Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel by Nobel Prize–winning British author William Golding. The book focuses on a group of British boys stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves.

1. Lord of the Flies
Chapter 6: Beast from
Air
Guided Analysis
and Annotation

2. Chapter 6 analysis
In chapter 6 Golding is showing the reader that Democracy and the concept of ‘The Beast’ is
being challenged, this is likely due to his experience of war and the conflicts that occur in the
heat of battle and the ways that Democracy can seem lacking in these times of crisis. To
communicate this weakness of Democracy in the face of conflict Golding focuses on a Political
and Psychological approach, that centres around Jack (representing authoritarianism) and Ralph
(representing Morality, civilisation and order) arguing about what to do about ‘The Beast’.
Rather than the littluns, Sam and Eric are here used as the ones to be swayed, as they report
seeing the beast.
Crucially, Simon (representing religion) sees ‘The Beast’ as “the picture of a human at once
heroic and sick” (Page 128), so for him, the beast is sin, or a flaw within all humans.
Ralph also sees the beast as something more humanoid, showing an aversion to theories and
giving voice to his fears, he alludes to Tarzan saying, “the beast may swing through the trees like
what’s it’s name.” (Page 126).
At the time of writing a key event was World War 2, which likely effected Golding to focus on
the idea of Ralph (as Western democracy, such as Winston Churchill) and Jack (as European
fascism, such as Hitler) having conflict and the Littluns (world) begin conflicted about this in this
chapter.

11. Features of Chapter 6
• Blood symbol = represents how at risk the children are and how dangerous
the island can be.
• Similes: are used to compare the boys thoughts and movements to nature,
they are becoming more ‘savage’ or ‘natural’ and their thought processes
follow this.
• Metaphors: are used to show that darkness has claws and is related to the
beast, both coming together at times.
• Characterisation: Sam and Eric are shown as the same person here,
showing that their duality is gone and they are treated as one entity.
• Onomatopoeia: Sound effects of the island, as though it is a living
breathing animal.

12. Readings of Chapter 6
• Colonialist: The boys are becoming more in tune with nature and this is shown as
a bad thing, they are becoming more ‘in tune’ with nature which could help them
if they were not so fully consumed with fear.
• Feminist:
• Political: Jack and Ralphs arguments go to the ideas of Authoritarianism / Fascism
/ Nazism VS Democracy / Participation
• Social: Sam and Eric represent the way that people can be led astray and how
willing they are to follow a strong leader.
• Bildungsroman: no characters really progress here, in fact most go backwards and
become more child-like.
• Gender:
• Psychological: characters regress to childish states in this chapter.
• Ethical: