Beast
Beast
"He still says he saw the beastie. It came and went away again an' came back and wanted to eat him--"
"He was dreaming."
Laughing, Ralph looked for confirmation round the ring of faces. The older boys agreed; but here and there among the little ones was the doubt that required more than rational assurance.
"He must have had a nightmare. Stumbling about among all those creepers."
More grave nodding; they knew about nightmares. "He says he saw the beastie, the snake-thing, and will it come back tonight?" (p.26)
There was a moment's struggle and the glimmering conch jigged up and down. Ralph leapt to his feet.
"Jack! Jack! You haven't got the conch! Let him speak."
Jack's face swam near him.
"And you shut up! Who are you, anyway? Sitting there telling people what to do. You can't hunt, you can't sing--"
"I'm chief. I was chosen."
"Why should choosing make any difference? Just giving orders that don't make any sense--"
"Piggy's got the conch."
"That's right--favor Piggy as you always do--"
"Jack!"
Jack's voice sounded in bitter mimicry.
"Jack! Jack!"
"The rules!" shouted Ralph. "You're breaking the rules!"
"Who cares?"
Ralph summoned his wits.
"Because the rules are the only thing we've got!"
But Jack was shouting against him.
"Bollocks to the rules! We're strong--we hunt! If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down!
We'll close in and beat and beat and beat--!" (p.69)
Far off along the beach, Jack was standing before a small group of boys. He was looking
brilliantly happy.
"Hunting," he said. He sized them up. Each of them wore the remains of a black cap
and ages ago they had stood in two demure rows and their voices had been the song of angels.
"We'll hunt. I'm going to be chief."
They nodded, and the crisis passed easily.
"And then--about the beast."
They moved, looked at the forest.
"I say this. We aren't going to bother about the beast."
He nodded at them.
"We're going to forget the beast."
"That's right!"
"Yes!"
"Forget the beast!"
If Jack was astonished by their fervor he did not show it.
"And another thing. We shan't dream so much down here. This is near the end of the island."
They agreed passionately out of the depths of their tormented private lives.
"Now listen. We might go later to the castle rock. But now I'm going to get more of the biguns away from the conch and all that. We'll kill a pig and give a feast." He paused and went on more slowly. "And about the beast. When we kill we'll leave some of the kill for it. Then it won't bother us, maybe." (p.102)
ANALYSIS
The Beast is an interesting "character" in the novel because it is like a thermometer. In the beginning, the beast was cited like a "littun" nightmare, people did not give much importance to it, however, along the story, it starts to take place because of Sameric vision and more after Ralph and Jack make an expedition to see what it really was. They were so afraid that they could not see a dead parachustist but the beast.
The Beast symbolizes the evil inside each one, as much as they believe in the beast, more catastrophic it becomes. And the beast points exactly each time the civilization is desconstructed in the island. When the beast took a place as god. The island is totally immersed in chaos.
Beast
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