Jack Merridew’s departure from Ralph’s assembly creates a rival community and marks the point at which the boys’ shared political order becomes an open contest for allegiance. Jack cannot win leadership through the assembly’s procedures, so he rejects their authority and builds support around hunting, meat, and fear of The beast. What begins as a dispute over who should lead becomes a conflict between rule-bound cooperation and a tribe held together by hunting and ritual.

Background: Leadership and the rules

At the boys’ first meeting, Jack Merridew presents his credentials as chapter chorister and head boy and asserts that he ought to be chief. The vote instead goes to Ralph, whose authority is associated with his bearing and, most powerfully, the shell he has blown to summon the boys. Jack’s choir raises its hands for him, while the boys outside it vote for Ralph; even Piggy, after initially withholding his support, raises his hand. The result establishes a leadership Jack can contest but did not secure.

Ralph’s early leadership depends on agreed procedures as much as on personal authority. He proposes that boys raise their hands to speak and that the speaker hold the conch without interruption. Jack enthusiastically calls for rules, and his hunters are assigned responsibility for maintaining the signal fire. At the mountain, however, Jack dismisses the conch’s authority there and tells Piggy to be quiet even as Piggy holds it. Ralph insists that the shell and the meeting rules apply there too, and Jack publicly agrees to take a share of the fire duty. The agreement holds only briefly: Jack’s desire for the standing and excitement of hunting increasingly competes with the common obligation to keep a rescue signal burning.

The assembly breaks apart

The dispute sharpens as fear of The beast overwhelms the boys’ attempts to reach agreement. When Simon hesitantly suggests that the beast may be something within themselves, the assembly laughs him down. Jack’s response to the confusion is to promise action through the hunt. Later, he uses the mountain expedition to attack Ralph’s fitness as chief: he calls him a coward, disputes his courage, and argues that Ralph cannot provide meat. The argument is not only about the beast or the failed hunt; Jack is trying to make hunting ability the test of legitimate authority.

Jack then asks the boys to raise their hands against Ralph. The assembly remains silent, and no hands go up. The failed vote visibly humiliates Jack: his face flushes, his voice trails off, and tears run from his eyes. He sets the conch carefully in the grass and announces that he will no longer belong to Ralph’s group. He says he is going off by himself and that anyone who wants to hunt with him can come. He runs from the platform toward the beach and into the forest, leaving Ralph watching him go. Ralph expects him to return, but Jack’s declaration has made the division public and consequential.

A new tribe, organized around the hunt

Jack quickly gathers a group of former choir members on the beach. The boys, who had once stood in orderly rows and sung together, accept him as chief. He tells them they will hunt and proposes that they forget the beast. Their agreement reflects the relief his offer provides: rather than continue talking about a fear they cannot resolve, they can hunt, follow Jack, and take part in a feast. He also says they may go to Castle Rock later, but first he intends to draw more older boys away from the conch and Ralph’s group.

The new group’s first priorities reveal what its authority rests on. Jack leads the boys into the forest, finds fresh pig tracks, and directs the hunt. When the hunters kill a sow, he announces that part of the kill will be left for The beast. He has the sow’s head mounted on a stick as a gift; the boys draw back from it and run toward the beach. Simon, concealed nearby, remains behind, fixated on the head. The offering gives physical form to the fear Jack’s group has agreed to put aside: they say they will forget The beast, yet make a ritual gift intended to keep it from harming them.

The breakaway also exposes the costs of the new arrangement to Ralph’s group. The boys are invited to a feast, and the prospect of meat draws them toward Jack even while Ralph emphasizes that the fire is essential to rescue. Sam and Eric and Bill acknowledge the attraction of hunting and eating, but they also express reluctance to go into the jungle themselves. Jack’s group can offer an immediate reward and a more compelling activity; Ralph’s leadership asks the boys to sustain a less certain, collective duty. The contest is therefore fought through daily needs and desires as well as through formal claims to be chief.

From rival leadership to open violence

The later confrontation at Castle Rock shows how far the break has developed. Ralph insists that the conch still counts there, but Jack rejects its authority and asks who will join his tribe. During a storm, the boys gather in a hunting dance; Ralph and Piggy, despite their opposition to Jack, find themselves drawn into its circle. When Simon emerges from the forest trying to tell them about the dead man on the hill, the dancers mistake him for The beast and kill him. His attempt to communicate the truth is overwhelmed by the collective movement and chant.

At Castle Rock, Piggy appeals to rules and rescue while holding the conch, but Roger releases a great rock from above. It kills Piggy, and the conch shatters. Jack declares that he is chief and hurls a spear at Ralph, who escapes into the forest as Jack’s tribe advances. The breakaway that began with Jack’s failed challenge in the assembly has become a rival power willing to destroy both the person defending Ralph’s authority and the object that represented its rules.

The tribe’s final pursuit of Ralph brings the conflict to the beach, where a naval officer arrives after seeing the smoke from the island fire. The boys’ hunting cries falter at the sight of an adult authority; Ralph, filthy and distressed, faces the officer while the painted boys stand behind him with sticks. The rescue interrupts Jack’s rule rather than resolving the division through the boys’ own institutions. Across the event’s arc, Jack’s separation transforms a failed vote into a competing social order, and the destruction of the conch makes visible the collapse of the common authority he rejected.