Reading Response 4: The Beast

The beast is an animal, a snake, a giant squid, a ghost, "a beast with claws that scratched, that sat on a mountain-top, that left no tracks and yet was not fast enough to catch Samneric," (Golding, Lord of the Flies 112). This beast does not just live on the island in the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, it is everywhere, hunting everyone. It is greedy, powerful and savage. It hides in the shadows, lurking, just waiting for a chance when you are vulnerable so that it may jump out and latch onto you with its menacing claws. You can put up walls and burn fires as the boys did in the novel, but they can only protect you for so long. So, what is the beast? Is it all of the above or none of it? Is it something different, but similar? These are the questions I wish to find out.

The beast is an animal, a savage that brings out the darkness and brutality in all of us. It causes us fear and anxiety. But, what horrible creature could do this to the boys in the novel, to us? Perhaps it is our very selves that cause such distress and cruelty. Simon sees this conflict and "became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind's essential illness...'What I mean to say is... maybe it's only us,'" (LOTF 96). Maybe the question we all should be asking is: who is the beast? Are we the beast, is that who? Is there no escaping it?

However, we are not all beasts at first. The boys had to lose their rational minds before they became little beasts, as did Christopher Hadley in William Golding's other novel Pincher Martin. We would have to be forced to give up the proper structure of civilization and humanity before we could be contaminated by the beast. Contaminated like a virus. Simon even expressed it as "...mankind's essential illness..." (LOTF 96). So, perhaps we are not the beast; perhaps it is like a cancer within all of us just waiting to be triggered into the destruction of the mind and sole. So what is the carcinogen? What could trigger us into such insanity and inhumanity?

If the beast is a virus there must be a trigger as well as consequences. In the novel Pincher Martin Christopher has a thought that, "There is no centre of sanity in madness. Nothing like this 'I' sitting in here, staving off the time that must come. The last repeat of the pattern. Then the black lightning," (Golding, Pincher Martin 181). So, the trigger must cause us to lose our sanity before we can go mad, but is madness the same as being a beast? Is the black lightning a cause or effect; a trigger or a consequence? Is it both? There must be some catastrophic event that forces a sane person to turn into a beast, and possibly this causes another devastating event as a consequence. For example, the boys in Lord of the Flies have fallen to the beast due to their fight to survive on the island and their descent into hunting and killing pigs. The effect of this is their loss of innocence as "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy," (LOTF 225) at the conclusion of the novel. The loss of innocence, humanity and wisdom, this is the black lightning and the consequence of falling prey to the beast. The trigger must be the hunt and the boys' obsession over power.

What is the beast? That is what I had wanted to know. I thought I knew, but now it seems as if I have ended up with more questions than answers. Who or what the beast is I can not be sure. It seems as if the beast is different in all of us and therefore effects all of us differently. The boys in William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies have many ideas about what the beast is as well, but they do not come to a conclusion either. All I know is that it is not an animal, or a human, but I do not know what the beast is. It could be a virus meaning that our only chance is to prevent it from spreading and controlling our every thought and every action as the boys try to do in the novel. Each defence they use fails them, so the next question is if the defences will fail us. I just hope that it is an answer we will not have to find out.

Reading Response 3: The Identity

It begins at the beginning of the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding when Ralph implicates Piggy's nick name in the place of his real name and his true identity. Then, at the first assembly when the boys on the island establish their names to everyone, Merridew says “Why should I be Jack? I'm Merridew.” (Golding, Lord of the Flies 17). These are the first betrayals towards their identities and their old customs that made them human once, and it is also the first step towards weakening their walls for the 'beast' to penetrate their thoughts. As the novel progresses the boys edge farther and farther away from civilization as they start giving themselves general terms such as 'littluns' and 'biguns' as well as 'Samneric'. This breaks them into classes, not by their individuality, but by their similarities. As a result, they all become more vulnerable to losing their grip on their identities. Yet, there still remains a remnant of their past lives lingering in their actions at this point in the novel. Not all hope is lost, for the time being. “Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life.” (LOTF 65) However, the boys' walls begin to crumble as their identities fade and a new identity begins to take its place; that of the 'beast'. One weapon that hides the true identity of the boys is the mask; it is almost like the 'beast's' protection once it has penetrated the mind of Jack, as the wall is the protection of Ralph's humanity and identity. “[Jack] was safe from shame or self-consciousness behind the mask,” (LOTF 154), and it destroyed Jack's identity. He admits it himself when he looks at his painted face in the water and “he no longer [looks] at himself but at an awesome stranger,” (LOTF 66). So, here is another barrier like the wall and the curtain all exemplified in the novel. But, the mask is meant for keeping the 'beast' inside the mind and the identity out. This is the exact opposite of the function of the wall.

Though the boys in the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding do not know enough to try to preserve their identities, Christopher Hadley, a man stranded on a rocky island in William Golding's novel Pincher Martin knew enough to think “I am in danger of losing definition. I am an album of snapshots, random, a whole show of trailers of old films,” (Golding, Pincher Martin 132-133). Even though he understood this and tried to keep his identity, he failed as well. The boys in Lord of the Flies frequently sought the knowledge and responsibilities of adults, but here an adult could not even save himself. It is another example of the survival of the fittest, and it looks as if the fittest is the 'beast' once again. It does not matter if you are a man or a child, if you lose your identity to that of the 'beast', you also lose your humanity.

