preview

Examples Of Animal Imagery In Lord Of The Flies Chapter 9

Decent Essays

Beast, devil, evil, corruption, the seven deadly sins, they all represent some form of evil within humankind. Lord of the Flies is the story of schoolboys that have crash landed on an abandoned island, and go through many hardships as they fight for power and try to be saved. Throughout the story, however, they boys go from having a civilized structure to utter chaos, they struggle for their lives and grasp for survival from a darker creature on the island. Within chapter nine, Simon discovers the beast for what it really is; meanwhile Ralph and Piggy decide to join the other bigguns for a feast with Jack’s tribe. The boys play and dine, and circle together for a “dance” when Simon stumbles out of the forest to tell them of his discovery, and lands in the circle, which results in him being brutally beat to death. This attack on Simon demonstrates how the fear of the beast that the boys are experiencing is affecting their better judgment, and pushes their morals to the side, just so that they can feel safe. In chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs repetition, animal imagery, and natural imagery to convey the theme that fear can corrupt humans, which pushes them to engage in unspeakable acts. …show more content…

Simon is often referred to as the beast during this chapter, showing how the boys are only seeing him as an animal that they must hunt and kill. Found on page 153, Golding writes, “There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.” This use of words with a very negative and animalistic connotation brings about a feeling that the boys have changed quite a lot whilst being on the island, and are no longer hunting for meat, but to satisfy an animalistic instinct inside of them, as Golding depicts in

Get Access