What does the beast symbolize

The fear and cruelty of every person. First they think that it is an external thing like the snake, sea creature, ghost, parachute guy, but when looking for a physical thing they do not find it until they realize the beast is inside them all along. You can see examples of this when you look at when Jack first encountered a pig and when he killed it. Also with the bullying of piggy, the savagery of the beast is brought up in the children habiting the island