Golding’s Lord of the Flies has a major character development of one of the most thought provoking and important characters in the novel. It’s whether you choose to believe this character as an actual character that will help you understand the true meaning of the Beast. In truth, the Beast is the figment of imagination in almost all the boys and through the irrationalities brought through fear of it; they proclaim on all sorts of ideas of what the Beast may be. I for one believe that the Beast is a character as it represents fear and the savagery inside us all and is a major idea in the novel rather than a reoccurring theme. However, I believe that one particular derivation of the Beast means much more than should have been expounded upon. Simon’s Beast …show more content…
I believe that the Beast’s second name and the title of the novel, Lord of the Flies actually means something. Lord of the flies, what does this mean? It can easily be explained as the pigs head on the double sided stake with the flies flying around it. But, there could be more to it. Much like Simon’s Beast was pertaining to us as humans so too with the meaning of the Beast. Think about it this way. The Beast is all controlling. It is considered to control the lives of the children of the island, much like the boogeyman who kept children at bay with their behavior. The Beast frightens the children and creates irrationalities with in them all. One can say it rules them. That’s the key word; rules. If the Beast rules then it must be a ruler. Ruler is synonymous to the word lord. So here we have a connection. The Beast rules and so must be a lord. Now if the Beast is a lord, who are its subjects? If we pay attention to the title of the book we see the words lord and flies. We have established what or who the lord is but the flies are still unknown. It’s simple, the flies have to be ruled by the Beast and those that are controlled by the Beast are non-other than the
“Maybe,” Simon said hesitantly, “maybe there is a beast… What I mean is… maybe it’s only us.” In the midst of the second world war, a plane evacuating a group of English adolescents, has crashed on an uninhabited island located in the Pacific Ocean. Lord of the Flies tells the harrowing account. As the boys allot more and more time isolated on the island, they admit to recognizing an unidentifiable figure dwelling within the area, this “beast” however, isn’t the typical lion, tiger, or bear; This mysterious entity is portrayed to have various alternating elements throughout the documents in an attempt to establish a definite identity to this phenomenon conceiving the the question, what is the “beast”?
In the beginning of Lord of The Flies, the author first recognized the beast as a representation of fear. The author claims in Document A that Claire Rosefield interprets it as a symbol of fear. The text states that there are “no comforting mothers to dispel the terrors of the unknown” and that “they externalize these fears into the figure of a beast.” In Document B, the image of fear becomes clear. Golding starts further developing this image when the boy with the mulberry birthmark claims to have seen the beast.
The Lord of the Flies represents evil. No matter how someone is raised or taught hos to live, deep inside us there is still and undeveloped way of thinking. The boar’s head, which the Lord of the Flies takes over, signifies the savagery of the boys and how they have changed. They went from being civilized to
The book takes place in the wake of World War II. A plane evacuating a group of English schoolboys was shot down over an island in the Pacific Ocean. Shortly after the crash, the boys began to obsess over the “Beast.” In Lord of the Flies, what does this monstrosity symbolize? In this novel, the “Beast” is symbolized by multiple meanings that change as the story progresses.
“ He says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung in the branches. He says will it come back tonight?” In the Lord of the Flies, a group of boys are stranded on an isolated, unnamed island. These boys are being pursued by an unidentifiable “beast”. However, what does this “beast” symbolize or represent? Over time the understanding of the “beast” materializes in various forms.
In the novel Lord of the Flies, what is the beast? Well the beast first represents fear, then war, then savagery of human nature. The beast leads to arguments, fear, and savagery. The beast should not have been in the thoughts of the boys. If only the boys had their parents there with them.
