Do we remember as a child using our imaginations to be afraid of something that was not real? William Golding uses this imagery in his novel, Lord of the Flies. There are boys on this bare island who their imaginations and conjure up this idea of an imaginary thing. The beast, in the Lord of the Flies symbolizes fear, savagery, and evil.
First, the beast represents fear among the boys throughout the novel. In the chapter Beast from Water, the boys are rethinking things and the past days of their fears and anxieties. They are all gathered together recalling their thoughts and actions of what can be done about the fear they are experiencing. One of the characters Ralph says, “We’ve got to talk about this fear and decide there’s nothing
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in it. I’m frightened myself, sometimes; only that’s nonsense! Like bogies” (82). Here Ralph is stating that it’s time to look beyond the fear and stop making themselves worry over the imaginary. He simply wants the boys and himself to worry about bigger things like the fire. Another example of panic and fear these boys experience is in chapter 7 Shadows and Tall Trees, when the boys are out exploring and doing some hunting. Roger and Ralph heard whispering and could not see anything at first but then Ralph can hear something. In front of them, only three or four yards away, was a rock- like hump where no rocks should be. Ralph could hear a tiny chattering noise coming from somewhere- perhaps from his own mouth. He bounded himself together with his will, fused his fear and loathing into a hatred and stood up. (123). This part of the story interprets that fear within the boys are making them in a sense savage like. Ralph although, frightened from this overcoming fear is starting to build up a sort of hate within himself. Next, for the boys, the beast symbolizes savagery for their longing for survival. When they are out hunting and trying to gather food to satisfy their hungers. The boys hold a meeting determining the meaning of the beast and what it is they are going to do to it. Jack comes up to speak with the conch in his hand. Jack paused, cradling the conch, and turned to his hunters with their dirty black caps. He stated, “Am I a hunter or am I not” (83). That statement is defining the aspects of them becoming savages and they will survive. They all want to hut and kill the beast before it kills them. This is a way to signify that survival of lives will cost just about anything. Throughout the book savagery is shown in this example as well in chapter 8 Gift of the Darkness Simon is telling the boys he is it, that he’s the beast. Simon mouth labored and brought forth audible word. He says, “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 the way they are?” (143)! Simon is so far out of reach that he thinks he’s the beast and is letting the others think the same. Therefore, the hunt for survival starts to kick in for the boys on the island. Lastly, the beast symbolizes evil throughout the island.
The beast represents everything the boys imagine, believe in, and eventually start killing and sacrificing others. The desire the need and want for survival and will try anything to be successful enough at it. The boys are afraid of the beast because they believe it’s an evil spirit that is trying to capture them and possibly even kill them. They ve an imagined image in each of their heads of who and what the beast is. In Painted Faces and Long Hair, the boys hunted a pig and their chants were a disturbing kind of evil and their shouting of “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood” (69). That is evil represented through slaughtering of a pig and yelling of their actions that were taken place. They killed the pig for their own survival needs and as a peace offering for the beast they all had made in their minds. With the evil surrounding the island and the boys through the beast the boys were not themselves or who they use to be. Cry of the Hunters chapter 12, the boys are close to survival and rescue but before all that can happen once last stint of evil arises. The boys are telling ralph that he is hated and that he needs to leave. The evil has spread among all the boys and he is to partly to blame. Eric tells Ralph, ‘They hate you, Ralph. They’re going to do you’ “They are going to hunt you tomorrow” (188). The evil this shows it has taken over the boys and their minds. They are controlled by all the evil that the island holds.
In conclusion, William Golding wrote his novel in terms of survival of the fittest a term we all know that was created by Charles Darwin. The Lord of the Flies displays this through the use of savagery, fear, and evil intentions through the use of the beast. We truly don’t know who we can become until we are put into a life or death situation and us fitting our thirst to make it out
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The last representation of the beast is, the savage nature of humans. The chant the boys repeat in document F,” Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” Shows a savagery the boys possess without the guidance of their parents, this also shows that without said guidance they become beasts themselves. Also from document F, “Only the beast lay still, a few yards from the sea. Even in the rain they could see how small the beast was; and already it’s blood staining the sand.” To clarify, this quote lets the reader view the outcome of the savage nature the boys possessed.
