This sentence comes from the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The story is about a group of boys stranded on an island, desperately trying to survive. It begins lighthearted and fun but slowly takes a terrifying turn as the boys fall into madness and paranoia. An reoccurring theme throughout the book is the beast, a monster which the boys believe is on the island with them. This sentence is used in the context of the story to show that the beast is not actually real but the fear it represents is and it plays a key role in the gradual loss of humanity in the characters.
This sentence is spoken in chapter eight to one of the boys named Simon by a dead pig, or the lord of the flies as it is referred to. Simon had passed out in the previous chapter and awoke to a hallucination of this pig talking to him. Simon is a special character in the book. He is always shown to be kind and caring even when everyone else appears to be going mad. He is used to represent a small amount of good while the rest of the island falls into evil. It was no accident that he was the one this line was spoken too. He was the only person that the savagery couldn't corrupt so he was the only one able to discover the truth about the beast. He had suspicions that the beast was inside the boys, not an actually physical being, but this vision confirms it for him. The lord of the flies even asks “you knew, didn’t you?” proving that all along Simon had known subconsciously the real beast was
“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 chapter 3 an argument breaks out between Ralph and Jack over the group's priorities. Ralph is trying to build shelters and an SOS fire while Jack and his hunters are craving some meat. I agree with Ralph wanting the priority to be on getting rescued and staying alive, but I disagree with him complaining about it because he is the leader and it's his job to get everyone working. With Jack I understand and agree that people will get tired of eating fruit and other foods similar to that, but I dislike how he's complaining when he's the one that is responsible for hunting. The argument that these two boys have are what I believe to be purely because of laziness. However if they don’t set things right, this problem is only going to
“There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast--Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! Said the head. You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s a no go? Why things are the way they are?” (page 206)
This quote conveys how the characters in the novel have desire to kill the beast so that they can survive. Moreover, the evil within certain characters like Jack and his tribe make them impatient which lead them to mistakenly think Simon as a beast in the night and murder him. It also shows how the boys are turning to behave like animals or savages in order to escape and save themselves from the beast. Basically, human nature is naturally evil due to the competition for survival.
“When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed”(Rand). This was stated by Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand; the extract relates to the novel William Golding wrote called Lord of the Flies. Golding wrote about a group of schoolboys trapped on an island from a plane crash. The boys had to figure out how to survive without grownups. Trying to survive was difficult because they had to have common sense and order. They lose those traits throughout the book which resulted in selfishness and corrupt behaviors.
Symbol: The long hair represents how long they have been on the island. The “painted faces and long hair” symbolize savagery. Jack paints his face and it makes him feel as if he is one with nature to symbolize his savagery.
Sometimes whats ideal in a situation is not what the truth of the situation and can cause your ideals to be lost. In William Golding’s novel, “Lord of the Flies”, he demonstrates a shift in some of the characters from the thought of idealism to the reality and truth of the world. Ralph is a good example of this shift, he starts out thinking the island will be a fun place and they’ll have fun waiting to be rescued, but soon he realizes that there is going to be more hardship and struggles to keep up the moral and hope of rescue. In the book Ralph wanted to keep everyone safe and get them off the island, but Jack wants to be a leader and messes up his plans, making it so that Ralph is alone in his plan to get rescued.
In the beginning of the novel, a group of boys are stranded on an island resulting in the creation and decline of a civilization, and an uprising of savagery. Fear is an essential element of the story illustrated through foreshadowing, symbolism and diction. The young boys are terrified by a beast on the island. With fear rippling through the group, sheer chaos, savagery, a break in civilization, and a loss of innocence ensues.
People are controlled by Society in many ways, such as the clothes they wear, and the music they listen to. It all depends on the society. The way people are controlled by society is by the rules that are made, like when Sam n’ Eric became traders it was a rule that they could not leave Jack’s tribe.With the bad society the boys are in on the island, When Piggy gets knocked off the cliff and died the boys were not upset, they were angry and continued to try and kill each other. Since there are no adults on the island they have to take care of themselves which turns into them trying to hunt and kill each other.
Ralph had stopped crying, and resorted to distracting himself with thoughts of seeing his dad and being home again. He knew that his Britain had been destroyed, but he held on to the hope that everything would be back to normal soon. He was more satisfied with his appearance after showering, which felt very foreign after only a couple of weeks. His hair was still covering his eyes, but it was less of a hassle since it was clean. Ralph mostly had been sitting in the large room with the other kids, but he kept to himself. Actually, most of the boys kept to themselves. The realization of what happened on the island hung heavily in the room, silent all for a few smaller kids crying together in the corner.
(Law and Order) "We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything. So we've got to do the right things." (Golding 42)
During the meeting where the boys are questioning the reality of the beast, Simon says this,”What I mean is...maybe it’s only us”(Golding 89). While everyone else is debating on whether or not the beast is real, Simon is trying to propose that the actual beast is the boys themselves in the form of their savage impulses. Simon is the first character in the novel to see the beast as the evil nature of humans instead of a physical being. The Lord of the Flies confirms Simon’s thought, saying,”Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!...You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close!”(Golding 143). This establishes that the only thing to fear on the island is the evil human instinct inside of
The Youngins, are well, young. These boys are all alone, on an island, so if anything they do not understand happens, they have to have an excuse. Thus the Beast comes into play. The boys are scared of the beast at night also, because this is when they cannot see what's going on. Thus blaming the beast for everything. 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."(35). The younger boys, are very scared of the so called “Beast” even claiming to see it. But, they are scared just more than just the fact that there is something on the island. It is the fact that they can not explain everything that is happening on the island. So, it is safe to say, that in Lord Of the Flies, the Beast means way more than just a literal monster, and resembles all the problems that are happening, to the
The encounter with the Lord of the Flies supports Simon’s thoughts that the beast that the boys are hunting for is not an actual animal. The Lord of the Flies tries to persuade Simon to let go of his rational thoughts and be taken over by his primal instincts in order to have fun like the other boys. However, when Simon’s silence declares that he refuses to let go of logic and rationality, the Lord of the Flies realizes that Simon knows what the beast really is—the innermost part of the boys. Simon seems to make this connection that the Lord of the Flies is representational to the inner beast within the boys almost instantly. “His gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable recognition”(Golding 139). Simon instantly The Lord of the Flies quickly makes the connection, too. “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, 1 ). The Lord of the Flies is symbolic to all the evil that is in humans. As Simon realizes that he was right about the beast, he tries to go back to the other boys to warn them about his discovery, but the Lord of the Flies gets angry. “This is ridiculous. You know perfectly well you’ll only meet me down there—so don’t try to
American philosopher and author HP Lovecraft once wrote that “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” This is illustrated when discussing the beast in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a classic novel, in which a plane carrying British schoolboys crashes onto a deserted island and the boys are forced to create a civilization of their own for any chance at survival. However, many challenges get in the way of any sort of functioning society. The beast, or “beastie” to the boys, an unknown force that serves as a metaphor for the fear that the boys feel throughout the novel, plays an increasingly major role as time goes on. However, many of the main characters have