Significant Passages

One of the most significant passages in this book is the following:

"What are you doing out here all alone? Aren't you afraid of me?
Simon shook.
"There isn't anyone to help you. Only me. And I'm the Beast."
Simon's mouth labored, brought forth audible words.
"Pig's head on a stick."
"Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!" said the head.
For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter.
"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?"
The laughter shivered again.

(p.143)

In this gruesome passage, the Lord of the Flies speaks to Simon. These words confirm Simon’s thoughts that perhaps the beast is only the boys themselves. This idea of the evil on the island being within the boys is central to the novel’s exploration of innate human savagery. The pig-head identifies itself as the beast and acknowledges to Simon that it exists within all human beings: “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?” Simon, startled by his discovery, tries to inform this to the rest of the boys. However, the boys mistake him for the beast itself and kill him!

This made me feel extremely angry, for the innocent was killed by the evil forces among the boys. I wondered if they really thought Simon was the beast. Perhaps the boys wished to kill the "beast" so much that they all misapprehended that the thin boy was the actual beast? I was very shocked and taken aback.


Another passage I want to introduce is from the end of the book:

"For a moment he had a fleeting picutre of the strange glamour that had once invested the beaches. But the island was scorched up like dead wood - Simon was dead - and Jack had... The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddereing spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckaged of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too.
And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall throught the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."

(p.202)

These lines occur after the boys encounter a naval officer who comes to rescue all of them. When Ralph sees the officer, his sudden realization that he is safe and will be returned to civilization plunges him into a reflective despair. This rescue is not a moment of joy, for Ralph realizes that he will never be the same after going through all of his horrible experiences on the island. Although he is saved from death on the island, he has lost his innocence and learned about the evil that lurks within all human beings. We would never fully understand how sad this situation is.