Lord of the Flies

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1. 
   missblimey Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

   Ralph doesn't believe in the beast at first and is dismissive of the younger boys' fears - "You couldn't have a beastie, a snake-thing, on an island this size" (chapter 2). But he finds it difficult to keep dismissing it as the younger boys get more and more frightened of the idea of the beast and even the older boys like Jack begin to refer to the beast as though it were a possibility. When the twins, Sam'n'Eric claim to have seen the beast in chapter 6, Ralph is forced to join Jack's hunting part which leads to the encounter with the thing the boys believe to be the beast in chapter 7. We later learn it is actually the parachutist.

   After this point Ralph seems to be trapped in a contradiction - he still tries to remain rational but his fears are difficult to assuage. You could argue that one reason he loses his position of power on the island is his confusion as to how to deal with the notion of the beast. Jack sees the potential of the beast as a way of controlling the others and uses it - like when he leaves the pig's head for the beast as a gift.

   By the end of the novel it is possible to argue that Ralph is the only one who comes close to understanding what Simon understood before he died - that the beast was the boys themselves. In chapter 11 he calls Jack a "beast" and during the final hunt for him, Ralph himself is described as being "screaming, snarling, bloody" (chapter 12). He never quite reaches Simon's conclusion though.

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   Posted by missblimey on Sunday August 17, 2008 at 11:30 AM
   
   

2. 
   luannw Teacher
   High School - 11th Grade

   Chapter 10 is where Ralph begins to change his opinion about the beast. This occurs after Simon is killed in the previous chapter during the boys' frenzy. Ralph tells Piggy that they committed murder because he realizes that it was a savage frenzy that caused them to fall upon Simon and kill him.  He knows that they had all let the evil inside of each of them take control of themselves for that moment.  He tells Piggy that he is afraid "Of us," he says.  He is starting to understand that the real beast on the island is that evil in each of them and that the only way to defeat the beast is to keep that evil inside.  He also realizes that doing that is becoming progressively more difficult and that some of the boys are more savage than some of the others.  By the end of the story, Ralph has come to fully realize that there is no physical beast and he knows what Simon realized earlier that the real source of evil was that inner savagery..

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/flies/

   http://www.enotes.com/flies/chapter-10-summary-analysis

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   Posted by luannw on Sunday August 17, 2008 at 4:56 PM
   
   

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