Explanation: And here we have one of the most painful parts of the book to read. It started as a game, but it didn’t take long for it to spiral downhill. That mob-mentality thing I was talking about before horrifically comes into play here. The paragraph starts with saying Simon was crying, but as soon as the mob turns on him he’s described as they see it, the beast, degraded to an it. Nothing but the tearing of teeth, in other words they kept attacking even after he was dead. Simon represented the goodness of humanity and true kindness, and after this there’s nothing but horror and evil. When Simon died the good parts of the island left with him.
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.
Some of the smaller children, when they first land on the island, begin to dream about a “beast” that haunts them in the night. When this is brought up at an assembly, Ralph rejects it, as do the other boys. Simon pipes up and suggests it may be “only us”. After this idea is challenged by the boys, Simon tries to explain, yet he “became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness” (Page 89). The beast is metaphoric of the crude feral nature within every human, though naturally more prominent in those who act on it willingly. Simon later encounters the Lord of the Flies (a pig’s head on a stick that Jack left as a sacrifice for the beast) who “speaks” to Simon while he is having a brain clot. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon that it is the beast, that it’s inside of everyone. “Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill!” (Page 143) it tells him, reminding Simon that to defeat the “beast”, or evil, within a person is impossible to physically accomplish. It’s as if everyone has a ticking time bomb of malevolence that is kept in check by our moral values and societal standards. When not kept in check, however, individuals with the tendency to act on said malevolence will slowly find the beast inside themselves surfacing. The dark part of every being can be instigated when provocative circumstances deem it so, and when encouraged by a group. We find comfort in numbers, and we tend to do things we wouldn’t normally find ourselves doing simply for the sake of the togetherness. Simon is killed through this very premise, when he stumbles upon the tribal dance of Jack’s hunters. During a storm that frightens the boys, Jack suggests doing their “dance”. What ensues is a ring of chanting and dancing, and the acting out of killing the “beast”, or in other cases, a pig. Simon
In the words of David Gemmell, “there is evil is all of us, and it is the mark of a man how he defies the evil within.” The beast in the novel starts as a symbol of fear and something that was ignored but ends up creating chaos and representing evil. In William Golding 's, Lord of the Flies, the boys making fun of the little boy for being scared of the beastie and the boys doubting Sam and Eric, Simons hallucination, and Simon 's death are evidence that show the evil and ignorance in the boys.
Humans are though to be the most developed living species on the planet Earth. However, throughout life, one can also see humans can be so evil and illogical during moments of desperation that the ability of reason is cannot be found. In the book Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Golding depicts many examples of human nature with the use of characters he placed in the story. One of these characters is a boy named Simon. Golding uses Simon to describe compassion, wisdom and insight, and a Christ-like figure.
First of all, Simon 's tender-hearted nature is one of the characteristics that links him to Jesus Christ. He shows this attribute in the book through compassion and appreciation to everything. At one point in the book, Simon is exploring in the jungle when some littluns who were following him motion toward some fruit in some trees that they couldn 't quite reach. "Simon found for them the fruit that they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands." (56) Some boys in the book found the littuns annoying and not as important. However, Simon was compassionate towards them. He took his time to help them get the fruit that they couldn 't reach because he cared for them. When the first pig of many is hunted, killed, cooked, and eaten, the boys rejoice because of the large amounts of meat and
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.
One of the primary areas we saw this in is on page 153. “At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws”, Goulding had written. Here we can see the brutal murder of Simon, or the so called Beast, by his beloved friends. None of his friends meant to kill Simon, yet they got caught up into a frenzy of emotions which drove them in order to do it. This supports the philosophy that mankind is evil. This scene leaves mankind with a vile portrayal consequently presenting them as barbaric and
Stuck on an island with kids and an unknown “beast” what is it? The story of Lord of the Flies occurs during World War 2 on a deserted island after a plane filled with children crashed and where a new beast takes over . What is the beast? The beast in Lord of the Flies is constantly changing from fear to war then to savagery. So what is the meaning of the beast in the Lord of the Flies?
. . maybe it's only us... Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness” (89). As Simon realizes that “maybe it’s only us”, this reveals that the beast is not necessarily something that exists outside in the jungle. Rather, it already exists inside each boy’s mind and soul, the capacity for savagery and evil that slowly overwhelms them. Although the other boys laugh off Simon’s suggestion, Simon’s words are central to Golding’s philosophy of anti-transcendentalism, that innate human darkness exists. Simon is the first character in the novel to see “mankind’s essential illness” which in turn, shows the beast not as an external force but as a component of human nature. Simons deep understanding of the beast is further expressed in his hallucination or his “discussion” with the lord of the flies that he has after one of his fainting spells, “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! 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?”
Envision this: you’re a young schoolboy on an island with other boys your age, no parents, and a beast. What could this beast possibly be though? In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, young schoolboys have run away from their homes to fend-off rules and wind up coming in contact with a beast. This beast evolves throughout the story and appears to symbolize a multitude of things.
Evil and savagery lives within and it can be brought out when you are forced to fight for something. We all have a dark side that may not show until faced with a challenging task. Lord of the Flies is about a group of young boys stuck on an island after their plane crashes. There are no adults and they are left to survive by themselves. They have to decide between right and wrong. The boys have an unjustified fear of the “beast”. In chapter nine specifically, Simon wakes up and realizes that the beast is actually just a dead man who had crashed on the island after his plane exploded. Simon goes to tell the others. They are in the middle of a feast and are filled with excitement and end up killing Simon. This is a turning point in the novel. The boys were pushed to this level of savagery by the need for power. In chapter nine of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs symbolism, repetition, and animal imagery to convey the theme that the need for power can cause people to become savages.
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.