest of the group to keep the fire going in order to go back home. When they arrive, Piggy and Ralph see Jack sitting on a throne, all king like with his painted face. Jack orders the boys around him like servants and acts like a savage. After some mean comments, Jack offers Ralph and Piggy some of the roasted pig. Jack then offers the follower of Ralph the opportunity to join his tribe. Most of Ralph’s followers accept Jack’s offer despite Ralph’s effort to convince them not to.
As it starts to rain, Jack shows Ralph how he deals with rain. Jack orders his tribe to do the wild hunting dance. As the tribe chants and dances, the scene gets chaotic. Not realizing it was Simon, the group starts chanting to "kill the beast"(140), as they usually do when they are hunting for pigs, and proceed to attack Simon with their bare hands and teeth. The boys do not hear Simon as he explains his discovery and that he is no danger to them. Simon then violently falls and dies as he trips onto the rocks on the beach. Not realizing they had killed Simon, the boys run for shelter as the storm intensifies. The chapter ends with imagery of Simon’s dead body as it vanishes into the open sea. This chapter marks the beginning of the fall of the boys and the peak of loss of innocence.