The Beast Quotes Lord of the Flies
18 Here at last was the imagined but never fully realized place leaping into real life.
21 For a moment the boys were a closed circuit of sympathy with Piggy on the outside… Eyes shining, mouths open, triumphant, they savored the right of domination.
31 They knew very well why he hadnt [killed the piglet]: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood.
37 About Ralphs feeling of the beast: He felt himself facing something ungraspable.
38 Then, with the martyred expression of a parent who has to keep up with the senseless ebullience of the children, he [Piggy] picked up the conch, turned toward the forest, and began to pick his way over the tumbled scar.
42 I agree with Ralph. Weve got to have rules and obey them. After all, were not savages. Were English, and the English are best at everything. So weve got to do the right things.
Jack 51 About Jack:
He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.
53 If youre hunting sometimes… you can feel as if youre not hunting, butbeing hunted, as if somethings behind you all the time in the jungle.
Jack 61 About Henry:
He became absorbed beyond mere happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things. N/A 62 On Roger throwing stones:
…there was a space around Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Rogers arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins.
64 On Jacks mask:
…the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and selfconsciousness.
70 Jacks thoughts of his first kill:
His mind was crowded with memories, memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink.
71 About Jack and Ralph:
There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill; and there was the world of longing and baffled commonsense.
73 After the ship passes:
Not even Ralph knew how a link between him and Jack had been snapped and fastened elsewhere.
76 Ralphs thoughts:
He found himself understanding the wearisomeness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of ones waking life was spent watching ones feet.
78 Ralphs thoughts:
If faces where different when lit from above or belowwhat was a face? What was anything?
81 But I tell you that smoke is more important than the pig, however often you kill one. Ralph 82 Things are breaking up. I dont understand why. We began well; we were happy. And then …Then people started getting frightened. Ralph 84 I know there isnt no beastnot with claws and all that, I meanbut I know there isnt no fear either…Unless…Unless we get frightened of people.
Piggy 89 On The Beast:
What I mean is… Maybe its only us…. Simon became inarticulate in his efforts to express mankinds essential illness. Simon 91 The world, that understandable and lawful word, was slipping away. Once there was this and that; and nowand the ship had gone.
93 On Jack
Im scared of him, and thats why I know him. If youre scared of someone you hate him but you can’t stop thinking about him. You kid yourself hes all right really, an then when you see him again; its like asthma an you cant breathe. Piggy 103 However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick.
115 On Ralphs first dance:
Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.
117 By now, Ralph had no self-consciousness in public thinking but would treat the days decisions as though he were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player.
126 On The Beast:
The beast is a hunter… we couldnt kill it.
Jack 127 Upon leaving the group:
Im not going to play any longer. Not with you.
Jack 137 Describing the Lord of the Flies:
The half-shut eyes were dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life. They assured Simon that everything was a bad business.
139 On the fire:
We cant keep one fire going. And they dont care. And whats more, I dont sometimes. Ralph 142 There isnt anyone to help you. Only me. And Im the Beast… Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!… You knew, didnt you? Im part of you? Close, close, close! Im the reason why its no go? Why things are the way they are?
LOTE 142 Simons knowledge:
The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible.
152 During Simons death:
Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable.
163 Ralphs thoughts:
There was something good about a fire. Something overwhelmingly good.
170 Ralphs thoughts:
after all we aren’t savages really and being rescued isnt a game
Ralph 178 Ralphs actions:
He… gazed at the green and black mask before him, trying to remember what Jack looked like.
202 … Ralph wept for for the end of innocence, the darkness of mans heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy.
