Why is the mock hunt in Chapter 7 of Lord of the Flies important?What do all boys understand about the mock-hunt? What does it reveal about the...

In Chapter 7, the boys enact a mock-hunt in which they
pretend Roger is the pig.  The boys circle around him, driving their spears into the
ground.  The butt end of a spear hits Roger in the back, and it becomes clear that the
boys are getting out of control.  Through the mock-hunt, the boys understand the power
that they all possess to actually kill a living creature.  The chanting of "'Kill the
pig!  Cut his throat!'" seems to hypnotize the boys and send them into their inner
savage nature.  The boys are no longer afraid to kill as they were in the beginning when
Jack hesitated before driving his knife.  In the following chapters, the boys do kill a
sow and Simon, and this mock-hunt foreshadows the brutality of these two later
killings.