Describe different views offered by Piggy and others about the beast in "Lord of the Flies."

The boys on the island have different ideas about the
beast.  The first boy to introduce the idea ("mulberry-birthmark") seems to see the
beastie as a snake.  He sees the creepers in the jungle at night and is frightened.
 Then the littluns as a group seem to join in this belief, crying at night and huddling
together in fear in the huts.

At first, Ralph laughs at the
idea, indeed laughing at "mulberry-birthmark" when he first proposes the beast's
existence.  He then is kind and tries to use reason to persuade the littluns that the
beastie couldn't "exist on an island this size."  Later though, Ralph is willing to
believe that the beast exists.

Simon is the first biggun to
admit that the beastie might be real. However, he immediatly links the beastie to good
and evil and the island itself. In Chapter 3 the boys have this
conversation:

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“I mean the way things are. They dream. You can
hear ’em. Have you been awake at night?”

Jack shook his
head.

“They talk and scream. The littluns. Even some of the
others. As if—”

“As if it wasn’t a good
island.”

Astonished at the interruption, they looked up at
Simon’s serious face. “As if,” said Simon, “the beastie, the beastie or the snake-thing,
was real. Remember?”

Later,
other bigguns begin to believe in the beast--most notably Samneric who verify the
beast's existence through their eye witness account.

Jack
closely identifies with the beast, claiming that it is a hunter and eats pig, just like
him.

Piggy's comments on the beast show that he does not
identify with it.  At an assembly, he says,

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I know there isn’t no beast—not with claws and
all that, I mean—but I know there isn’t no fear, either.” Piggy paused. “Unless—” Ralph
moved restlessly. “Unless what?”

“Unless we get frightened
of people.” [Piggy
answers]

Piggy comes to the
same conclusion that Simon does, that the beast is within us.  He seems to understand
that the beast is that thing within that causes humans to destroy things out of
fear.

Simon's conversation with the pig's head finally
reveals the argument Golding makes through his characters and plot.  The sow's head
says:

“Fancy
thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said the head. For a moment
or two the forest and all the other dimly appre- ciated places echoed with the parody of
laughter. “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason
why it’s no go? Why things are what they
are?”

The more rational boys
on the island realize this truth to a greater or lesser degree, seemingly through
instinct.  However the rash and quick-tempered boys like Roger and Jack do not, or if
they do, they keep the information secret so that they can more effectively control the
boys who remain afraid of the
beast.