Download LOTF chapter 9

THE BEAST IN
LORD OF THE FLIES
CHAPTER 9
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THE BEAST IN
LORD OF THE FLIES
•Represents darkness and evil.
•Represents INTERNAL darkness: the
evil in all of our hearts (even Ralph)
•Represents EXTERNAL darkness:
savagery of civilization.
THE BEAST IN
LORD OF THE FLIES
•A product of the boys’ imagination
•Irony: the Littluns are afraid of things they see at night, rather
than the Great Unknown.
•Want to give FEAR a name, something that is
tactile: feel and touch it.
•Cannot defeat a ‘nothing’ and illusion, but you can kill or defeat
something that is physical.
THE BEAST IN
LORD OF THE FLIES
• Piggy says that the beast is just fear: "I know there isn't no
beast—not with claws and all that, I mean—but I know there
isn't no fear, either”
• Simon says: the beast is ‘only us’. It is, in fact,
a person who fell from the sky ( a parachutist)
that has human-like attributes: teeth and eyes.
• Ralph and Jack see it as an ape, therefore it
shows a literal representation of the animal in
all of us.
THE BEAST IN
LORD OF THE FLIES
• Simon refers to the beast as the darkness inside of us. One
cannot literally hunt it down and kill it. BUT one can defeat it
but hunting it down within us.
THE BEAST IN
LORD OF THE FLIES
Simon
• Simon’s encounter with the beast can be partly due to his
wisdom or the effects of dehydration.
"Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt or kill! …
You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close. I'm the
reason why it's no go?
Why things are what they are?”
Simon understands all the
negative and horrible aspects
of life.
THE BEAST IN
LORD OF THE FLIES
Simon as the Christ-Figure
•Simon happens to be the name of one of the twelve apostles.
Simon started out as Simon until Jesus decided really his name
should be "Peter" instead, because “Peter" means rock—and
Simon was the "rock" on which Jesus would build his church.
•Simon has a kindred spirit-ness with
animals, his ‘suffer the little children
unto me’ attitude (think about the
fruit-picking), and his ability to
prophesize, like when he tells Ralph
that Ralph will get home, and sort of
suggests that he himself won't.
THE BEAST IN
LORD OF THE FLIES
Simon as the Christ-Figure
• Question: Does Simon die to save the others, like Christ did?
* He alone had the knowledge of the beast's true nature,
* He alone had the potential to save
the boys from themselves and their
fear, and they basically kill him for
trying to spread the ‘good news’
about the beast.
* Simon dies, just like Christ,
for the sins of others.