Golding - Lord of the Flies extract - confronting the beast.

Authors Avatar by kmaria53yahoocouk (student)

In this extract from the novel, Ralph, Jack and Roger, though frightened and armed only with three

sticks, are approaching what Jack has described as “a thing”. Sam and Eric said this thing was the

beast. The three boys are frightened and Golding makes the scene frightening for the reader.

 

The setting is a frightening one. It is night-time, but not completely dark as there is “a patch of

lighter sky where in a moment the moon would arise”. The boys’ situation is dangerous, high above

the “glittering lengths of the lagoon” and the “long white smudge that was the reef”. Golding has

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taken away all colour from the scene and made it seem to be taking place in black and white.

When colour does appear, it is green “Green lights of nausea”, brought before Ralph’s eyes by his

unexpected contact with “the cold soft ashes of the fire”, a sensation which makes him almost

physically sick. When the ashes blow into his face from the dead fire (darkness and death seem

linked in this frightening place) Ralph almost faints as “the top of the mountain was sliding

sideways”. Fainting on the top of this mountain with the ...

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