Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

894 Words2 Pages

In a world without law or order, fear can lead to savagery and bring out the worst of people. Such a world can destroy a person both physically and mentally. Humans would live in chaos and civilization would be lost. We see this portrayed in the William Golding's infamous novel, Lord of the Flies, when the horrendous crash of an airplane penetrates the island's serenity and disrupts the air with the crackling sounds of the blazing fire. William Golding uses the "beast" to return the boys of the island to their primal instincts, contributing to his commentary on human nature.

The beast symbolizes the growing fear that lies dormant, deep in the children’s souls and turns the boys into uncivilized beings. William Golding uses the beast to instill fear in the souls of the boys. While everyone is scared of the beast and questioning what it exactly is, Simon suggests something else. He agrees with everyone that the beast might just exist. But unlike everyone else, Simon comments, "maybe it's only us.” (Golding 89) This comment shows that the beast might just coexist in their bodies. The beast is just made up and not real, and only a product of their increasing fear of the unknown. The fear of the beast activates their primal instincts and makes them lose all grasps of civilization. Without the mindset to survive, the boys struggle to find food and build shelter efficiently. They slowly lose everything they had when they came to the island. The boys are acting like Native Americans in a sense because their actions resemble the Native Americans through the chanting, dancing and face painting to represent power and fierceness. The settlement on the deserted island triggers the fear that lies deep in them. Each person on the island comb...

... middle of paper ...

...oexists with the boys.

Eventually, the fear of the beast takes over everyone. The boys nearly lose their sanity and metamorphose completely into the beast as Jack did. The process of a boy becoming a savage is a recurring event. The first step is when the boys arrive on the island, breaking the barrier of tranquility that once existed. Then, fear grows through the ideas of the other boys, giving everyone clouded thoughts and vivid imaginations of the "beast". Fear ultimately consumes the boys entirely, turning them into savages and making them rely on their primal instincts to survive in a world without unity or order. The integration of the beast and the boys is only possible given the circumstances that William Golding creates in the novel and is unparalleled in today's society as we see this old perspective of the primitive times of society that once existed.

