The Beast in Lord of the Flies Essay Sample

Is the boogeyman that terrifies every child really there? In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, an evacuation plane boarded with a group of schoolboys from England gets shot down and crash lands on an uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean sometime after the end of World War II. At the start, the boys seem to be doing well and enjoy the freedom they have gained and establish rules and even elect one of the boys named Ralph as their chief. A boy named Jack, leader of the choirboys, is chosen to be a hunter and an upkeeper of the rescue fire with the rest of the choir boys. As weeks and months pass the boys stray away from civilization and become savages that focus on hunting instead of rescue and the fear of the beastie comes alive. As a reader, the question is what does the beast symbolize? keeps coming up throughout the entire novel right up until the end. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the beast symbolizes fear, war, and human savagery.

In the Lord of the Flies, fear is known to be the mystical beast. Men of a Smaller Growth is a Lord of the Flies analysis written by Claire Rosenfield where Rosenfield claims that “The‌ ‌younger‌ ‌children‌ ‌first,‌ ‌then‌ ‌gradually‌ ‌the‌ ‌older‌ ‌ones‌ ‌begin‌ ‌to‌ ‌people‌ ‌the‌ ‌darkness‌ ‌of‌ ‌night‌ ‌and‌ ‌forest‌ ‌with‌ ‌spirits‌ ‌and‌ ‌demons‌ ‌which‌ ‌had‌ ‌previously‌ ‌appeared‌ ‌only‌ ‌in‌ ‌their‌ ‌dreams‌ ‌or‌ ‌fairy‌ ‌tales.”‌ ‌(Doc A). The statement expresses that typically younger children come first to the victim to manifest their nightmares into reality and the older ones later. An example of this can be seen in the Lord of the Flies during an assembly called by Ralph when a young boy with a mulberry birthmark on his face mentions the beast the other littluns or young boys as they are called in the novel believe the boy but they bigguns or older boys deny the beast until they find evidence of the being and are also convinced that the beast is real. In the Lord of the Flies, Jack remarks during the assembly where the beast is first brought up “‘Ralph's right of course. There isn’t a snake thing. But if there was a snake we'd hunt it and kill it.’” (Doc B). The bigguns do not want to create fear and Jack knows that if he gives in to the belief of a beastie so will the others so he remains neutral and proposes that if the beast does exist he and his hunters will take care of it. In summary, the beast represents fear because the boys are using their nightmares and the darkness of the night to manifest the deep dark horrors such as the beast that comes out at night to hunt and hide in the light of morning sunshine.

In addition, war is another contributing factor to understanding the meaning of the beast. In  The Nightmare Beast, War and the Children in William Golding's Lord of the Flies written by Jayanta Dangar, Dangar comments “‘On an occasion, Golding himself admitted, "The war produced one notable effect on me. It scared me stiff.... It was the turning point for me. I began to see what people were capable of doing. Where did the Second World War come from? Was it made by something inhuman and alien—or was it made by chaps with eyes and legs and hearts?’” (Doc C) As Golding admits being scared stiff by war and how it was the turning point of his view on humanity he questioned himself where did it war come from? Was it made by aliens or was it made by people with eyes and legs and hearts? The boys do the same as they question if the beast is alive, what it is, and where it comes from. Not only do they pray to start a  war between themselves, but the reason they are there is also because of war so of course, they would view war as a scary beast. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, one of the chapters reveals “There was a sudden bright explosion and corkscrew trail across the sky; then darkness again and stars. There was a speck above the island, a figure dropping swiftly beneath a parachute, a figure that hung with dangling limbs” (DOC D) So much happened with none of the boys able to hear it as they are asleep in the darkness of the night. As the figure drops down and lands on the mountain peak his dead body proceeds to sway up and down when the wind blows into the parachute still attached to the pilot’s dead body. Sam and Eric are twins that are first to notice the dead pilot and immediately think it is the beast. In fear the boys run back to camp and report to Ralph which sets chain events that lead to the older boys to go on an investigation to confirm that what Sam and Eric said was true and Ralph, Jack, and another boy named Roger peaked over a rock and saw the dead pilot swaying in the wind.Now that the bigguns confirm that the beast is real everybody is in fear resulting in the creation of the fear of the beast on the mountain or the beast made by war. All things considered, war symbolizes the beast and affects the boy's actions and feelings in the novel.

At last human savagery is a representation of what the beast in the story truly is. An analysis written by Samuel Hynes analyzes  “It is to the same place that Jack and his hunters bring the pig's head, and leave it impaled on a stick as a sacrifice to the beast they fear.” (Doc E). It expresses clearly how the group of schoolboys from England turned into human savages after being alone far away from civilization with no rules to follow and authority to lead them the boys minds migrate to primal excitons which are hunting and killing to survive and because the beast threatens their survival they choose to worship him and provide him with gifts to appeal to the beast. In one of the last chapters in the novel Lord of the Flies, the novel narrates “The dark sky was shattered by a blue-white scar.... The chant rose a tone in agony. ‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’” When the boys start chanting Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his Blood the conclusion is reached and boys have lost all humanity because in the spite of the moment the boys sound ruthless and when a boy named Simon comes out of the forest to tell them the beast is human the boys attack him and murder him in cold blood because they think its the beast and that he will hurt them. Later on in the story more happens and more death occurs and because they are savages they show no remorse to anybody that opposes their feelings. All in all the beast is human savagery because the boys started as a bunch of British schoolboys and as they spent more and more time on the island they returned to their primal nature and turned into human savages.

In conclusion in the Lord of The Flies, the beast symbolizes fear, war, and human savagery and as time goes on the island the boys distance themselves from civilization and instead of trying to get rescued resolve to hunting down pigs and each other and using giant wooden spears to resolve a disagreement instead of talking out like civilized people.