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. The concept of the beast creates fear amongst the children. With their imagination children fear that the beast is out to get them, when in reality the beast is non-existent. This fear of the unknown …show more content…
The beast displays the truth about mankind and their actions, making the readers understand what is happening in the world. Sam and Eric are on duty to maintain the fire and they encounter the dead parachuter, thinking that it is the beast. The twins run being horrified from what they saw (Golding 96-98). The parachuter, the beast of air is the consequence and the result of war, exhibiting the harsh actions humans are capable of doing. The beast also incorporate the human want of having power. Jack is unable to get the English boys on his side, so he uses their fear of the beast to manipulate them stating: “I gave you food, and my hunters will protect you from the beast. Who will join my tribe?” (150). In reality, many people uses the means of fear to control and have power over people, like dictators. This shows that power given to the wrong people can destroy or affect negatively on humanity. Near the end the boys turn on Ralph and causes chaos among the island. The naval officer condemn their actions as he says: The officer says: “I should've thought that a pack of British boys. . . would have been able to put up a better show” (202). It is ironic how he chastises them for their actions, but ignore the fact he is a naval officer and participates in war and in the act of killing humans. This is how William Golding shows how the reality is shown through the beast and how power can have its
Part of Golding’s intent was to demonstrate that the evil is not recognised in specific populations or situations. On the island the beast is manifest in the deadly tribal dances, war paint and manhunt: in the outside world the same lust for power and control plays out as a nuclear war. Throughout ‘The Lord of the Flies’ Golding has managed to show that evil is present in everyone.
In the Lord of the Flies fear takes over the boys and cause things to go downfall. The boys in Lord of the Flies might be afraid of the beast, but that fear turns out to be more dangerous than any beast could possibly be. The Lord of the Flies even says to Simon that “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?
Fear has the power to control, twist and break the ways of the human mind. The body, and mind are tricked and we find ourselves confused and fighting to piece together a troubling puzzle of straying emotion. Franklin D. Roosevelt stated, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, projecting that fear knows no bounds and is a great power. Fear and power go hand in hand, without fear there is no power, a teacher has no power over a student if the student is not afraid of the consequences of stepping out of line. This is shown in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The boys on the island experience fear in many different forms and their basic human instincts are swayed to do things they would not do otherwise.
Throughout the novel, Lord of the Flies the major theme shown throughout is innocence. For the duration of the novel the young boys progress from innocent, well behaved children longing fir rescue to bloodthirsty savages who eventually lose desire to return to civilisation. The painted bloodthirsty savages towards the end of the novel, who have tortured and killed animals and even their friends are a far cry from the sincere children portrayed at the beginning of the novel. Golding portrays this loss of innocence as a result of their naturally increasing opened to the innate evil that exists within all human beings. “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 par...
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is tale of a group of young boys who become stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. Intertwined in this classic novel are many themes, most that relate to the inherent evil that exists in all human beings and the malicious nature of mankind. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding shows the boys' gradual transformation from being civilized, well-mannered people to savage, ritualistic beasts.
The “Beastie” was a manifest of the true beast in all of them as they slowly became obsessed with hunting down the beast with, without realizing that they themselves are becoming the beast. They even go so far as to run around yelling almost satanic-like chants such as “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!” . The boys become increasingly violent when it comes to the beast, even disregarding rules that their little society has created “Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong—we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat—!”. Jack has become completely obsessed with hunting and killing to the point that he completely disregards the rules of their society, and even becomes so blinded by his savagery that he and his following don’t think straight. During a later point in the story during a feast that the boys were having, an older boy named Simon came out of the woods to tell them some valuable information he had gathered. Instead of being welcomed to the feast, the boys instantly thought that he had to have been the beast. Upon realizing that Simon “was the beast” the boys pounced on him and clawed him to death with their bare hands and teeth. Just to think that the killing of Simon happened because they thought he was this “beast”. Even Ralph and
To conclude I agree that Lord of the flies is a terrifying novel and Golding does this be creating a chilling message, characters such as Roger and the Beast who cause terror in both the story and in their hiding meanings, in the bullying and eventual demise of two boys who wanted nothing but to help them survive summing up to a book which directly is very terrifying but when looked at deeper is full of implications and hidden meaning which should terrify the reader.
Chapter eight, ‘Gift for the Darkness’, has many themes, one of the most prominent being the Beast, which is the boys’ greatest fear. In chapter seven they had come across a dead parachutist and had believed it to be a beast. The beast represents the evil residing within everyone. The Beast is used as a scapegoat by the boys to avoid self-knowledge. Golding uses the boys’ daydreams to show their fears and desires. The Beast gives the boys’ fear something to focus on. Golding expresses various types of fears in the book and many are apparent in chapter eight.
Golding has a rather pessimistic view of humanity having selfishness, impulsiveness and violence within, shown in his dark yet allegorical novel Lord of the Flies. Throughout the novel, the boys show great self-concern, act rashly, and pummel beasts, boys and bacon. The delicate facade of society is easily toppled by man's true beastly nature.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a sordid tale about a group of kids who are stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. The story is set during the Atomic War and plenty of references are made to the fact. However, the real key to the story lies in the role of Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies. Beelzebub has a central role in the story as he represents the Beast, or evil, that dwells within all humans. The Beast cannot be hunted and since it dwells within all humans, humans are all guilty because mankind is sick. The destruction of mankind is a point that Golding makes apparent often in this novel. He establishes early on that Beelzebub is a force within all humans that drives them to destroy and maim. In the story the central emblem of the story lies in the dead airman. The boys mistake him for Beelzebub and basically begin to worship him.
...so much that anything that they see in the dark, they imagine it as the beast. Therefore, the fear of the beast is the most dangerous and destructive force on the island.
The fear of the beast, was an essential one to the story of The Lord of the Flies, as it manifests into different characters.
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.
This paper will explore the three elements of innate evil within William Golding's, Lord of the Flies, the change from civilization to savagery, the beast, and the battle on the island. Golding represents evil through his character's, their actions, and symbolism. The island becomes the biggest representation of evil because it's where the entire novel takes place. The change from civilization to savagery is another representation of how easily people can change from good to evil under unusual circumstances. Golding also explores the evil within all humans though the beast, because it's their only chance for survival and survival instinct takes over. In doing so, this paper will prove that Lord of the Flies exemplifies the innate evil that exists within all humans.
Man’s inhumanity to man literally means human’s cruelty towards other humans. This is a major theme of the story and is seen throughout it. Golding himself even states that “man produces evil as a bee produces honey.” A review of the book states how Golding portrays this “because the boys are suffering from the terrible disease of being human.” Piggy, Ralph, and Simon are the “rational good of mankind” portrayed in the book, and Jack and his hunters are the “evil savagery of mankind.” “The beast” is a symbol for the evil in all humans, and Simon and Piggy, or rationality, are almost helpless in his presence. Simon, though, in a book filled with evil, is a symbol of vision and salvation. He is the one to see the evil as it truly exists, in the hearts of all humanity. When he tries to tell the others of this truth, however, he is killed, much like Christ was trying to bring salvation to the ignorant. Simon being there gives us hope; the truth is available to those who seek it. In the book, Jack and his hunters become so evil that they end up killing two boys while on the island. Man’s tendencies towards evil in The Lord of the Flies are also compared to the book of Genesis in the Bible. Nature, beauty, and childhood can all be corrupted by the darkness within humankind. The ending of this truly dark and evil story tells readers how Golding feels about evil within society and where he thinks humanity is headed. Evil will triumph over the intellect and good, unless some force intercedes. In th...