Beastie In Lord Of The Flies Dbq Analysis

“He says the beastie came in the dark… stumbling among all those creepers…” In the story of the Lord of the Flies, a small group of boys are stranded on an island, and are being hunted by a strange “beast.” What, however, does this beast symbolize? As time progresses, numerous interpretations of the beast have arised. Initially, the beast manifests into the form of fear. In the document, “The terrors of the unknown”, it states that, “They externalize these fears into the figure of a ‘beast’.” (Doc.A). This shows that the young children stranded on the island let their imaginations rule their lives, manifesting the beast in their fear. With no mothers to comfort them, these boys have become to reliable on their imaginations, which have, in return, caused them to believe that the beast is what they fear. In the second document, “Now he says it was a beastie,”

In the document, “The off-stage protagonist,” Joyanta Dangar states, “War is not the mere occasion of the novel, but rather the off-stage protagonist in this drama of evil…” (Doc. C). This suggests that even though war is not mentioned frequently, it plays a big part in this story. The boys fear something that put them on the stranded island in the first place. What they don’t know is that the war is still going on, and they are right beneath it. As stated in “A sign...from the world of grown-ups,” the excerpt from the Lord of the Flies states, “There were other lights in the sky, that moved fast, winked, or went out, though not even a faint popping came down from the battle fought at ten miles’ height.” (Doc. D). This demonstrates that an air battle is taking place above the island, a signal to the oblivious boys of the war they fear. They can’t hear the sounds of the guns, see the lights of explosions, or smell the death from the crashing planes. They sit on their island, bewildered about what to do next, while their fear is above their