Essay On The Beast In Lord Of The Flies

The “beast,” an entity we know little about. What is it, exactly? What does it represent? During World War 2, a plane transporting English schoolboys was struck down over an unnamed island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The children became stranded, frightened, and paranoid. They then begin to put together a picture of this “beast” which plaugues them. In Lord of the Flies, again, what is the “beast”? Ultimately, the meaning of this monster is not definite, but ever-changing. The “beast” can symbolize a variety of ideas.

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is an influential novel which reveals the darkness of mankind and evil inside of all humans. Lord of the Flies is set in the early 20th century, during a time when Europe is under attack and surrounded by war. For this reason, a plane carrying a group of British schoolboys is flown away from the chaos in hopes of bringing the boys to safety. Suddenly, the airliner is mistaken for a military aircraft and taken down. After all of the pandemonium the boys soon realize that they are the only survivors. Now stranded on an unknown island, the boys must govern themselves. Soon the burning desire for power overthrows their civilized approach of leadership as a deciding factor tears the boys apart. Golding effectively uses the symbolism of the conch, the beast, and painted faces to reinforce the theme of how difficult situations reveal the demons inside of everyone. Together these symbols are applied in order to lead the reader to the suspenseful end.

Everybody is frightened by something. From pig heads impaled on a stick to a dead parachutist falling from the sky, in the world of Lord of the Flies, there are numerous reasons for which one should be scared. In the story, a group of English schoolboys find themselves stranded on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The children have no parents to protect them from the mysterious animal of a “beast” that is haunting them. The “beast” is a legacy that is abundant in changing throughout Lord of the Flies.

Civilization means to be a part of a culture, to have a leader who takes power, and to be apart of orderly society. In the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Simon is the most civilized boy on the island because he has the most positive outlook out of every boy on the island, he is insightful of what and where the beast is, and, he is the first to realize most of the problems that occur on the island.

In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, there are many symbolic concepts within the novel such as the beast, and the pigs head. Golding uses these concepts to portray to the reader his idea that when humans are left without rules or organisation they will break from a civilised manner and become savages allowing evil to over take them.

Throughout history and literature, symbols have been used to represent the bigger picture or main ideas. This allows the reader to illustrate the symbol in their head and have a much better overall understanding of the book. A number of times during Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he uses symbols to illustrate the boys’ destruction and fall from order into savagery. The regression of the boys’ civilization is evident through Golding’s symbolic use of the conch shell, the signal fire and the beastie. All are critical for expressing Golding’s overall message.

This fear leads to the death of Simon, when he comes down the mountain to tell the other boys that their is no beast he finds them reenacting an hunt. The boys at this point having lost all order and have fear controlling their thoughts mistake him for the beast and beat him to death. Though Simon tells them he is not the beast and the boys can see him up close the fear in their minds has changed the way they think to the point they lose control of themselves and continue to beat him thinking they finally have the

The beast in Lord of the Flies at the beginning of the story is fear. In document A Claire Rosenfield says “they externalize these fears into a figure of a beast.” The children on the island create a beast that they base on their fear from everything that has happened so far and what could happen. The children make the beast to show how scared they actually are and what they're afraid of because they aren't where they normally

Fear is intangible yet has perceptible effects. It plays a significant role in human behaviour. Each individual reacts to fear differently, some overcome it, while others give in to it. In William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” the theme of fear is discussed and it becomes clear that fear has the power to take over not only one’s mind but also control one’s actions.

The beast is first introduced to the boys early on in their time on the island when the crash acts as a scar to the boys and there is still a state of innocence in everyone. Piggy illustrates the boy with the mulberry-colored birthmark fears to the others (as he is too shy to speak on his own) his discovery of something else existing on the island to the entire assembly, “Tell us about the snake-thing...Now he says it was a beastie...Beastie?...A snake-thing. Ever so big. He saw it ... In the woods … He says the beastie came in the dark ... He still says he saw the beastie. It came to him and went away again an’ came back and wanted to eat him-- ...He must have had a nightmare” (35-36). Considering how innocent and civilized the boys are at

Over time man’s attempts for survival have been distracted by his fear. The power of fear is demonstrated in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Golding illustrates the breaking of order that can result from violence and power through the symbol of the beast. Golding utilizes the beast within Jack to portray the control the symbol has over each character among the island. Lastly, Golding presents a warning against people’s natural ways explaining that men must stick to the bigger picture to avoid self destruction.

As it is known, a beast is frequently associated with fear. As the English boys are on the island that they have run away to, it is shown that they encounter things that petrify them. Found in Document A is that the boys externalize their fears into the figure of a beast. Also stated in Document A, is that a mother’s job is to “dispel the terrors of the unknown”. In other words,

Throughout the novel of Lord of the Flies, William Golding provides a profound insight into human nature. Golding builds on a message that all human beings have natural evil inside them. To emphasize, the innate evil is revealed when there’s lack of civilization. The boys are constantly faced with numerous fears and eventually break up into two different groups. Although the boys believe the beast lives in the jungle, Golding makes it clear that it lurks in their hearts. The message of inner evil is portrayed throughout the book by the destruction of the conch, terrifying beast, and character developments to establish the hidden message throughout the novel.

Fear is an unpleasant caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or a threat.(Mariams Webster). Fear is a thing we all hold inside of us, we are all scared of something or someone it 's just human nature. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses a unique way of showing how fear affects human behavior, he used the boys on the island to show how fear affects the behavior of humans and how the boy 's manner and mentality changed over time. From when the boys first came on the island they are actions were normal then later on as the boys started gaining the fear of the beast they started doing abnormal actions they took certain steps because of the fear in them that had been planted by the beast in this case.

When Golding writes, “The dispersed figures had come together on the sand and were a dense black mass that revolved” (pg. 92), he is displaying a symbolic representation of the boys being what is known as the “beastie” on the island. In the previous pages of the book Golding writes, “Ralph turned involuntarily, a black, humped figure against the lagoon” (pg. 88). Golding compares the delinquent boys to this mysterious animal, which represents the destruction that the boys are going to cost the island, which will impact their survival. Piggy mentioned that “What I mean is… maybe it is only us” (pg. 89). In this quote Golding uses Piggy’s thoughts to provide for another possibility of what the “beastie” really is. Golding uses similar characteristics