What is the Beast in Lord of the Flies?

Netflix’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ follows the story of a group of boys marooned on an unnamed island after their flight crashes. At first, their desire to survive brings them together, but soon conflicts arise, and the group splits into two. Apart from the clashes that happen within, the boys also have to be aware of the dangers outside. One of the things they have been haunted by since the beginning of their journey is an unknown beast. It first appears to younger kids and is dismissed by the older ones. But eventually, the beast shows itself to the boys. However, it is not what one would expect. SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Beast is an Illusion

While the boys have some serious issues to deal with on the island without any adults to help them, the idea of a mysterious and dangerous beast lurking in the shadows presents another challenge. It is first mentioned by two young boys who claim to have heard him while playing in an isolated section of the beach. They hear a weird sound they cannot explain, though around the same time, we see Simon playing on the other side, which may have made the sound that scared the little boys. They mention it in one of the team meetings, and while Ralph and Jack initially don’t take them seriously, Jack later comes to believe there may be some truth to it.

One of the boys says it comes from the water, which makes it sound like an ocean creature. However, no one else encounters it, proving that it was likely an illusion. The next mention comes from a boy who first describes his dream in which he saw the beast, then claims he woke from the dream and saw something moving in the shadows. At this point, the elder boys wonder whether the little one was still dreaming when he thought he saw the real beast. Even though he claims he did, it was most likely him misremembering things. Or, he was simply seeing shadows turning into beasts through his overactive imagination.

By the time the next mention of the beast arrives, Jack has become the leader of his own group. The twins, who are with Ralph, claim to have seen the beast, and because they are older, their word cannot be dismissed so easily. By this time, the numbers in Ralph’s group have significantly dwindled, so he goes to Jack for help. The two groups reach a truce to defeat a common enemy and decide to search the unexplored parts of the island, believing that that’s where the beast must have been hiding all this time. By the end, only five of them, including Ralph, Simon, and Jack, reach the top of the hill, where they find something concerning. There is a mysterious cover there, and as it moves with the wind, it appears like a creature.

A Dead Pilot’s Parachute Creates Frenzy Among the Boys

The boys have been there, so they know that this thing wasn’t there before. The presence of this strange, new, mysterious thing throws their imagination into overdrive. Since it is already too dark, they don’t have proper visibility to ascertain the true nature of the thing in front of them. As their fear increases, so does the force of the wind, until it eventually blows the whole thing up, and it looks like a giant beast with huge wings. All the boys are scared, and they all run away, with only Simon getting the last good look at it. They are so terrified by the confirmation of the beast’s existence that they don’t dare return to the site to examine it in the morning. Thus, the fear sits in their heads, making them even worse.

In reality, it was no beast they saw on the hill. The wings that seemed to flap in the wind were actually parts of a torn parachute. And the creature they saw at the center of those wings was a dead pilot who had crash-landed on the island and died on the spot. Because the story takes place during a war, the pilot was likely hit in combat and died either due to injuries from the crash or due to the impact of the bad landing. Later, we see the parachute blown out to sea by the wind. Because the boys hadn’t returned to the hill since the group splintered, no one noticed the dead pilot’s arrival. Moreover, despite all that went down, they were still boys, unaware of many, many things that happen or exist in the world.

At the end of the day, when they saw something in the darkness they couldn’t explain, the fear of the unknown kicked in. There was no adult to calm them down and tell them that there was no beast or monster out there to get them. So, the kids believed the shadows. In reality, the beast they should be scared of is not out there in the woods but inside them. There is no Lord of the Flies or Beelzebub haunting the island, and it is not out to get them. It is their own nature, the inherent violence of humanity, that becomes the beast destroying them, picking them off one by one. It isn’t until it is too late that they realize that this is what they should be scared of.

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