What is the paradox of the boys' attitude toward the beast in Lord of the Flies?

Answer 1

The whole saga started when the littlun with the mulberry coloured birthmark on his face reported seeing a snake-thing that came in the night and tried to eat him. Although the rest of the boys laughed at the littlun, his words seemed to echo among them, perhaps igniting similar fears they also had. With no adults to allay their fears and spending nights in pitch darkness, while strange noises sound eerily for the jungle, the childish fears of the boys feed on themselves. Pretty soon the laughable idea of a single littlun had spread and Jack tells Ralph that his hunters are talking about a 'beast.' He also adds that sometimes when he is in the forest alone he feels that he is being hunted rather than hunting. At a meeting, called by Ralph with the intention of ending the talk of a beast once and for all, wild ideas about giants squids and ghosts surface and the meeting ends in a vote in favour of the existence of ghosts. Next Samneric mistake the body of a parachutist on the mountain top for a beast with wings and claws. Jack adds further weight to the belief by leaving the pigs head as an offering to placate the beast as if it were a primitive God or Demon. Even when they killed Simon, after mistaking him for the beast, Jack simply said that the beast disguised itself, implying that it had supernatural powers and could not be killed. So, the original nightmarish fears of one scared little boy had grown and festered until almost every boy on the island had come to believe that there really was a beast.

Answer 2

When the beast is initially mention Jack says that he doesn't believe in it but if there were a beast his hunters would track it down and kill it. Later in the book Jack leaves the head and guts of a killed pig as an offering for the beast and later advises his hunters to leave part of the kill for it if they go hunting. The beast which Jack initially declares is just a figment of a child's nightmare has by the end of the book been raised to the status of a primitive god.

Answer 3

The boys are still children and they are on an unknown island without the security of any adult presence. Like most children the boys are afraid of the dark and the unknown. The traumaticexperiences of fleeing a war and crashing on an island during a storm are enough to give any child nightmares. Those nightmares coupled with the fear of the dark and the unknown give birth to the snake-thing or beastie. Gradually the legend grows, added to by fear and superstition until a real dead body is mistaken for the imagined beast. What was simply a nightmare is then perceived to be something absolutely and undoubtedly real.

Answer 4

The initial mention of a snake-thing or beastie is met with howls of derisive laughter but there is also an undercurrent of empathy. Gradually childish imagination and misinterpreted evidence coupled with an understandable fear of the unknown succeed in convincing most of the boys that the beast, which is no longer called by the derisive name of beastie, truly exists. This fear of the imagined beast leads to restrictions on their movement, they avoid the mountain top and have to build their fire on the beach. Jack's hunters evolve into a tribe who make their headquarters at the easily defensible Castle Rock partly from fear of the beast. They leave offerings for it and their increased violence and use of dances can be partly attributed to their increased belief in the beast and the necessity of protecting themselves from it.

Answer 5

In "Lord of the Flies," the paradox is the boys fear of an external beast, when in actuality it rests within each of them, growing more dangerous by the day. They create a fantasy outer beast because they are not yet ready to face what they have become. Simon understands before the others just who and what the beast is, but at the point when they are killing Simon, it becomes clear, that they understand there is no outer beast. He is killed for trying to break the illusion.

Answer 6

After managing to scare themselves silly talking about a beast which may come from the sea or may even be a ghost Jack then says "If there's a beast we'll hunt it down. We'll close in and beat and beat and beat---!"And most of the very same boys who voted to show their belief in ghosts ran off to join him dancing and chanting on the dark beach.

Answer 7

To quote from chapter 7: Shadows and Tall trees... Roger, uncommunicative by nature, said nothing. He offered no opinion on the beast nor told Ralph why he had chosen to come on this mad expedition. He simply sat and rocked the trunk gently...

Answer 8

Ralph and Piggy simply refuse to accept the existence of the beast. Simon feels that perhaps there is a beast but that the beast is simply themselves. Jack's standard reaction to any mention of the beast is to treat it as a creature of some kind which can be hunted. The littlun Johnny reported seeing something big and horrid in the trees. The littlun Percival said that it came from the sea. Other boys suggested giant squid and ghosts as possible candidates.

Answer 9

the paradox is that jack saids that the beast does not exist BUT if it does him and the hunters will kill it