Fear in William Golding´s Lord of the Flies
889 Words | 2 Pages
Our first aspect of Fear in the novel comes into play with the Beast. This fictional character becomes the center of the boys problems on the island and brings a long chaos and death. Simon is murdered due to the befuddlement of Simon being mistaken as the beast when in fact he was the jesus like figure and his death was a representation of sacrifice. The beast was not something tangible it was simply the boys because the beast was themselves. Our biggest demons in life rest within oneself, and on the island the beast was just a justification for the boys to blame their wrong doings on. William Golding refers to this using the role of simon by stating: “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" (158)?
Read More
The Beast In Lord Of The Flies
820 Words | 2 Pages
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the beast gives the children a sense of fear throughout the story. It also shows that it is one of the children's top priorities, as they hunt for it and try to protect themselves from it. The children use the beast to work together, but as the novel progresses the group goes through a separation. The beast is an important role in the novel, having many forms of concepts about it. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the concept of the beast as a whole is used as fear, reality, and evil.
Read More
William Golding Lord Of The Flies Beast Analysis
1446 Words | 3 Pages
When we hear the word “beast,” most of us will immediately think of some enormous hairy creature with razor sharp fangs and massive claws coming to kill and eat us. Although these types of beasts do exist, the boys in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, show that a different, much more sinister beast is present in all of our everyday lives, and, like the boys in the book, most of us don’t even know about it. Throughout the book, the existence and meaning of the beast go through significant changes. In the beginning, the boys believe the beast to be a substantive being. At first no one believes it, but later they begin to believe its existence. Later though, the beast reveals itself as an internal flaw within everyone on the island, and slowly begins to take over the children’s free will. As the belief in the beast goes up, its manifestation as the “typical beast” that we all think of goes down, which is ironic because they are creating the beast in their minds, while also living it out in their actions.
Read More
Fear Of The Unknown Analysis
1281 Words | 3 Pages
In the beginning, they are afraid of the creatures on the island and what threats they will bring since they have never been alone before. The first horror they come to fear is the beastie; an unfamiliar animal that has a desire to devour human flesh. When a fire erupts, "they look at each other fearfully, unbelieving" because they are terrified of the undiscovered creatures that exist in the forest (Golding 47). The boys create an idea in their mind of what the beastie is, and this image that they create in their minds is far more terrifying than what the beastie actually is; a snake.
Read More
Literary Analysis
1232 Words | 3 Pages
... middle of paper ... ... The frenzied state they are in is being caused by the beast, a symbol of fear. The barbaric way the boys attacked Simon without a moment of restraint shows that the beast had summoned their inner evil, primal, and savage minds.
Read More
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1025 Words | 3 Pages
What is human nature? How does William Golding use it in such a simple story of English boys to precisely illustrate how truly destructive humans can be? Golding was in World War Two, he saw how destructive humans can be, and how a normal person can go from a civilized human beign into savages. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses the theme of human nature to show how easily society can collapse, and how self-destructive human nature is. Throughout the story Golding conveys a theme of how twisted and sick human nature can lead us to be. Many different parts of human nature can all lead to the collapse of society. Some of the aspects of human nature Golding plugged into the book are; destruction, demoralization, hysteria and panic. These emotions all attribute to the collapse of society. Golding includes character, conflict, and as well as symbolism to portray that men are inherently evil.
Read More
Fear in Lord of the Flies
1007 Words | 3 Pages
Now, the fear moves on from what they think. is the beast to something much more dangerous. Now, they are afraid of each other. At first, the island was thought to be a paradise for the boys. It is a dream come true.
Read More
Savagery Lord Of The Flies Analysis
1720 Words | 4 Pages
Throughout the story, the fear the boys have of the beast becomes incredibly strong. This ends up driving the boys apart, as seen when Jack organizes a feast for the boys to try to get people to join his tribe, separate from Ralph: “‘I gave you food,’ said Jack, ‘and my hunters will protect you from the beast. Who will join my tribe?’”(172). Everyone is afraid of the beast at this point, and Jack uses this fear to urge people to join his group of hunters. The fear of the beast in turn because a driving factor of the group tearing apart, leaving Ralph against angry savages by the end of the book. The beast therefore is a cause of the boy’s opening up to their inner savagery. The reason for this is explained when Jack gives the beast a physical being when he puts the head of one of the pigs he killed, and Simon, in an hallucination, hears it speak: “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?”(164). The pig’s head, or the Lord of the Flies, is a physical manifestation of the beast in Simon’s hallucination, and it explicitly states it is part of Simon. In other words, the beast is representative of the savagery and evil within humans, not a monster roaming the island. The only fear the boys have had is fear of what is within: their inherent evil. This idea is perpetuated when all the boys go to Jack’s tribe’s feast, and end up doing a pig dance, when an unsuspecting Simon comes stumbling into the area the boys are doing their dance in: “‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!’...The beast was on its knees in the center, its arms folded over its face… At once the crowd surged after it, poured down
Read More