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)?
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.
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.
An excuse so that the boys can be afraid of something else other than themselves. Simon realizes that they fear the beast because of it existing in themselves. They all turn “savage” as the book says, and they know it truly exists in every single person. The boys give what they are afraid of- a name, and a shape in their minds. The dead parachuting man shows up unexpectedly and Ralph thinks it’s a sign from the outside world. Piggy says, “I know there isn’t no beast- not with claws and all that, I mean- but I know there isn’t no fear, either” (Golding Ch.5) The man from the sky may have been a sign, but not for war; the beast that is in everyone. People can’t defeat it, give it a shape, or even see it. The beast forever lives in the mind’s
One of many prominent themes in William Golding's novel, the Lord of the Flies, is Fear. From the very first chapter, until the last, fear plays an important role in this text. It is the only thing, which stops the boys from acting rationally at times, from questioning curious circumstances and it physically hindered so many of the boys, so many times. The active role of fear in Lord of the Flies, was intentionally used by Golding, because he knew what images it would create. Fear is described by Mirriam- Webster's English dictionary, as To be uneasy or apprehensive'. This feeling is mutually experienced by all of the boys on the island in many different ways. Initially the boys have an obvious fear of being alone, which then brings upon the fear of what we know as the beast, or as the littluns refer to is, as the beastie'. While this fear continues for the whole of the novel, we are also exposed to three other incidents of fear. The first of these is the civilised fear of consequences, displayed only when the children are seen as young civilised boys, in the earliest chapters. The final two are of a different nature, with those fears being the loss of power, the fear of rejection and the fear of being in the minority. All of these different fears, then relate back to the character, and as was expertly planned out by William Golding, influences the characters attitudes and behaviours.
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
The power of fear consumes people and is one of the strongest weapons there is. Fear takes the form of an imaginary beast, a regular school boy, and a rotting pigs’ head. As simple as they may seem, they symbolize the fears and faults of humans. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies twists the limits on humanity, and proves the evil in the ways of human nature.
The boys in the book, The Lord of the Flies, are controlled by their fear of the beast. This fear is not of the beast itself, but of the unknown. It comes from not knowing whether or not a beast exists.
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.
Beforehand, everything was all fun and games on the island, and Piggy was the only one that actually worried about anything. However, the idea of the beast brought fear to them again and again. Whether it was when it was first mentioned as a snake, or when it was thought to come from the sea, or when it was guessed to be ghosts, the idea of something being there at the island made the boys afraid even though there was no actual evidence of the beast. Golding wrote, “‘He says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung in the branches. He say will it come back tonight?’ ‘But there isn’t a beastie!’ There was no laughter at all now and more grave watching.’” At the idea there there was some sort of mysterious fearsome monster that might come after the boys, the previously joyous atmosphere quickly bursted as fear settles on them. Though the beast only symbolized fear in the beginning, by the latter parts of the novel, it had become a representation of the savagery within a human. Simon was the first one to notice, at how he pointed out how maybe the beast lived within themselves. Also, Jack’s bloody offering to the beast, the sow’s head, represented how the darkness has taken over the hunters. Their belief in the beast strength as their savagery increased, it was almost as if they worshipped it, leaving offerings and such. Also, the Lord
The novel “Lord of the Flies” was written by William Golding to demonstrate the problems of society and the sinful nature of man.
In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the boys who are stranded on the island come in contact with many unique elements that symbolize ideas or concepts. Through the use of symbols such as the beast, the pig's head, and even Piggy's specs, Golding demonstrates that humans, when liberated from society's rules and taboos, allow their natural capacity for evil to dominate their existence.
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 first mention of the beast was by a littlun, who was believed to have had a bad dream. At first, it is clear that the beast is a façade, thought up by the instinctive imagination of the children. Nevertheless, by not dismissing the idea of the beast, the boys enable themselves to start acting ruthless and savage; toward the beats and to each other. Yet the evil manifesting