I need help analyzing this passage from Lord Of The Flies: Far beneath them, the trees of the forest sighed, then roared. The hair on their...

The passage is an extract from Chapter 6: Beast From Air and relates to the twins, Sam and Eric, who were tending the signal fire. The fire had died since the two had fallen asleep. They reignited the fire from the glowing embers and once the fire was going, Eric saw something in the dark which had just been revealed by the light from the fire. Alarmed, he drew Sam's attention to what he had...

The passage is an extract from Chapter 6: Beast From Air and relates to the twins, Sam and Eric, who were tending the signal fire. The fire had died since the two had fallen asleep. They reignited the fire from the glowing embers and once the fire was going, Eric saw something in the dark which had just been revealed by the light from the fire. Alarmed, he drew Sam's attention to what he had seen. The passage conveys their situation when they are looking at this unfamiliar sight.

The first line in the passage depicts the forest as a living, breathing organism, inhaling and exhaling. The wind is blowing and, accompanied by the ebb and flow of the tide, it sounds as if the trees and the forest is first sighing when the wind blows through it. The 'roar' could also be a depiction of the loud noise made by the wind rushing through the forest as it suddenly becomes more forceful. The line is quite dramatic and serves to emphasize the twins' anxiety and fear when they witness a terrifying object very close to where they are.

The fact that the boys' hair 'fluttered' and 'flames blew sideways from the fire' indicate that the wind has picked up and is blowing at full force, thus amplifying the sound as it whooshes through the trees and foliage. The boys hear a 'plopping noise of fabric blown open' from the object they have just seen fifteen yards away. The boys are terrified and run down to tell the others that they have just seen the beast.

What Sam and Eric do not realize is that they have just seen the body of a dead pilot who had been killed in an air skirmish above the island just that night. The body parachuted down to the island. The wind carried the body to the top of the island where it got caught 'among the shattered rocks'. The text makes it clear what happened then:

Here the breeze was fitful and allowed the strings of the parachute to tangle and festoon; and the figure sat, its helmeted head between its knees, held by a complication of lines. When the breeze blew, the lines would strain taut and some accident of this pull lifted the head and chest upright so that the figure seemed to peer across the brow of the mountain. Then, each time the wind dropped, the lines would slacken and the figure bow forward again, sinking its head between its knees.

With all the discussions about the beast that preceded this incident, the twins were obviously quite anxious and their awareness had been heightened. This led to their young and overly active imaginations running wild. The 'plopping' they hear is the sound the parachute makes as it is blown out and sucked in by the wind.