Ralph’s reluctance to even consider the beast’s existence conveys his naïve optimism. Golding shows this by the repetition of Ralph’s dialogue: ‘there isn’t a beast’.
Simon is the first to consider that the beast is ‘one of us’. He is used by Golding as a vehicle for his expression that the only fear man should have is the fear of the ‘darkness of man’s heart’. Golding uses Simon to convey his message as he is shy, which draws significance and attention to anything he says. However, the boys don’t appreciate Simon’s insight and say it’s ‘batty’.
Further on in the novel, the beast is said to come ‘out of the sea’. Golding uses the sea metaphorically as an ‘impenetrable’ wall between society and the island; the beast is present in society, but it’s suppressed.
The beast is also used for the boys’ sake of a distraction. Focussing on an external source of fear prevents them having to recognise and accept that the fear’s source is internal.
Another interpretation of the beast is the parachutist. In some ways, the parachutist does represent the beast. If the beast is supposed to represent human’s capacity for evil, then someone who has died from war is a perfect example of Golding’s behalf as war is possibly the most destructive thing. On searching for this beast, Simon ‘mumbles’ that he ‘doesn’t believe in the beast’. Given that Simon is an innately good person, not tempted in the slightest by evil instincts, he has faith in humanity and that, like him, they will choose good over evil. The fact that he ‘mumbles’ it is another example of his clear insight being ignored.
In an attempt to please the beast, Jack gives the beast a ‘gift’, the pig’s head. This is Jack’s first actual acknowledgement of the beast. By presenting it with a gift, Jack’s own fear is confirmed. However, it’s ironic that the beast, a personification of evil impulses’ is given, as a gift, the head, a result of these same impulses. Additionally, by gifting the beast, the hunters are treating it like a totemic god, perhaps a religious reference to them discarding their Christian values for satanic.
The pig’s head is then used as a means for Simon to ‘communicate’ with evil. The head is referred to as the ‘Lord of the Flies’ which has references with the devil. Simon and the pig’s head could be an allegory of the Devil’s confrontation with Jesus during the forty days Jesus spent in the desert. The Beelzebub reference could also signify Golding’s possible belief that the devil is responsible for the primitive, evil instinct.
In conclusion, I think that beast’s importance is primarily to show the boys’ descent into evil and, by using the beast, it clearly shows how they themselves are scared of their capabilities.
