This occurs early in the novel, as the boys are exploring and adjusting to the island. Although all three boys are hungry, when they find the trapped piglet, Jack hesitates to kill it. It is squealing in terror, and they all feel the "enormity" of killing a helpless creature and watching its blood flow. Jack's hesitation is long enough for the piglet to escape.
Afterwards, Jack is ashamed of himself for his scruples and decides that:
Next time there would be no mercy.
This passage is significant. Not only is it exciting and suspenseful, but it shows that the veneer of civilization does not fall off all at once. Jack is, at the start of the novel, a civilized boy who is inhibited about killing and feels empathy for a helpless creature. It is only over time that he will lose that and discover his atavistic, primal self.
The episode both foreshadows and acts as a contrast to the more memorable and savage pig killing that is to come.
Towards the end of chapter one, Ralph, Jack, and Simon are returning to the platform after exploring the island, when they come across a piglet that is caught in the creepers. The boys rush towards the defenseless, squealing piglet, and Jack proceeds to draw his knife.
Before Jack brings his knife down, he hesitates for a moment and allows the piglet to escape. The boys are astonished by Jack's hesitation, and he makes an excuse by telling Ralph and Simon that he was having difficulty choosing the correct place to strike the pig. When Ralph asks Jack why he did not simply stab the pig, Golding writes,
They knew very well why he hadn’t: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood. (41)
Jack's hesitation is significant and emphasizes the boys' civility. They have recently landed on the remote, tropical island and have not adjusted to living in the wilderness. Jack is not yet willing to stab the pig and experience an immense amount of blood. He is still very much influenced by civilization and English society, where hunting and blood are foreign to him.
This scene also establishes a starting point and allows the audience the gauge the boys' diminishing civility and propensity for violence as the story progresses.
Because the boys have only recently arrived on the island, when Simon, Ralph, and Jack encounter the piglet, they fail at their attempts to kill it.
As the boys gather together in their response to the conch, Ralph, having been voted leader, chooses Jack and Simon to help him explore the area and determine whether they are actually on an island. After climbing for a time, they discover a pink coral mountain and see that they are, indeed, on an island. Following their satisfying a temptation to roll boulders down the mountain, the boys see the tracks of an animal that they cannot yet identify. Ebullient as they descend the mountain, Ralph spreads his arms, crying out, "All ours."
As the threesome enter a thick forest, they hear squealing noises. Growing nearer, the boys hear the frenzy of a piglet caught in the "curtain of creepers." Jack draws his knife "with a flourish," but hesitates at this, his first attempt at killing:
The pause was only long enough for them to understand what an enormity the downward stroke would be. (Ch.1)
In this short pause, the piglet manages to free itself and scurry into the undergrowth. The boys simply stare at each other; Jack's face is white beneath his freckles, the enormity of the act having overcome him. All three of the boys laugh nervously and "ashamedly." Then they climb back to the path.
This incident is the boys' first real experience of life in the wild. Because they are not yet adapted to this new environment, Ralph, Simon, and Jack pause as they stand between these two worlds. Resolved that "[N]ext time there would be no mercy," Jack shoves his knife into a tree trunk in a show of manliness as he dares the others to contradict him.
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