The word beast could mean or symbolize many things in the main plot. We sometimes find the “beast” in ourselves or surrounding us that somehow affect us on our behavior. In the book, Lord of the Flies, boys were evacuated from England on a plane that has crashed on an island during a war. What does the beast represent? Based on the documents, I have been led to believe that the beast represents or expresses survival skills, war, and ultimately, the insanity of mankind. First, being able to survive was very important to the children since they are alone on the island. Therefore, the beast represents survivalist skills that drew attention away to important things, like missing the ship. In Document F, but outside as in the story note, it says, “Jack and his hunters abandon the signal fire to hunt a pig, and a ship passes.” They were too busy with surviving and focusing on themselves that they didn’t realize that the ship has sailed away and that a member of their group has been missing. …show more content…
Many children were unaware that war was happening in Document D. “But a sign came down from the world of grown-ups, though at the time there was no child awake to read it” (Document D). However, in Document C, it tells us how the origins of the book and how it manifested. In conclusion, Document C, it says “War is not the mere occasion of the novel, but rather the off-stage protagonist in the drama of evil, determining the behavior of the boys on the marooned island.” War has made a huge impact on William Golding which has affected Lord of the Flies, which has led to the creation of the beast. “And World War II left an indelible impact on Golding the artist.” (Document
It’s very common for children to fear monsters, but it didn’t come as a shock when in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of children were stranded on an island in the midst of a war. Consequently, the children’s fear started to develope into the mysterious figure called the “beast”. The beast has multiple symbolic meanings behind it.
“Maybe,” Simon said hesitantly, “maybe there is a beast… What I mean is… maybe it’s only us.” In the midst of the second world war, a plane evacuating a group of English adolescents, has crashed on an uninhabited island located in the Pacific Ocean. Lord of the Flies tells the harrowing account. As the boys allot more and more time isolated on the island, they admit to recognizing an unidentifiable figure dwelling within the area, this “beast” however, isn’t the typical lion, tiger, or bear; This mysterious entity is portrayed to have various alternating elements throughout the documents in an attempt to establish a definite identity to this phenomenon conceiving the the question, what is the “beast”?
In the beginning of Lord of The Flies, the author first recognized the beast as a representation of fear. The author claims in Document A that Claire Rosefield interprets it as a symbol of fear. The text states that there are “no comforting mothers to dispel the terrors of the unknown” and that “they externalize these fears into the figure of a beast.” In Document B, the image of fear becomes clear. Golding starts further developing this image when the boy with the mulberry birthmark claims to have seen the beast.
The beast is a concept, which represents an irrational fear within the boys themselves. The beast is just the savagery in them. Every person has evil in them. The Lord of the Flies told Simon “ Fancy thinking the beast was actually 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?”(Golding 143) through the boars head. Overall the beast represents the devil. I think that it’s just a power that takes over peoples the boys feelings, which caused chaos and barbaric actions within the boys.
A crashing plane comes down hard after being shot down during WWII and leaves a band of school boys stranded on a untouched, tropical island and the story of Lord Of The Flies begins to unfold as the terrified children recuperate from the crash. As the boys explore the island, fear from the unknown, and anger from the reoccurring conflict and disagreement, begins to rear its ugly head. Much of these fearful and evil feelings are beginning to create the beast itself. The mindset of there being a beast changed the boys for the worst throughout the novel. The children soon overcame their fears and became savages of war and conflict. From this fear and conflict, they became the beast themselves.
What do you picture in your mind when someone mentions a beast? Fangs? Claws? That is what the castaways believe the beast to look like on the island in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The story follows several school boys who have crashed onto an exotic island. They elect a leader, Ralph, and they break up into groups: the hunters, the “littluns”, and the hut builders. Soon the “littluns" become frightened of a beast that no one has seen, and it becomes an obsession of the islanders. They interpret the beast in many ways, saying it comes from the water, the sky, and one of the boys even suggested that the beast was themselves. So, what is the beast? The beast could be a representation of war, fear, or human savagery.
Lord of the Flies is set during World War II and that’s how the boys ended up on the island. George Orwell the author was a part of the Royal Navy during World War II and when he got back he wrote the Lord of the Flies. He said on an occasion that the war made him realize how much people could actually do (Document C). Part of that is how the idea of the beast was made and his fear of the War that scared him was like the boys fear of the beast. The story of the beast gives an idea to the psychological aftermath of World War II.
Initially, the beast can represent fear. The beast is simply a pigment of the young boys imaginations, “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.” The boys externalized their inner fears with objects from the outside the world, resulting in the creation of the “beast”. In Document B, the young boy with the mulberry-colored birthmark, claimes to have spotted
Initially, the “beast” in the Lord of the flies is fear. In the article on Doc A, it states that, “They externalize these fears into the figure of the “beast.” This illustrates that the fears of people, or in this case the boys, began to materialize, and eventually transforms into the beastly figure in the novel. In Doc B, the boy with the mulberry-colored birthmark on his face, claims to have seen a “beastie.” He goes on to to elaborate to the other boys that “ It was a snake-thing ever so big.” This representation of the “beast” probably symbolizes the boy’s fears.
William Golding uses the “beastie” as a way to display the fear in the boys on the island. According the little’uns, the “beastie” is a snake-thing that comes from the woods, and is only visible at night (Golding 35). Since the little’uns are the youngest on the island, they have the most fear. For example, the “beast” makes its first appearance the night the little’un with the mark on his face goes missing. Also, the older boys do not want to show their fear, so they refuse to believe the beast is real. If they don’t believe in the beast, they don’t have a fear. Although, towards the end of the book, all of the boys begin to have a general fear. For instance, while the boys were doing their dance, they had noticed that something was crawling
Throughout the novel Lord Of The Flies, the boys on the island are continuously faced with numerous fears. Subsequently there is nothing on the island which they fear more than the beast. The beast is not a tangible object that can be killed or destroyed by conventional means, but an idea symbolizing the primal savage instincts within all people. Its Golding’s intention to illustrate the innate evil inside man through his view of human nature, the actions of the Jack and his tribe, and the relationship between the beast and the school boys.
One of the main problems that the boys had on the island was the beast. In their minds the beast was a terrible creature that was out to kill them. Their fear of the beast ruined
Symbols are in our everyday lives, it is how we keep ourselves safe, it is how we communicate, and symbols are everywhere in pop-culture and entertainment. Lord of the Flies has numerous symbols throughout it. The book takes place in the near future on an unnamed deserted island in the Pacific ocean. In Lord of the Flies, what does the beast represent?
Events in The Lord of The Flies depict World War II and the destruction it caused. In 1954, William Golding wrote The Lord of The Flies ten years after World War II representing the plot of the war and its terror. William Golding based the thoughts of war in his book, from when “he joined the Royal Navy” (Lentz). He saw action against battleships, aircrafts, and submarines in 1940 when he joined the force. The war that he experienced, enact the boys on the island in his famous book, The Lord of The Flies.
Initially, when the “beast” is first introduced, it represents fear. According to Claire Rosenfield in her physiological analysis of Lord of the Flies, The boys are petrified by the island in the absence of "consoling mothers," and they personify their fears into a "beast" (DOC A). We see this in the article "Now he says it was a beastie" (Document B) when the boy with the mulberry birthmark tries to explain it: "He says he saw the beastie, the snake-thing, and will it come back tonight?' ' But there isn't a beastie!" (DOC B)