Beast In Lord Of The Flies

To illustrate, when Ralph is addressing the boys about the importance of the signal fire after a few boys let it die, Ralph declares, “The fire is the most important thing on the island” (80). Since the signal fire is the primary, physical symbol of civilization, Ralph clearly believes that civilization, in turn, is the most imperative concept on the island to sustain. Ralph maintains this throughout the entire novel, demonstrating that his views towards the significance of civilization are constant. Since these values towards civilization never vary throughout the novel, Ralph clearly illustrates the leadership quality of having a distinct point of view that the boys follow. Moreover, as boys begin to become scared of the “Beastie” that lurks in the forest, Ralph calls an assembly where he states, “We’ve got to talk about this fear and decide there’s nothing in it” (82). Since Ralph believes that the boys must acknowledge that there is nothing to fear in the “Beastie”, he believes that the boys must ignore and stand against the savagery the concept of the “Beastie” represents. Ralph’s apparent opposition to savagery clearly represents the strong belief that the other boys follow because it strongly represents the prevention of the decline of humanity; since Ralph has these distict beliefs that boys follow, he portrays good leadership qualities. Even through the immense

Jack had tried to lead the inhabitants of the island by terror and savagery instead of by order and civilization when he had declared himself chief of his hunter-driven tribe. Both his lust for blood and lust for power had aided him in becoming the savage tyrant and an antagonist of the book. Jack’s widespread fear would not have been substantial enough to build his stature in the hierarchy if the “beast” was not included in the story. The beast has been portrayed to the readers as a dead parachuter from the world war happening beside them. The characters, however, had no clue about the outside world or the parachuter who fell on the island. Therefore, the beast became a part of their fear on the island. The beast was the main antagonist in the middle of the story. It caused the most discord in the already terror-ridden state of the boys. The internal fears of the characters, the feeling of terror towards the other characters, and the nightmarish imagination of the youth, had all shown the dominating abilities of fear taking over the vulnerable sense of

“Things are breaking up. I don’t understand why. We began well. We were happy.” (Golding 87). In this statement, Ralph realizes that his life, and those of the others’ on the island, is going to hit rock-bottom. All goes terribly wrong when the beast is introduced by the littlun with the mulberry patch on his face in Chapter 2. The beast is the reason for all the chaos in Lord of the Flies. The beast is an imaginary creature that frightens all the boys, and yet, it stands symbolically for the savagery that exists within all human beings. As the boys develop their fear and grow more and more certain of the presence of a beast, they also become more and more savage. William Golding uses the beast as a way to show the demise of the boys while they are on the island. The beast represents the irrational fear that exists within man, the savage monster within us all, and the ability for man to use intimidation to gain ultimate power.

One of the biggest forms of adversity with which the boys struggled was undoubtedly learning to cope and overcome the fear the littluns had instilled upon themselves associated with ‘the beast’. Golding does this by changing the way Ralph handles the crisis and changing his basic survival instincts back to that of the society the boys have left behind and learn to be compassionate towards the obviously scared young boys. This is obvious because throughout the book Ralph has been harsh, we can see this most in the first few chapters where he himself is obviously scared at the prospect of surviving with no adult help or guidance, we can see this through the way Golding has made Ralph speak and react to the other characters, such as his harshness to another key figure in the book, Piggy. An example of this is the fact that Ralph continuously tells Piggy to ‘Shut up’. However, when he understands the littluns fear of ‘the beast’, his tone softens and he understands that they need to be protected and looked after to feel safe, this is obvious because he made sure

Ralph, the leader of the boys on the island, has a natural fear. He doesn’t fear the beast as much as his fear of not being rescued and being isolated on the island for the rest of his life. When the boys first arrived on the island Ralph immediately stepped up as leader and set up a few things they had to do. "There’s another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire."(P. ) This quote shows that Ralph’s instinct is to become civilized not act like an animal or hunt. Ralph and his ‘lieutenant’ Piggy are like partners, they make some decisions together and stick up for each other. Piggy is very intelligent and he states that “Life ... is scientific.... I know there isn't no beast ... but I know there isn't no fear, either.... Unless we get frightened of people.”(p. ) Ralph and Piggy do not believe in the beast so much, because they are both focused on other more important things. What they both do fear is losing memory of what their objective is: to be rescued. The fear as each perceived it over came each boy one by one. In some circumstances even Ralph becomes deranged by his inner evil from the beast. "Ralph...was fighting to get near....The desire to squeeze and hurt was

Further blinded by the illusion that their supposedly superior English heritage precludes savagery, the boys ignore the perverse qualities of their actions. Nevertheless, they become terrified as they increasingly feel the blight of their own evil upon the island. Attempting to attribute the decay of sanity and civilization to external sources, they fail to look inwards. When Simon correctly proposes that the beast is "maybe. . . only [themselves]" (89), the others scornfully dismiss him as "batty" (52) and his suggestion as invalid; they refuse to acknowledge Simon because they are neither capable nor willing to believe the frightening truth that the evil arises from within themselves. As a result, the boys manifest their fear in a dead parachutist whose appearance they grotesquely distort. Ironically, this source of fear comes from the majestic adult world to which they have so long

