This novel is written from the third person omniscient perspective, meaning the narrator is removed from the island but can and does relate the thoughts and motives of all the boys on the island to the reader. Important ideas are usually introduced by the characters and explained or expanded by the narrator. For example, a small boy introduces the idea of a beast on the island by saying, "A snake-thing. Ever so big... [T]he beastie [comes] in the dark...". The narrator later reveals to the reader that the monster they feared was Simon, who liked to sneak into the jungle to nap, and a dead man tangled in a parachute. Ideas not central to the plot are introduced and explained by the narrator without dialogue by a boy at all. This is evident at