Beastie Lord Of The Flies Analysis

Riots in the streets, people looting stores left and right, complete chaos. Could this be true human nature, with a sophisticated society being only an illusion we trick ourselves with? In William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies Main characters Jack and Ralph fight for power of the island they crash landed on with Jack representing complete savagery and Ralph representing well-mannered individuals. the boys and their followings get along in the beginning, but as time progresses Jack becomes increasingly more and more savage. Golding created the character of Jack to represent what human nature truly is; Complete savagery. Savagery such as this is depicted many times throughout the novel including how Jack responds to the situation with the “beastie”,

how Jack treats his job of keeping the fire lit, and lastly how he responds to the conch shell towards the end of the story.

In Lord Of The Flies, what would become to be known as the beastie is the perfect symbol for what society is becoming, and a representation of the beast in all of us.

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

his best friend Piggy took part in this brutal killing, the day after Piggy tries to explain that it was just an accident, and that they were scared. “It was dark. There was that—that bloody dance. There was lightning and thunder and rain. We was scared!” , however this further proves the point that humans are naturally savages and that we use society to fool ourselves into thinking we are all sophisticated.

When stranded on an island one of few things that can be done to reintegrate to sophisticated societies is to light a signal fire. On the island the fire that was kept up by Jack and his group was one of the boys’ lifelines and also a large symbol of their ties to civilization. Early on in the novel when the boys are all assigned jobs the job of maintaining fire is given to Jack and his group of hunters. And they agree to watching the fire. However as time passes and the boys become more savage, they also lose interest in just sitting around and doing actual work they decide to go hunting instead of keeping the fire going. While they were hunting, a ship passed by the island, but the fire was let out. As the smoke from the fire faded, so to did their sophistication. Despite the boys in Jack’s group not seeming to care, Ralph was extremely upset at this fact and when Jack returned he let him know exactly how he felt. Ralph explained to Jack the implications of what had just happened “There was a ship. Out there. You said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out!” . Despite the high stakes of their situation, and what had just happened, Jack still did not care, instead he was busy boasting about how he had killed a pig from the wilds, exclaiming how he cut it’s throat with his own hands “I cut the pig’s throat” said Jack, proudly” . This shows the fact that when humans fall back on their instincts, killing and savagery is more important than being a part of society. Despite Ralph’s best efforts to get Jack to realize he had fallen away from society’s norms he still did not budge in his views. Jack had already broken through the illusion that is a sophisticated society, and instead embraced what Golding believes is true human nature; Complete and total savagery.

In Lord Of The Flies what is known as the conch shell holds a great power in the story.

The conch was the final representation of society, and with its destruction it shows the final transformation from a well-mannered group of boys into a group of savages. The conch shell was found by Ralph and Piggy in the first chapter of the book and was instantly used as a horn to call an “assembly”. Ever since the conch was used the first time it was always a vital role in the book, bringing together the boys in many situations Up until the very end of the book the conch shell serves as a glue for their civilization, being a vital part not only in calling all of the boys’ meetings, but also during them with it acting as a “hot seat” where if whoever had the conch shell was the one doing the talking. Despite all of this the conch was still destroyed by a member of Jack’s following,Roger. Roger had been very sadistic during the entire book, and this was at the peak of savagery in the book. “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you any more! The conch is gone—” . With the conch being destroyed the boys’ ties to civilization are completely gone revealing the truth that Golding attempted to communicate in his book; True human nature is

savagery.

In conclusion, Jack and his following turned into complete savages by the time that the end of the book came around. With their transformation into savages also came an insight into how William Golding sees civilization and how he views true human nature. Golding depicts Jack and his crew as he sees true human nature. Lord Of The Flies was written during a world war two time period, and William Golding experienced how civilizations can crumble, as well as how savage people can become in the blink of an eye. It is important to realize that Golding viewed Jack as what he thought of human nature, as it gives the reader great insight into what the story was really meant to represent. All in all, Golding’s representation of Jack shows that his character represents savagery.