Revision

 I chose the Lord of the Flies essay because this is one of the best papers I've written so far this year. I also chose this paper because I know I could make one of my best papers new and improved.  I focused on my word choice and organization. The changes in the paper made it more complex and a better argument.The changes also could be interested in a big topic in Lord of the Flies. My revised version gave me more confidence and new ways to correct my mistakes.

   

The Beast of Imagination

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding gives us a shift of behaviors since the British schoolboys has arrived on the unknown island. At first, the group of boys were filled with joy because they were alone with no supervision of their parents. Jack and Ralph become best friends and shares a common happiness for their new independence. Since a beast appears randomly in the story, it makes the island more suspicious and challenging for the group of boys. As the beast appears throughout the book, the characters’ behaviors change from playful schoolboys, to wild and violent adults, causing them to go against themselves and each other.                                                                            Phil, the first person to see the strange creature, gives the group of boys a harsh description of the beast, interpreting it as “twisty things fighting” (85). As Phil explains the “twisty things”, he sees the beast as a creature that wants to hunt them. Phil’s description of the beast affected the littluns’ feelings about the island quickly, in which the boys react with “derisive laughter that rose was afraid in it and condemnation” (85). Thus, the description of the beast made the boys feel depressed and darker by the hour.                                                                                                                                               Another description of the twisty thing could be snakes. The beast appears again in the air Sam and Eric discovers a figure as they woke up for the night. The figure’s action affected Sam and Eric, who show even more feelings of terror when they saw a dead body. As they told Ralph, the group became more petrified of the beast. The littluns also became more curious of the beast, causing a sense of fear throughout the group including Ralph. The voice of the narrator gives us the spooky mood on the island that sets the scene for the littluns.                                                                                        Simon and the “Lord of the Flies” conversation leads to the truth about the beast and how it turned out to not be an actual creature. He talks to Simon in a commanding, hellish voice, which says,” There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast” (143). He explains to Simon that the conspiracies about the beast was a way to distract the boys from getting rescued off the island and to turn on each other that it will almost become a war of its own.  Simon’s” arched and stiff” (143) body language shows the beast Simon’s fear. This gives the Lord of the Flies a sensation of fear towards him and becomes more aware of the situation. Simon detects that their imaginations of the beast has affected them since they have been on the island. He also warns Simon of what may happen if he continues to go on with his search and threatens Simon. He explains to Simon that “there is no way out of this island and they are going to have fun on this island” (143). The Lord of the Flies’ type of fun is seeing the boys struggling to get along, arguing, and looking for the beast, which is a distraction. He states names such as “Jack and Roger and Maurice and Robert and Bill and Piggy and Ralph” (144). The names indicate that the boys all had a responsibility in Simon’s death on page 153. The Lord of the Flies are stating these names to create suspense that the boys may be involved in the “or else” statement he told Simon about. Simon shows another way towards how he fears the “Lord of the Flies” when he “fell down and lost consciousness” (144). The beast is controlling Simon and the group of boys’ imaginations, which determines their hopes of getting off this unknown island.                        Simon becomes the only source of truth about the beast of their imagination and is their only hope to be rescued on the island. Simon wants to explain to the boys that “the beast is harmless and horrible” (147). He plans to tell the group at the feast held by Castle Rock, which is dangerous to do because of the frightening and vicious behavior they bring to their own feast. Castle Rock continues their hunt for the beast and creates a dark chant that shows the effect of the group since the beast appears throughout the story. The chant grew louder as they say “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (152). The chant shows the difference of the boys and how the “beast” affected their behavior from the beginning of the story from a quiet, playful group of boys from a vicious, devil-made group of boys. Simon runs towards the feast and the author shifts Simon to the beast itself. The narrator states,” At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements, but the tearing of teeth and claws” (153). The author gives Simon characteristics of the beast, which gives information of how the other group of boys saw Simon at the time.  The narrator uses words to describe the sound of the boys as “screaming into the darkness” (153). Following the event when Simon and the Lord of the Flies held the conversation, he explained to Simon that something bad was going to happen if he attempted to tell the group the truth about the beast. He also included the names of the people who would be involved in the killing of his own death. These clues show the Lord of the Flies’ fun was to kill Simon so the boys could lose hope of leaving the island. The clues also show the groups’ imagination of Simon as the beast and caused Simon’s death.                                                                                                    The characters’ mood and behavior is changed by the beast throughout the book. The hellish and destructive behavior gave the beast more power to destroy the boys and to lose hope of getting rescued. The violence of the boys causes Simon’s death and gives the boys a harsh look at reality.  The beast turns out to be the imagination of the boys and kept them from getting rescued of the unknown island. The independence of the boys seems to disappear once the beast appears and the imagination controlled their lives throughout the course of the story. The beast wanted to destroy them by fighting against each other. It created hate, which was not used in the beginning of the story, and brought war to the civilization. As they get rescued, the mood changed to sadness about their independence being taken away from them in a split second. The boys also just finished their war of survival and must go to war to survive in the real world at the time. Golding also puts the boys in the position of being stranded on an island to tell us how life happens quickly and how a war against each other affects their lives. He also shows the harsh reality that the world is like with your own independence.

                                                                Work Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Penguin, 1954.