Reading Response 2: The Fire

The fire begins as a rescue beacon for passing ships in the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, but it soon turns into a weapon of destruction. Indeed, the boys are close to burning down the island the first time they light the fire, and they succeed in burning it to the ground at the end of the novel. Therefore, the fire is both a blessing and a curse to the boys as it is both a last hope and method of destruction. The boys make the fire their first priority when they first light it as, "Life became a race with the fire and the boys scattered through the upper forest. To keep a clean flag of flame flying on the mountain was the immediate end and no one looked further," (Golding, Lord of the Flies 41). Then Jack finds a better occupation. He learns to hunt and he allows hunting to consume him until he "[conveys] the compulsion to track down and kill that [which] was swallowing him up," (LOTF 51). Soon the fire is forgotten by all but Ralph and his small group.

The positive side of the fire is not only that it provides the boys with a signal for rescue, but it also provides them with courage and comfort when the 'beast' becomes a reality. It acts as a night light when they are scared as they would, "have a fire near them as a comfort in the night," (LOTF 143), and gives them a reason to keep their sanity as it is their only hope of rescue. However, some of the boys lose sight of this hope and fix their eyes instead on the 'beast.' Ralph realizes this when he rants, "Just an ordinary fire. you'd think we could do that, wouldn't you? Just a smoke signal so we can be rescued. Are we savages or what?" (LOTF 188). Then they begin to abuse the fire and use it for a symbol of power rather than a symbol of hope. They fight over this power when Jack steals their only method of making fire from Piggy; the glasses. With whom ever the glasses lie is who has the power. The conch, the rules and the common sense no longer matter to Jack when he has the glasses, only power matters.

It is true that the fire has the capability to make the boys feel power. It gives them an element of control until they abuse that power and the fire becomes more powerful than themselves. The pleasure this power brings to the boys makes them want more so that when they begin to hunt they feel power over something living. Controlling a living thing is much different than controlling the fire, and the prospect of such a power consumes Jack, making him want even more. This satisfaction is not only found in Jack though, it is exemplified in even the smallest of the boys as a littlun plays in the sand and finds 'transparencies' on the beach that he then tries to manipulate. "He became absorbed beyond mere happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things. He talked to them, urging them, ordering them," (LOTF 64), and though Jack finds his satisfaction through killing the pigs, this littlun shows the beginning of the contamination of power in his mind as well. Of course, this is at a point in the novel when the boys are the only hunters on the island. After they become the hunted, they then have the trouble of regaining control over the island and over the fire. They realize that if they do not have control over the fire, then they do not have control over their rescue or their survival on the island, making the 'beast' more powerful than themselves.

This, ultimately, is the true power of the fire, as it is another defence against the 'beast.' Similarly, it is one of the elements that gave us power during early human evolution and brought us out of savagery. Then, after the boys lose the fire, they return to savagery. Therefore, fire may play a larger role in the success of civilization today and our escape from savagery than it is given credit for. This does not mean, however, that we cannot return to savagery, as it happened to the children in the novel Lord of the Flies.

Reading Response 1: The Wall

The wall is a boundary that is especially noticeable in the character Ralph within the classic novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding. It is built from blocks of rules and the gaps are filled by common sense. The boys in the novel have varying degrees of strength within their individual walls, ranging from Jack's very weak mental wall to Piggy's very strong mental wall. Of course, a wall is either built to keep something out or something in, and I do believe these walls found within the minds of the boys serve both purposes. It is used to keep the 'beast' out and sanity in. Unfortunately, Jack's wall is very vulnerable to the 'beast,' and he as well as his followers soon become consumed by inhumanity and savagery. It seems as if his wall also had many gaps in its common sense as he becomes obsessive about hunting rather than rescue.

On the other hand, there are a few boys that have strong mental defences against the 'beast' including Sam and Eric, Ralph, Piggy and potentially Simon. Each boy, at one point or another, is consumed by the 'beast,' one of the most prominent times being during Simon's death. However, most of them seem to keep their common sense throughout the majority of the novel, and they remain focused on rescue. Piggy has the strongest wall of them all and he follows the rules even while the boys are in turmoil. He also shows Ralph sense when Ralph becomes distracted from their main objective: rescue and keeping the fire going. There is a point when Ralph, too, begins to lose his common sense in the thrill of the hunt, which makes him doubt his leadership capabilities. Indeed, he refers to this mental block as the 'curtain' that blocks his view. In a way this curtain has the opposite effect of the wall in the sense that it keeps out common sense and leaves Ralph shrouded in darkness within. This inner conflict in Ralph's mind makes their whole society vulnerable, and gives Jack his opportunity to rise up and take authority over all of the weak-walled boys.

In the end, the mental walls are not enough to keep out the 'beast' from their minds of reason, No amount of rules or common sense the boys possess can keep the 'beast' out, and as a result, they lose their innocence. It seems plausible that everyone of us could have a mental wall as well, ready at any moment to be broken down and invaded by the 'beast.' Maybe this wall is our only defence against the 'beast' and our only chance at remaining innocent. In which case, Golding's novel Lord of the Flies serves as a learning experience and a reminder of our vulnerability to insanity and inhumanity.