Can you discuss the power struggle between Jack and Ralph? Also, what is the "beast" symbolically? Who understands that there really is a "beastie" on the island?
The beast is a monster who is on the land, and Jack and his poesy (hunters or choir) want to find it and kill it and use it as a source of food. Ralph doesn't think there is one or doesn't understand because he is not scared of it.
The beast symbolically represents the scareness of the littluns. One of the littluns just under stand that there was a beast on the island because they saw it at night and at the morning. Ralph actually is the most one who doesn"t understand that there is a beast because he is not scared of it. Jack and his choir or hunters are not scared of the beast or the monster, instead they wish to see it and kill it and take it to cook it and make meat.