William Golding Lord Of The Flies Beast Analysis

In the Lord of the Flies, the beast represents the innate savagery and evil of mankind, which is shown in the characters as the novel progresses. The beast is ubiquitous throughout as a representation of the boy's' descent into savagery as Golding explores order versus chaos as the main theme of his novel. Golding's inspiration for the beast would be drawn from his resentment at what he saw of people's capability to harm each other during his time in service in WW2. He gradually began to see all human nature as unforgiving and savage.

The idea of the beast is first brought in front of the boys when a littlun claims to have seen a “a snake-thing.” While the littluns are frightened by this, the older boys dismiss the idea. This is important because up until this point in the novel the island has seemed quite idyllic, where the boys are free of rules; now a problem is presented to the boys in the form of the possibility of a dark, eerie presence. There is a link to the 'innate evil' theme Golding constantly brings up, as the beast is first thought of as a snake, which connotes and is …show more content…
The parachutist represents the evil on the island and is also a link to the adult world. The appearance of the parachutist sets everyone on edge. Samneric mistake the parachutist for the beast, which drives the boys to go hunt it. This shows the shift the boy's' behaviour towards violence, shown as their solution to the problem of the beast is no longer logical and civilized but rather to just kill it instead.

Simon's vision is also used by Golding to convey the beast's importance. Early on, Simon wonders if the beast is “only us”, a speculation confirmed in the later hallucination of the Lord of the Flies, who tells him, “There isn't anyone to help you. Only me. And I'm the beast...Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill...You knew didn't you? I'm part of