《蠅王》結(jié)課作業(yè)

Q1: Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!

How is the beast important inLord of the Flies? 

You must refer to the context of the novel in your answer.
 

In the novel Lord of the Flies, the beast is both a feared and also drives the boys into savagery. The beast can also be interpreted as a symbol of the boys’ animalistic instincts within them. Golding is trying to show us the evil in man’s heart, represented by an imaginary “beast”.

The imaginary beast has first been a great fear for the boys. Talk about the beast first start when a little boy talked about a “beastie” in his nightmare. His questions were first dismissed, but later other littluns also started to dream about this monster. Wild rumors about the beast spread through the boys, until even the biguns were deep into fear. The fear continued to cast a shadow over them through the story.

After Jack and his hunters leave Ralph, the beast drives them into savagery. They thrive on the beast, trying to “be on the good side of it”, killing and leaving offerings for it, worshiping it as a deity. This directly leads to their descent into savagery —— for the beast, they would gladly kill a pig violently. The hunters even murder Simon, convinced that he was the beast in disguise. The boys fully follow what they think the beast leaves for them, the example of violence and savagery.

The beast can also symbolize the savagery within man’s heart. Simon was the first to realize that “maybe it’s only us”, that they are the real beasts, while others keep externalizing it, thinking that it “l(fā)ives in the jungle” or “comes from the sea”. In Simon and the staked pig’s head’s conversation, he finds out that the beast was not something that you could hunt and kill. Later on, the boys become savages under the influence of the beast, even committing murder under its name. Golding could be using this beast to show us the animalistic instincts inside the boys.

Overall, the beast is a great fear looming over all the boys through the novel, and also plays an important part in leading the boys into savagery. It is also a symbol of mankind’s savage instincts, used to show Golding’s point of view that all men have violence inside them.

2022.5.19 Beijing