Significance of the Beast in William Golding's Lord of the Flies
The beast represents emotions, fear and insanity for several different characters in the story Lord Of The Fies. To all the boys the beast relates to a different thing and means something different.
The talk of danger on the island is first brought up on the first day when a small boy claims he saw a 'beastie.' the previous night the older boys don't listen to what the boy has to say and continue their daily discussions. As a group there are mixed feelings about the beast the older boys used the word 'fear' to describe the beast I feel they did this so they didn't sound immature, by believing in monsters however the younger boys showed
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' Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach, pulled of the choicest from up in the foliage.' The littleuns look up to him for doing this and think of him as almost a Christ like figure ' The littleuns watched him inscrutable over double handfuls of ripe fruit.'
Because Simon has a vivid imagination and is at one with nature he is described in the book as hearing the pig's head, which is a gift to the beast, speak to him. The head was described in the most unpleasant way as 'the obscene thing grinned and dripped.' It was also described as ' the lord of the flies.' This is because of the amount of flies attracted to the pig's head. We can tell Simon isn't really having a conversation with this pigs head as Simon is described as 'answered him in the same silent voice.' So as we can see form this he is on the verge of insanity.
The head starts telling Simon truthful things to hurt him for example 'they think your batty, you don't want Ralph to think your batty do you? You like Ralph a lot,' these things upset Simon as deep down he knows the head is speaking out Simons inner deep
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It is ironic as Simon sees himself as the beast as in the next chapter Simon goes to find the others who are over excited dancing and chanting hysterically about killing the beast when Simon walks in jack shouts out 'look the beast,' the boys are just entering insanity and in there hysterical madness they beat Simon to death with their spears.
I personally believe that the beast represents the way in which people will try to convince himself that there is no evil inside of them by making someone or something else seem to be the cause for the evil. You can see this developing as the beast gets discussed more and more the boys become more evil. At the end when the island reaches its peak of hysterical insane riotess evil there is suddenly an anti
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)?
Lord of flies is about a group of schoolboys, who got stuck on uninhabited island after a plane crash. On island they struggle with savagery and civilazation while they are waiting to be rescued. William Golding gives the examples of elements what makes society ‘civilized’ which contains rules, laws and morality. He shows the consequences of what happens if we don’t follow the rules which he lead to savagery in his book. This civilazation in book also can be a metaphor for a government, its creation.
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.
When the boys initially land on the island, they have tons of fun and are completely carefree. Only a couple of days later though, the “little ‘uns” begin to have dreams about beasts attacking them at night.
In his classic novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses many elements of symbolism to help the readers gain a greater understanding of his message. Symbolism can be anything, a person, place, or thing, used to portray something beyond its self. It is used to represent or foreshadow the conclusion of the story. As one reads this novel, he or she will begin to recognize the way basic civilization is slowly stripped away from the boys as conflict between civilization and savagery arises.
Katherine Paterson once said, “To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.” William Golding, who is a Nobel Prize winner for literature, writes Lord of the Flies, originally published in 1954. Golding’s novel is about a group of boys who crash land on an island. All of the adults are dead and they are abandoned on an island. The boys try to set rules and create a fire in efforts of being rescued. The group of boys chooses Ralph to be their leader. This choosing makes a literary character named Jack, who doesn’t show his anger until half way through the plot. The novel shows the nature of humans and how fear can control them. The novel also shows the difference between good and evil. Golding experienced this when he was in World War II. There were many times fear controlled the boys in the island in Lord of the Flies.
Lord of the Flies, a suggestive name for the Devil, a devil whose name proposes that he is devoted to decay, destruction, demoralization and panic, exactly what William Golding had in mind when using symbolism in this novel. The Lord of the Flies (1954), is a novel in which interpretating the symbols are a main key to not only understanding, but also enjoying the novel. After tying many of the symbols together, you can figure out more about what the author is trying to depict, the overall scene.