"Bollocks to the rules! We're strong--we hunt! If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down! We'll close in and beat and beat and beat--!" He gave a wild whoop and leapt down to the pale sand. At once the platform was full of noise and excitement, scramblings, screams and laughter. The assembly shredded away and became a discursive and random scatter from the palms to the water and away along the beach, beyond night-sight.” (Golding,PDF,70) This quote is showing that Jack is a good leader. Ralph is making the other boys scared of the beast, but Jack is getting the boys excited to go and do something about the beast. Like a good leader would do in this situation. Jack doesn’t want the boys to be scared of the beast anymore, so he gets them to come with him so they can face their fears, and not be scared anymore of the beast. Jack’s leadership is getting to the boys, since Jack has natural leadership and can hunt, and can protect

Ralph got the opportunity to have power over all the boys; Jack could not avoid the democratic rule. This shows Ralphs confidence with being a leader as he shares some of his power with Jack, getting him on his side. Ralph takes in account the needs and desires of the rest of the group, setting him up to be a good leader for now. This is Ralph symbolically discovering man's dark side. He understands that order and intellect are among those that can keep the evil at bay.

Imagine sitting on an airplane, then all of a sudden you wake up and find yourself stranded on an uncharted island. Your palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy. When all the adults have died and you are the only person alive with a group of boys on the break of adolescence… Without an adult how will one survive? In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies there are many characters that are perceived as savages. When an airplane crashes on an undiscovered island, the only survivors are young boys. Throughout the novel, the boys fight for their survival, but many fear that there is a beast who may be lurking on the island. As the boys were once moral, their innocence slowly disintegrates away and they turn into their true form, a bloodthirsty savage. Perhaps the beast is within themselves.

This is shown when Raph started laughing at the kids for being scared of the beast. “Ralph laughed, and the other boys laughed with him. The small boy twisted further into himself. "Tell us about the snake-thing." "Now he says it was a beastie." "Beastie?" "A snake-thing. Ever so big. He saw it." "Where?'"In the woods. "[…]" He says the beastie came in the dark" (Golding 73-80). This shows that Ralph was underestimating the little kids and then that forces the little kids to overreact. They also overreacted because they were afraid of the best because they could not control the beast. As well as it talks on page 37 about everyone thinking there is a beast, but Simion. “But there isn’t a beast! … But I tell you there isn’t a beast!” (Golding 37). This shows that all of the kids are overreacting to the beast. It also proves that Simon is overreacting trying to to prove to everyone that the beast they should not be terrified of the beast. Which is why fear can make people

The Beast The beast is a theme that constantly recurs in the Lord of the flies novel. In my opinion, Golding does an amazing job with representing the bad in people as a metaphor, The Beast. The beast tends to come out a lot more in some people and hardly ever in others. The beast appears more and more the deeper we go into the novel, it starts to represent all things bad. Neglect, irresponsibility, and irrational fears.

This is the part of the book where madness strikes. The kids become a little home sick and maybe even a little sleep deprived. Everyone starts to argue and everyone really starts to ugly. However, Ralph is really holding strong and trying to pull the whole group together even though Jack is struggling to let Ralph be the alpha dog. All of the younger kids really start to worry and be scared of a beast that lives in the forest. I like the part, on page 87, when Ralph is asking the younger kids where the beast lives. It kind of reminds me of the boogie monster that my mother would joke that it lives under my bed or sometimes in my closet just to scare me. One of Ralph’s best methods of keeping everyone in control is using the conch as a way to

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the beast is illustrated throughout the book. The appearance of the beast is the beginning of savagery in the littluns’ mind. As the story continues, more uncivilized about believing in the beast increases step by step. Golding explains that when the littluns see the beast, they are extremely scared and nervous about it. They scream and run away from the thing that they have heard and seen. On the other hand, the older boys try to convince the littluns that the beast is not real. It is just in their imaginations.

William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” effectively creates a world that portrays the flaws in society and the struggle between order and chaos. Amidst this world lies many important symbols that are vital to the interpretation of the story. The main symbol I have chosen to focus on is the beast. A symbol that is a necessity to this novel’s characters, themes, and overall meaning, as it triggers the series of events that eventually lead to the character’s downfall.

In English we read the book, “Lord of the Flies.” It was a book who’s author, William Golding, had written to show his view on man’s inherent true self. After going through WWII and seeing horrors that man would do to other man he became convinced man is inherently evil. The beast, a symbolic figure in the book, is the manifestation of the evil in every mans heart. This nonexistent beast tormented and manipulated the boys that were stranded on the island, eventually ruining the fragile civil society they built. William’s main point to bring across was even small boy, who’s ages range from five to twelve, can fall victim to the evil in