Lord of the Flies Essay

Meredith Delday
January 22, 2015
English 20­1

B. “What idea(s) does the author suggest about the beast that lives within us all? Has there ever been a moment in your life where you’ve felt a rush of so much adrenaline and pure ecstasy where you feel you could conquer anything? William Golding, the author of the novel Lord of the Flies, calls this “The Beast”. In the book, young boys who have crashed onto an island are all living in a parent and rule free environment. This “Beastie” that is mentioned, starts in the minds of the younger kids. The growing fear infiltrates their minds and then this fear, as almost as if it were a disease, eventually spreads to the rest of the boys, and they become reckless, wild, and feral. Boys are getting killed, and a power struggle surges through the group.
Throughout the novel, they always try to put a physical form to this beast since it is easier to overcome, and kill something physical, whereas in reality, you cannot dominate what is inside you. However, as some characters demonstrate in Golding’s work, such as Ralph and Simon, it can be controlled. These characters show the true way of how to live with our inner beast. In other cases, such as Jack and Roger, the Beast is something that they over­embrace and instead of them controlling it, it overcomes them and the beast becomes them. As human beings, it is impossible to ignore what lies inside of us, but sometimes, people such as Piggy from the novel, try to push it aside and pretend it doesn't exist. William Golding suggests that having the power to either control the beast, or to not, and whether or not to recognise its presence, it can either make us stronger, it can corrupt us, or it can make us naive and foolish. It is the person's choice, and responsibility to which they choose, and the choice makes all of the difference as to who we become in society.

Meredith Delday
January 22, 2015
English 20­1

There comes a certain time in a boys life where he first encounters the beast within him. For
Ralph, its when he first originally goes hunting with the boys. Feeling it inside of him, he loves the rush and animalistic characteristics that become him. In spite of that, he still takes a second to step back from that, controlling his will to think. Ralph is a strong willed thinker, and believes in the rule of law and order. To him, he knows that the beast is there inside, but he chooses to not have it overrule his beliefs. In some situations, such as hunting, the beast isn’t such a bad thing, but do we need it in everyday society? Simon is a character who is almost a living and breathing religious metaphor in the novel. He is the one who first suggests that the beast isn’t a physical monster roaming the islands and eating children, but that we are the beast; we are the fear and uncontrollable wild. When Simon introduces this idea, our eyes open, not to what is around us, but what is inside us. Both characters are examples of how if we wish to have a successful and thriving civilization, the beast must be recognized and controlled within us. At the end of the novel, when the boys are rescued, Ralph is the one to step forward and say he was in charge even though power and blood thirsty Jack won over the title of Chief of the island. This reveals how the self­control of one’s own beast rules in a realistic society. If you have the willpower to be able to not let something so savage take over your personal beliefs and values, then that is what really matters. Jack’s beast is something that corrupted him and made him lose sight of what is really important, which in the real world is something you always need to remind yourself of. The beast is an evil and menacing dark power that invades one's thoughts and poisons the goodness inside of us. Or so it is when we analyze roles portrayed by the likes of Jack. Right from the start, we can Jack has a dark side to him, but as the novel progresses, that just becomes

Meredith Delday
January 22, 2015
English 20­1

pure evil. In fact, his inner savagery becomes so fierce, he plans and tries to kill his foil, Ralph, and even does kill poor, innocent Simon. Jack is a perfect example of how if we don’t control our beast, we ourselves become so uncontrollable. To him, he has no interest of being rescued.
He loves the rush and adrenaline of being in charge and having no one there of significant authority to tell him he’s in the wrong. The beast has overcome his common sense and act of discipline so much so that he has literally gotten so madly out of control, that there is no turning back. Between the rituals of face painting and dancing around fires, having people chant his name, and cutting off pigs head to put them on stakes as an offering to the beast, we no longer can see a truly human side to Jack. He is a beast. William Golding, through this character, shows us as readers the importance of not becoming like Jack, and the importance of being able to recognize how severe this beast can become. Roger is a less severe case of becoming the beast.
Instead of craving power, he craves the joy of watching others suffer under his tormentation. The beast can also turn us into the worst kind of bullies. Near the end of the novel, Roger kills Piggy.
Golding uses this to show the end of true civilization and reasoning on the island, since that is what Piggy represented. The beast is what turns everything into turmoil. It overcomes most of the boys by taking over their minds and bodies. No longer are they able to think for themselves when they have this savagery running wild within them. Through the use of these two characters in particular, Golding shows that although we recognise the beast, letting it vanquish us as humans is not what we need in order to prosper and grow. There becomes points in a childs life where they ultimately become so afraid, they choose to ignore the fear. Instead of facing their problems and issues, they push them away as if they don’t

Meredith Delday
January 22, 2015
English 20­1

matter nor exist. In the novel Lord of the Flies, a character who represents this side to the beast, is Piggy. When first arriving on the island, Piggy outshines the others in terms of intelligence and rationale. However, he doesn’t have the confidence or support to become chief of the island.
Piggy’s greatest fault, besides his lack of seeing and weight problem, is his inability to see that there truly is a beast. He tells the younger ones that there is nothing there. And although he says that we are just afraid, he doesn’t realise there’s more to it. Piggy is naive in the ways of being unable to see the true inner beast that lies within him. Instead of facing the growing trepidation that is unsettling, he simply just is left to look after the younger ones or following Ralph around.
Golding uses Piggy as a way to represent that we need to confront this beast that lives within us.
In comparison to Ralph, both have fears. Ralph uses his to an advantage to grow and become leader. Piggy doesn’t use his at all and becomes useless. The message portrayed in the novel is that we need to use the beast within to become a legitimate member of society with the right amount of power. We all start out like Piggy. We all have ideas, and logical thoughts, but if thats simply all we have, then unfortunately, we end up dead just as Piggy did. Not facing his fears, or inner beast was Piggy’s biggest destruction. Golding suggests that being unable to recognise what was really important, is what will be everyone’s downfall. How we confront what lies within, is the building blocks for how we move up in the world, and how we as people grow. Golding uses a variety of complex characters in the novel just to tell us how important facing our fears is. Controlling them, and overcoming them in a smart manner is how we succeed, just like Ralph. If we let our fears become us, and let them ruin us, then in the end, we become nothing, and our fears still remain. However, if we completely ignore them, it is

Meredith Delday
January 22, 2015
English 20­1

just ends up being worse. William Golding is brilliant in the way of his writing to show us as readers, and fellow humans, that there is always a beast, and there is always a way to use it to our best advantage, and well being.