In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, seemingly innocent schoolboys evolve into bloodthirsty savages as the concealed evil within them emerges. Their regression into savagery is ironically paralleled by an intensifying fear of evil, and it culminates in several brutal slays as well as a frenzied manhunt. The graphic consequence of the boys' unrestrained barbarity, emphasized by the backdrop of an external war, exigently explores mankind's potential for evil.

With the exception of Ralf's dream, Golding' novel follows chronological order. It begins with the boys' arrival on the island. Through the chapters one to four, the tension rises between Jack and Ralf, the

Now that Ralph truly understands the "darkness of man's heart" (202), he will recognize it in all its forms and disguises, falling heir to Simon's role of the bearer of truth and condemnation. The constant possibility that he may succumb to internal evil may instil Ralph with an further sense of anxiety and despair. This torment marks "the end of [his] innocence" (202), and Ralph will never be able to return to his former state of carefree happiness. Only death, the end to each individual's experience of the human condition the same death that liberated Simon and Piggy can free Ralph from the enlightenment and curse of his insight.

Further blinded by the illusion that their supposedly superior English heritage precludes savagery, the boys ignore the perverse qualities of their actions. Nevertheless, they become terrified as they increasingly feel the blight of their own evil upon the island. Attempting to attribute the decay of sanity and civilization to external sources, they fail to look inwards. When Simon correctly proposes that the beast is "maybe. . . only [themselves]" (89), the others scornfully dismiss him as "batty" (52) and his suggestion as invalid; they refuse to acknowledge Simon because they are neither capable nor willing to believe the frightening truth that the evil arises from within themselves. As a result, the boys manifest their fear in a dead parachutist whose appearance they grotesquely distort. Ironically, this source of fear comes from the majestic adult world to which they have so long aspired.

"Break the line. A tree. Hide, and let them pass.... Hide was better than a tree because you had a chance of breaking the line if you were discovered. Hide, then." (Golding 217).

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