Ralph’s power at the beginning is secure but as the group succumbs to their savage instincts, Ralph’s influence declines as Jack’s rises. This is due mainly to the cruelty and violence that goes on in the story. This cruelty reveals that Ralph’s commitment to civilization and being rescued is so strong that he will not allow himself to change his morals and become cruel like the others. The cruelty in this novel also shows that Ralph is a very intelligent character. His intelligence can be proven because there was a point in the novel when he hunts a boar for the first time and he experiences the thrill of bloodlust. He also attends one of Jack’s feast where he is swept away by the frenzy and participates in the killing of Simon. This is a very tragic moment for Ralph because this is when he realizes the evil that lives within himself and every human being. It is the cruel acts that happen in this novel that reveals Ralph’s character of being intelligent and being able to think deeply about human experiences. He even weeps when getting saved because of his knowledge about the human capacity for
“Everybody has good and evil within them. All we're trying to say is that people are not all good or all bad. People are more complicated than you think, and one has to be more knowledgeable about the complexities.” This quotation from Stephen Schwartz establishes that even the best of people can be bitter by their own nature. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding removes the restraints of society to prove that it is human nature to live primitively and that evil lies within all of us. The sanctions of society begin to deteriorate due to the loss of communication, Jack’s obsession with hunting, and the inhumane nature of Jack and his “tribe”.
Lord of the Flies was written in the early 1950’s by William Golding. Golding wrote this allegorical novel in England when World War II was happening and Stalinism in Russia was at its peak. Lord of the Flies attracted a cult of followers, especially among the youth of the post- World War II generation (“Golding”). People thought that his book was too harsh, but what they didn’t realize was the true essence of how the war was really like. The war showed the good and evil side of everyone and it made people turn against one another and were no longer in a civilized manner. “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?” he wondered due to the experiences that he had encountered as a British naval officer during this time. This effected that the worst in humanity would prevail, and that many so called decent minded people would be easily and willingly influenced to act in terrible ways towards one another causing conflict between civilization and savagery.
The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible. Page 162
An anonymous speaker once said: “A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. Alone, a symbol is meaningless, but with enough people, blowing up a building can change the world.” This subject is revealed in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the concept of power and the loss of power is a dominant idea on the island. This is significant because with little to no power, any order on the island becomes an uproar of chaos. This is demonstrated through objects on the island such as the conch, Piggy’s glasses, and lastly, the war paint.
Ralph spends some time contemplating over what must be said and done in the assembly because he knows that “thought was valuable” maturing from his inadequacy as a leader for allowing the group to become disorganized as it is. Ralph blows the conch to do as he has a plan and call the boys for an assembly. He intends it to be serious after the mishap of letting the fire go out which may have ruined their hope of getting rescued. He begins by telling the group that this particular assembly must not be for fun and games but to “put things straight”. He addresses the water with no one bothering to retrieve it in the coconut shells, the shelter that fell to ruins because few people worked on them, the whole island being used as a lavatory which is unsanitary and the importance of not letting the fire go out.
The symbolical allegory “Lord of the Flies” written by William Golding, symbolizes through different characters of how humankind are evil from the core. The story of a group of schoolboys trapped on a deserted island takes more of a symbolizing story than it might seem. Each detail takes a position in the story to show the core of humanity. A group of young boys together without adult supervision causes the boys to slowly reveal their savage core. Being a part of the English society has taught them to make rules and follow them, but slowly as they realize that there are no grownups are there to stop them, the revealing of their nature begins. William Golding states in his interview concerning the theme of the book, “The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature.” (Golding 204). The human race has been evil ever since Adam and Eve sinned, but through the Bible, we try our best to cover the core of our hearts with rules and morality.
In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding the stranded boys come into contact with some particular elements that represent an idea which are called symbols. These symbols include the beast which represents the fear of the unknown and the darkness of mankind. The second symbol is the signal fire which represents hope. The third symbol is the conch shell which represents order. Golding indicates that when man is taken out of civilization, they have a natural instinct is to become evil, darkness and barbaric and these symbols help to support his opinion.