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Dbq Essay On Lord Of The Flies

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The boys chant, “Kill the beast, cut his throat spill his blood!” in chapter 9, while they horrifically murder Simon because they believe him to the beast. Golding never properly explains what exactly the beast is, though his heavy use of symbolism can give many clues. Whatever the beast is, it’s horrible enough to drive the boys to murder. Throughout Lord of the Flies, the beast takes many forms: it begins as fear, then morphs into war, which then combine to demonstrate the savagery of human nature. Fear controls the boys. At night, the littluns wake up screaming from night terrors. The older boys become more and more skittish during the day. Gradually, their fear consumes them. This general fear is universally personified as a beast (document A). The boy with the birthmark brought up the idea of a beast that was “ever so big” and “turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung in the branches” during the day (document B). Their fears are not helped by Jack, who tries to reassure them that if there was a beast, they would hunt and kill it. Although what Jack is saying …show more content…

At one point, a dead pilot lands on the island, which the boys (specifically SamnEric) mistake for the beast they already feared (document D). At this point in the story, the beast begins to represent war. This new “beast” came after Ralph wished for a sign from the grownup world in chapter 6. It symbolizes that even the adults can’t help them, quite possibly because they are no better. As stated earlier, everything the boys do is influenced by their perception of the existence of a beast. When Golding writes the beast to represent war, the boys actions are related to war (document C). This first shift in the meaning of the beast occurs as the boys are beginning to divide, as Jack begins to undermine Ralph. The beast symbolizes war; the boys are consumed by the beast, and the boys are eventually consumed by

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