Boys The Beast example essay topic

Symbolic Themes of Lord of the Flies Usman Raul In William Golding's, Lord of the Flies, Golding uses several symbols to get his point across. Symbols such as the pig's head, the "beast", and the hunts, are all there for the purpose of the audience to understand that when liberated from society's rules, the natural instinct for evil and power can dominate a society's existence. One of the most important and obvious symbols in Lord of the Flies, is the pig's head. The pigs head is depicted as "dim-eyed, grinning faintly, blood blackening between the teeth, "and the obscene thing" is covered with a "black blob of flies" (W.G. Lord of the Flies, p. 137,138).

The source of wickedness is revealed when Simon begins to converse with the pig's head. In fact, the head tells him, "Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew didn't you? I'm part of you?" (Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction, pg. 2517).

Meaning the cause of the boys society (evil) declining is because of something, which is inherently present within man. At the end of this scene, the immense evil represented by this powerful symbol can once again be seen as Simon faints after looking into the wide mouth of the pig and seeing "blackness within blackness". (Harold Bloom, The Metaphor of Darkness, pg. 84.) Another one of the most important symbols used to present the theme is the beast. To the boys the beast is the source of evil on the island, according to Harold Bloom, author of Blooms Notes. However, in reality, it represents the evil is present within everyone.

Simon begins to realize this even before the encounter with the Lord of the Flies. He attempts to share his insight with others as he tells them "maybe, maybe there is a beast, what I mean is maybe it's only us". (p. 89). In response to his statement, the other boys who had once conducted their meetings with a sense of order, immediately being to argue violently. "Bullocks to the rules! We " re strong and we hunt!

If there's a beast, we " ll hunt it down!" (p. 91). Clearly, the boys' fear of the beast and their ironic desire to kill it shows that the hold which society's rule once had over them had been loosened during the time they have spent on the island. The degeneration of the boys' way of life is also evident through the symbolic masks. When concealed with masks of clay paint, the hunters, especially Ralph, seem to have new personalities as they forget about the rules of society that once restrained them from giving into their natural urges. For example, when Jack first paints his face, he suddenly becomes a new savage person. "He began to dance and his laughter became a blood thirsty snarling.

He capered toward bill, and the mask was a thing if it's own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness". (p. 64). Certainly, Jack would not have acted in such a way if he had been in his home society, but with the mask, Jack feels free to act like a savage. The feeling of being free, that results from wearing the masks allow many of the boys to participate in the barbaric ping hunts. Those hunts can be interpreted as symbolizing the boys' primal urges. In fact, many of the boys become so indulged in their quest for pigs that they seem to forget about their hopes of returning to civilization and neglect to keep the signal fire burning. When Ralph tries to explain how important the signal fire is, Jack and the other hunters ignore him and talk about how gruesome the hunt was they just participated in was.

"There was lashings of blood". said Jack, laughing and shuddering, you should of seen it". (p. 69). Later on in the book, the boys become so savage and unable to control their urges, that they kill one of their own. In conclusion, Lord of the Flies is a story that portrays the dark, deteriorating life that results from mankind's inherit capacity for evil. Throughout the novel Golding uses many symbols to illustrate this theme and does it successfully..