Innocence In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies
1354 Words | 3 Pages
After the boys crash on the island, their immediate reaction to the island is its beauty. The weather on the island was hot and humid, without a breeze. The look of the “dazzling beach and the water” (Golding) is unlike anything they have ever seen. The island was superior in their eyes as “The boys find themselves in a tropical paradise: bananas, coconuts, and other fruits are profusely available.” (Slayton) There was no fear and an instant commodore due to the circumstance. However, after becoming comfortable, a natural fear of the unknown begins to settle “as if it wasn’t a good island” (Golding) and they find themselves faced with an entity named, The Beast. This dark fear comes back to haunt them later.
Read More
Symbols and Symbolism in Lord of the Flies
1720 Words | 4 Pages
Another of the most important symbols used to present the theme of the novel is the beast. In the imaginations of many of the boys, the beast is a tangible source of evil on the island. However, in reality, it represents the evil naturally present within everyone, which is causing life on the island to deteriorate. Simon begins to realize this even before his encounter with the Lord of the Flies, and during one argument over the existence of a beast, he attempts to share his insight with the others.
Read More
Peer Pressure In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding
983 Words | 2 Pages
Most children, especially infants, do not know what is real and what is not real due to all the scary movies they watch, the scary stories they are told, and the nightmares they have. Therefore, they need an adult to remind them of what is real and what is imaginary. But since there are no adults no the island to remind the boys of these things, they are scared. All the fear that evokes from the boys causes chaos. " ’He still says he saw the beastie. It came and went away again an' came back and wanted to eat him--’ ‘He was dreaming.’ Laughing, Ralph looked for confirmation round the ring of faces. The older boys agreed; but here and there among the little ones was the doubt that required more than rational assurance,” (Golding 36). The little boy who said he saw a beast spreads fear among the crowd of boys, especially the little ones. Ralph tries to remind them that the beast is not real, but the boys don’t believe him since Ralph is not an adult. The fear that is still among the boys causes them to believe that there really is a beast and causes growing chaos throughout the novel. The growing chaos transforms the boys into savages and causes violent behavior. This factor and the other two factors, peer pressure and the boys’ desire to have fun, caused them to transform into
Read More
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
797 Words | 2 Pages
Lord of the Flies by William Golding Through his writing in the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding's view on. nature is not as in the plant and tree kind of nature, but in the nature of man at a young age of life. Golding is trying to portray what instincts and desires are like at an early time in a man's life when there are no adults around to help shape those. feelings to fit in with the mainstream society that people live in everyday. The nature of man is any and all of the instincts and desires of a person or animal.
Read More
Fear In Lord Of The Flies Essay
1640 Words | 4 Pages
The most evident form of fear in the minds of the boys is the beast. Throughout the novel, the beast is mentioned many times, but is never truly seen. This fear provokes self-conflict in the boys that leads to many important events on the island. To start off, when Samneric find the dead parachutist on the mountain, they describe him as “‘It was furry. There was something moving behind its head--wings. The beast moved too’ ‘That was awful. It kind of sat up--’.... ‘Teeth--’ ‘Claws--’”(100). These made up descriptions of the “beast” symbolizes how the fear in their minds had altered the reality of what they were seeing, leading to many problems afterwards, because of this imaginary encounter, the fire had to be moved and many of the boys were too scared to go on the mountain again or be alone, because they thought that now there was definite proof of the existence of the beast. Likewise, this fear makes the boys question simple things on the island, and the paranoia makes them not want to do seemingly simple tasks. This is shown when the boys are hunting the beast and want to climb the mountain, but they want someone to go back to tell Piggy, who was in the shelters with the littluns, that they were
Read More
Lord of the Flies: Fear of the Unknown
1000 Words | 2 Pages
On contrary from all the other boys on the island Simon, a Christ like figure in the novel, did not fear the ‘beastie’ or the unknown. “Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us” Simon explained. (p. 97) The fear of the unknown in the novel contributes to the boys’ terror of the beast, the beast is an imaginary figure which lays in all of the boys’ minds and haunts them. Golding uses the beast as a symbol of the evil that exists in every creature. "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 the way they are?" The sow head announced to Simon to be the “lord of the flies”. The “lord of the flies” is a figure of the devil, and brings out all the evil and fear in people. It wants you to fear it, but if you don’t believe in the “lord of the flies” nothing can happen to you. Therefore Simon didn’t fall into the trap, but the beast killed him, meaning the other boys on the island did. Simon discovered that the beast is in fact just a dead parachute man before he died and ran down to tell the boys about his finding. When Sim...
Read More
We Are All Born Evil In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies
883 Words | 2 Pages
What is the beast? The beast isn’t a real living creature, it is the fear of non-routine and when the inner evil is released. When the boys (mostly older) started to realize that they are on the island by themselves, they started to act differently. " I was choosing a place, said Jack I
Read More

Open Document

Wait a second!

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

Fear in William Golding´s Lord of the Flies

The Beast In Lord Of The Flies

William Golding Lord Of The Flies Beast Analysis

Fear Of The Unknown Analysis

Literary Analysis