The_Beast_Within

The Beast Within                 It has been said that the only thing that separates humans from animals is reason, and that beneath the mask of civilization, we are all beasts in the end. In Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding, this is illustrated incredibly well by a group of boys who are left marooned on an island on their own, without any adults. The main characters of the story are faced with the daunting task of not only surviving on their own on the island, but surviving each other as well. Their signal fire, Jack’s killing of the pig and the destruction of Piggy’s glasses, are symbols that reveal Golding’s theme that without the guidance of civilization, man is naught but a beast like any other. The fire is a powerful symbol in Lord of the Flies and is a symbol of the thin line between man and beast. It is their only chance of rescue, and therefore a symbol representing the logic and reason of man—the use of a signal to increase their chance of rescue exponentially, which is shown when Ralph reprimands Jack for allowing the fire to go out; “‘There was a ship. Out there. You said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out!” (Golding 70). In not thinking things through and taking those on fire duty on the hunting trip, Jack causes the loss of their chance at being rescued. He chooses a small luxury such as meat over a possibility of rescue, therefore condemning the boys to a prolonged stay on the island. However, though it is a symbol of logic and reason, it is also a symbol of savagery and this is illustrated when Golding writes, “One patch touched a tree trunk and scrambled up like a bright squirrel. The smoke increased sifted, rolled outwards…” (Golding 44). It spreads like an epidemic, destroying everything it touches, just like how Jack’s savagery spreads and takes over the boys. Aside from the fire, Jack’s transition from his initial inability to kill a pig to being able to do it without a second thought is also a symbol. In the beginning, Jack finds that he isn’t able to kill a pig because he can’t handle the gravity of taking a life. Golding explains this by writing “They knew very well why he hadn’t; because the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (Golding 31). He is humiliated that he can’t kill the pig, and humiliation can drive people to break even their most revered morals. Jack can’t stand the thought of not being the better man compared to Ralph, who has not only been chosen as chief, but even has the gall to question why he can’t kill the pig, which Jack obviously takes in offense. Jack obviously wants to be the superior; he’s been the superior to all those around him, he is used to power, and now he doesn’t have it, and it drives him to kill, and once he kills, he becomes crazed with the feeling of control and power. His killing of the pigs without any remorse afterwards is him giving into the savage that civilization has otherwise been able to keep bottled away, as illustrated when Jack excitedly exclaims about how “There was lashings of blood”( Golding 69). And about how Ralph “should have seen it” (Golding 69). Another symbol is Piggy’s glasses. They show the boys’ steady regression to savages as events pass; it represents the logic and intelligence of the boys before their metaphorical fall from grace, however throughout the book, as the condition of the glasses steadily worsened, the boys are turned loose from the bars civilization had put them in. This is illustrated when two of the main characters, Jack and Ralph get into an argument which ends in the first blow to the glasses: “…Jack smacked Piggy’s head. Piggy’s glasses flew off and tinkled on the rocks”(Golding 71). This begins the deterioration of the walls civilization creates to keep the inner beast at bay which is shown specifically by the broken lens, which represents the breaking of logic and reason. Later on in the book, after Jack has created his tribe and breaks away from Ralph and his crew, Jack raids Ralph’s camp and steals Piggy’s glasses simply to use as a tool for the primitive reason of creating fire. This shows that reason has been thrown out the window, because Ralph would have given them some of their fire had they been asked, yet they resorted to violence instead, and degrade this symbol of intelligence by turning it into a simple tool. The theme of the story is that people, without the logic and reason of civilization, can easily regress back to their natural savage. Golding delivers this message through the use of symbols such as the fire, jack’s killing of the pig, and Piggy’s glasses being broken. Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin Group, 1954. Print.