The “beast,” an entity we know little about. What is it, exactly? What does it represent? During World War 2, a plane transporting English schoolboys was struck down over an unnamed island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The children became stranded, frightened, and paranoid. They then begin to put together a picture of this “beast” which plaugues them. In Lord of the Flies, again, what is the “beast”? Ultimately, the meaning of this monster is not definite, but ever-changing. The “beast” can symbolize a variety of ideas. Initially, the “beast” represents fear and the terror of the unknown. This is proven when the schoolboys begin to objectify evil, or “people the darkness of night and forest with spirits and demons,” (Doc. A). …show more content…
Ironically, the children in their deranged mental state believed Simon to be the “beast,” even though they were the ones who “stuck” and “tore” him to pieces. “At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, lept on the beast [Simon], screamed, struck, bit, tore,” (Doc. F). Their savagery is also demonstrated by their near-vile chant, “‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’” (Doc. F). At one point, Simon himself even claims “‘maybe there is a beast… What I mean is… maybe it’s only us,’” (Doc. F). The hostile behavior of the children themselves is demonstrative of the “beast,” showing how it symbolizes yet another concept. The “beast” cannot be confined in any one symbol alone, as it could represent a plethora of ideas. In Lord of the Flies, the “beast” first manifests itself through fear, when the marooned children “externalize these fears into the image of a ‘beast,’” (Doc. A). It then represents war, as when the children refer to the dead parachutist, a direct result of war, as the “beast”. Finally, it symbolizes the savagery of human nature, when the children “screamed, struck, bit, tore” (Doc. F) Simon to pieces. The beast cannot be clearly defined or categorized. Maybe this was