Throughout the Bible, Satan always causes trouble to people in biblical times by making them behave wickedly in God’s sight. The fear of the beast does the same to the boys, by making them chaotic and uncivilized people. The term “Lord of the Flies” is also English for “Beelzebub”, another name for the Devil. This is another factor into alluding to a biblical analogy involving Satan. Hence, other parts of the Bible are incorporated into themes by Lord of the
As a species, humans have an innate fear of the unknown. In Lord of the Flies, the boys create the symbol of the beast to represent many of their fears: of not being rescued, of each other, and of death. Golding uses concept of the beast as a unifying theme that brings the group of boys together throughout the course of the novel. As the boys begin to split ideologically, the beast has an impact on each individual character’s actions and their reasoning. To Jack, the beast united the group behind him and his protection, and he uses the beast to motivate them in their actions. For Ralph, democracy and civilization as the boys knew in Britain is very important, and he uses the beast to bring everyone together and act in the best interests of the group. Simon maintains his solitude and individuality throughout the novel, but the beast brings him to the realization that he must be united with the group or be killed. The beast is a unifying symbol that has important ramifications on the actions of Jack, Ralph, and Simon.
Throughout the novel Lord Of The Flies, the boys on the island are continuously faced with numerous fears. Subsequently there is nothing on the island which they fear more than the beast. The beast is not a tangible object that can be killed or destroyed by conventional means, but an idea symbolizing the primal savage instincts within all people. Its Golding’s intention to illustrate the innate evil inside man through his view of human nature, the actions of the Jack and his tribe, and the relationship between the beast and the school boys.
The tragedies that unfold their civilization occur when they brutally beat Simon to death. After Jack and his hunters place the mother sow’s head in the forest as an offer to the beast they think exists, Simon encounters it and sees that it is covered in flies. Suddenly, the head started to talk to Simon as he feels like he is going to faint. It identifies itself to be the Lord of the Flies. It says, “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?” (Golding 158). Simon then realizes that there is no physical beast, but a mental beast in each and every boy on the island. They all went from being joyful to a bunch of savages. Their
All throughout this novel the boys are called to meetings to discuss the rules, the fire, and many other assorted things. One of these things is a beast that comes in the night but does not leave foot prints or any trail at any time. All the boys are very afraid of this beast and what it may do to them if it gets hold of them. As it turns out the beast is in the boys: "'You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you?'"(172). This is the "lord of the flies," also known as the beast, talking to Simon the first boy murdered. The beast is their unwillingness to maintain a civilization; it is their transformation into savages. All the time at all these meetings the boys respect the conch and whoever held the conch was respected, even if he was not liked. Once this symbol of
In the story, Lord of the Flies, there are many biblical allusions; Simon represents Jesus, the pig’s head represents Satan or rather their satanic sides, Jack represents Judas, and the island represents the Garden of Eden. Through out this novel these allusions play large parts in the story and ideals place in the story.
“Maybe ... maybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only us”(William Golding). In the novel Lord of The Flies, William Golding exhibits the symbolism and representation of the beast. The beast represents the norm of society and how most citizens are conceived to evil. As the novel progresses, the reader's perspective of the beast transforms from a possibly harmful animal into to a representation of human civilization and how humans are ignorant and oblivious when it becomes survival of the fittest. The concept of the beast changes significantly during the novel from first the beast on land, then to the beast in the air and finally to the beast within the kids themselves.
In William Golding's “Lord of the Flies”, a group of marooned schoolboys exchange what they know to be civil for an unrestrained, unjust lifestyle. Golding depicts multiple situations to chronicle the dangers that are induced by both engaging in a somewhat depraved existence, and completely denying and ignoring the chance for mankind to be evil. On the island, even when the boys first arrive, the crash of their plane is referred to as the scar that is left on the boys. This seemed to be overlooked by the boys, and shortly after they arrived the younger boys complain about a “beastie.” In this sense, the scar is the very arrival of the boys on the island, and the beastie is the evil that lurks inside them. A young boy named Simon believes that the Lord of the Flies is the head of a sow the boys had previously killed. It says to him, “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?” (Golding) This pig head represents the depravity within us as individuals. In “Lord of the Flies,” the dangers aren’t external, they’re internal. There aren’t any savages to fight, just the savagery that apparently dwells within each of us - or at least according to Golding, basically within all young boys. Jack
The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is an allegory that connects the boys’ behavior in the novel to the basic behavior of human nature. In the novel, the boys fear a wild beast that has the potential to kill them off. However, Simon, a quiet boy, finds that the beast is not an animal that everyone should fear, but is a part of each boy himself.