Halli Nantais Nantais 1
Mrs. Crowell
ENG 3U
Thursday, April 13, 2015

The Effects of the Inner Beast

William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies, tells the story of a group of young British boys stranded on a deserted island after a catastrophic plane crash. All the boys on the island are well educated, well behaved and civilized, and custom to a strict up bringing. Being alone with no adults, the boys are forced to break down most, if not all of their barriers in order to be rescued. Some think that they can be rescued by maintaining a civilized approach, while others completely ignore all the things they have been tough and break all the rules because they are being consumed by the elements of the island. After months of being alone, the majority of the boys have been stripped of their innocence and are beaten down, by each other and of their surroundings, both mentally and physically. Golding demonstrates through the characters Jack, Roger, and Samneric, that civilization is not enough to protect the boys from the beasts within themselves. When Jack's character is first introduced he is shown as the leader of the choirboys, perfectly prim and proper and insisting all his boys act the same. For a short time he is civilized, the like rest of the boys. When he and Ralph go exploring the island and they spot a pig, Jack was unable to kill it because it goes against
Nantais 2 everything he has lived by for years back home. "They knew very well why he hadn't; because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood"(Golding 31). In the beginning of the novel they were all talk, but no action, none of the boys could go through with the action. As more time passes Jack is completely consumed with his desire to hunt, after feeling the rush of his first kill, and forgets about the civilized way of living that the boys are use to. As this obsession grows, so does his evil and savaged way of living. Jack contradicts everything Ralph says and does, and shows this by being the first person to leave the group lead by Ralph and start his own tribe. Jack no longer cares about the others or being rescued and his descent into savagery is rapid. His obsession for hunting is a prime example of how his evil has been brought out. When Jack and his hunters kill the pig it is a ruthless murder, they stab it, cut off its head, and reenact the killing several times. Jacks hidden evil is most evidentially shown in the death of Simon. Simon is unfortunately mistaken for the beast that haunts all the boys on the island, which leads to a brutal attack and murder of the innocent Simon. The following quote from the novel shows how overly obsessed with evil and killing Jack had become on the island that led to Simon’s murder. The beast was on its knees in the centre, its arms folded over its face. It was crying out against the abominable noise something about a body on the hill. The beast struggles forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to sand by the water. At one the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, but tore. There were no more words, and no
Nantais 3 movements but the tearing of teeth and claws. (169) "Simons dead body moved out towards the open sea" (170). There are examples all throughout the book to prove the point that no matter what the circumstance, the evil inside will always come out. The character of Roger is another example of one of the boys who has become overcome with their inner evil. When we first meet Roger he is one of Jack's obedient choirboys who would never dare step out of line. As the boys became more comfortable with the idea of being alone on the island with no adults, Roger was the first of the boys to veer from their rules. Early in the book we