Explore how Golding shows you the real source and cause of the children's fears.
While the other boys imagine the beast to be some external monster lurking on the island, it is only Simon who can put the beast into context, "Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us". As the boys descend into savagery, it becomes clear that they are their own worst enemy. It is their destructive nature that plagues them. Their fear and anxieties are projected onto the illusion of an external beast while it is their own nature, man's essential illness, that will be their undoing.
