[HPforGrownups] Re: Robes and other Clothing

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 45793

On 26 Oct 2002 at 7:09, Shaun Hately wrote:

> The point is, those costumes were chosen  for a very specific reason in both the 
> book and the film - and certainly not because they were intended to be normal 
> school uniform.

I have just found the first chapter of 'Lord of the Flies' online as an excerpt, and it 
confirms my memory:

"Within the diamond haze of the beach something dark was fumbling along. Ralph 
saw it first, and watched till the intentness of his gaze drew all eyes that way. Then 
the creature stepped from mirage on to clear sand, and they saw that the darkness 
was not all shadow but mostly clothing. The creature was a party of boys, marching 
approximately in step in two parallel lines and dressed in strangely eccentric 
clothing. Shorts, shirts, and different garments they carried in their hands; but each 
boy wore a square black cap with a silver badge on it. Their bodies, from throat to 
ankle, were hidden by black cloaks which bore a long silver cross on the left breast 
and each neck was finished off with a hambone frill. The heat of the tropics, the 
descent, the search for food, and now this sweaty march along the blazing beach 
had given them the complexions of newly washed plums. The boy who controlled 
them was dressed in the same way though his cap badge was golden. When his 
party was about ten yards from the platform he shouted an order and they halted, 
gasping, sweating, swaying in the fierce light. The boy himself came forward, 
vaulted on to the platform with his cloak flying, and peered into what to him was 
almost complete darkness."

""I ought to be chief," said Jack with simple arrogance, "because I'm chapter 
chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.""

"As if released from class, the choir boys stood up, chattered, piled their black 
cloaks on the grass. Jack laid his on the trunk by Ralph. His grey shorts were 
sticking to him with sweat. Ralph glanced at them admiringly, and when Jack saw 
his glance he explained."

Just a few quotes to illustrate the point (in case anyone is interested). Those clothes 
in Lord of the Flies, were choristers robes, were viewed as 'strangely eccentric' even 
by the other boys (who had been described as wearing normal school uniform), and 
when they take them off, they are apparently wearing regular school uniform 
underneath.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately |webpage: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       |email: drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in
common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter
the facts to fit the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen
to be one of the facts that need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who:
The Face of Evil | Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia