Why things are what they are?” As Simon begins to faint the beast says, “We are going to have fun on this island!” The lord of the flies admits to Simon he is inside all the boys, he is the savagery and the evil that has a hold on them. “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could kill!” The more wild and deviant the children act the stronger and more real the beast becomes. The beast is seen as a threat to all the boys except Simon, who understands that the beast resides in the boys. Their fear of the beast formed a connection between them until Jack manipulated their fear to create two different groups to maintain power. Savagery is a primal instinct that exists within all humans and isn't something that can be
George R.R. Martin once said, “There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.” In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding the children have a savage beast hidden within them. Human savagery is influenced by power, status, and even possession of tools. Ralph and Jack, leaders of the group, allow for the beast to awaken in them as they struggle to survive on the island. Jack is the first character who is corrupted by his human savagery.
It also showed how Jack’s leadership lead them nowhere and was no help in actually starting the fire. Jack starts to develop this obsession with hunting and murdering a pig in chapter 3, “ At the length he let out his breath in long sigh and opened his eyes. They were bright blue, eyes that in this frustration seemed bolting and nearly mad” (48). However, his obsession with hunting is shown as early as chapter 2, “ But if there was a snake we’d hunt and kill it. We’re going to hunt pigs to get meat for everybody” (36).
The boys fear the beast as an outside object or living thing, even though they are unsure of what the beast actually is. Samneric caught sight of the dead parachutist and ran away to tell the other boys that there is a beast on the island. In doing this it released fear and chaos on the island because they think they are in danger of a wild beast. Simon was the only one in the group who knew the truth about the beast but was unable to tell the other boys. “He crawled forward and soon understood….the wind’s indignity.”(162).
Jack’s desire to become the chief over the tribe causes him to harm Ralph with his spear: “Viciously, with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph” (181). It represents a symbol of power for Jack, causing greed to overcome him, making him think that he’s capable of killing the beast, but in society, evil cannot kill evil, showing that corrupt politicians will always exist within our government. In addition, the spear symbolizes the evil does when the controls of civilization are released, ultimately resulting in the downfall of society. Although the savagery use of the spear is also established by Ralph during the pig hunt, Ralph is more repressed and despite his ideas towards the civilization, he also has an evil side. Jack’s complete savagery regarding the dominance of power through the spear replaces Ralph’s disciplined community on the island.
In Lord of the Flies, the only one who truly learns and discovers the truth about fear is Simon. On the island the group of boys discover that there may be a beastie. With this thought in their head, some of the boys like Jack have this insane thought of hunting it down. This thought later drives the group of boys to become obsessed about the beast. Simon knew the truth; “maybe there is a beast…what I mean is maybe it’s only us”(Golding 89).
As the group doesn’t know much about the beast, Jack uses the power of the unknown to create a false image of the beast such as the time when Simon was mistaken for the beast. Simon was killed on that feast and though Jack’s tribe believed that Simon was the beast, Jack made them think that ‘“He came—disguised. He may come again even though we gave him the head of our kill to eat. So watch; and be careful.”’ (Golding, 160) Jack declared it when he and several of his members went hunting and needed some to stay and guard. Jack uses the power of fear of the beast to make sure his members will not wander off while at guard.
The boys run to the pig, excited for their first kill, yet as Jack raises his knife, he realizes that he cannot bring it down on this piglet even though it means food. Jack has never killed a piglet before, and he has trouble trying to demonstrate his manliness to the other boys and cannot kill the pig. Although he wants to impress the boys, he is a civil person, and killing creatures is unnatural to him. He tries to make excuses for not killing it, and Jack and Simon
This is the first sign of the devolution of Jack. The way he is bent over whilst hunting for prey is similar to how our ancestors behaved. Another signal is when Jack argues with Ralph stating that "We want meat" (Golding 53). This shows that Jack is starting to lust for blood. The exact opposite happened to him earlier in the story when he could not kill the pig because he was too scared.
As the story evolves, the children’s dread of the beast increases. This is for the reason that Jack encourages the existence of the evil creature to the point that he convinces the boys to make an offering to the beast to appease him. “This head is for the beast. It’s a gift. The silence accepted the gift and awed them.” The previous passage demonstrates that the boys’ dismay of the Lord of the Flies is gradually growing.