The importance of "the beast" in "Lord Of The Flies"

The beast, in "Lord of the Flies", is a very important figure. He is first introduced near the beginning of the story and only reveals himself in the end, to only one boy-Simon. The beast was evil and played its part in the story’s plot well. It gave the story a greater sense of realism; it played up the savagery and the pain taking over the boys’ lives. The beast itself represented many things in the novel and changed as the book went on. The beast created the fear in the boys that changed them drastically, for the worst.

As the beast was not a physical character it represented itself through many forms. It portrayed itself, firstly, as the boys’ human id. Golding’s main theme for Lord of the Flies was to explain and prove how man would turn savage if he were not kept in a civilisation with rules and laws.

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

The boy’s inner evil had grown naturally, without their knowledge, because they had been taken out of civilization. Their childhood innocence had been destroyed by that darker side.

Fear was associated with the beast and vice-versa. The boys fear was caused by the unknown. The boys were afraid of what they did not know or could not see, like how the littluns felt in the dark. Chapter four page 64 Golding: “They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.” In their minds their image of what or who the beast is grows together with their fear for it. The more they feared it the scarier and more powerful it became. As their terror for the beast grew inside their heads so did their interpretation of the beast. The beast in the boy’s imagination became very real to them; they believed in it and...