Fear In Lord Of The Flies Analysis

First, fear leads to abusive and violent behavior. One example of this is through the verbal and physical abuse that Piggy experiences by the hand of Jack. When Jack leaves to go hunt, he decides to take many of the other boys hunting as well and leaves the fire unattended, resulting in the fire dying out. Meanwhile, a ship passes by, but is unable to see the smoke on the island because the fire is gone, therefore crushing the best chance the boys had at rescue. After Jack and the other boys return from the hunt, Ralph confronts him about shirking his responsibilities. Ralph yells at Jack, and tells him that they would be rescued if had he kept the fire going like he said he would. Because of the confrontation, Jack begins to feel unnerved

and scared of what the implications of his actions mean for the rest of the boys. Then, Piggy steps in and scolds Jack by telling him he should have kept the fire going. Jack does not respond well, and he lets his anger out on Piggy, “He took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach...

‘You would, would you? Fatty!’” (Golding 71). Jack lets his anger and fear take control of his actions, which leads to his abusive and violent behavior to Piggy. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, Jack, who was “able at last to hit someone”, radically resorts to physical and verbal abuse because he is afraid. He is afraid because the other boys are looking at him and blaming him for letting the fire die, and they are starting to realize how bad of a leader he would be. Jack has an insatiable desire to become the leader of the boys, and when they no longer want to give him any more power, he becomes scared that his thirst for power will not result in leadership. So, he tries to get rid of that fear by showing his power over others, using Piggy as an example. Fueled by his fear, Jack physically abuses Piggy by “sticking his fist into Piggy’s stomach”, and then follows it up with verbal abuse by calling him “Fatty”. The use of the degrading word “Fatty” and how Jack rhetorically asks “You would, would you?” demonstrates his disrespect towards Piggy and gives a reason to why Jack chose Piggy as his

target. Violence and abuse are forms of radical behavior, and they are usually carried out by someone who believes he is higher than someone else, and since Jack sees Piggy as someone below him, he abuses Piggy both verbally and physically. Another example of how fear leads to abusive and violent behavior is when the boys hurt Robert during a hunt. During a hunt where Ralph joins Jack and the other boys, a wild boar crashes through the thicket, and Ralph manages to get his spear to hit the boar without doing any damage while the rest of the boys scatter. After beginning to celebrate his perfect aim, Jack shows the other boys his arm, which has a bloody gash courtesy of the boar. The boys then begin to make a circle and reenact the events that had just taken place, with Robert playing the part of the boar. A little after they start to mess around, the other boys begin to take the reenactment too seriously, and end up losing themselves in their game; “Robert squealed in mock terror, then in real pain. ‘Ow! Stop it! You’re hurting!’... ‘Kill him! Kill him!’ All at once, Robert was screaming and struggling with the strength of frenzy. Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife” (Golding 114). The boys began to let the fear of the boar and the beast out through the radical behavior of violence and abuse. Through their fear, they forget who they are, and act like animals by hurting others. Robert starts out having fun and the other boys are messing around at first, as shown in how Robert squeals “in mock terror”. He is not afraid or in pain at first, because he is mocking the feeling of pain and is not afraid of the other boys. Then, the other boys begin to stop pretending and start acting out the hunt for real, which is lead to Robert’s cry for help when he says, “Ow! Stop it! You’re hurting!” Robert is yelling at the other boys, pleading for them to stop their abusive and violent behavior because they are letting the fear inside control them, and it is starting to hurt him. Then, Robert tries to get away from the boys, and is “screaming and struggling with the strength of frenzy”. The use of the word “frenzy” shows that Robert is no longer messing around with the boys, and now is using all his strength and power to try to get away from them because they are acting violently. Also, Jack does not let him go, and takes it too far by holding him “by the hair” and “brandishing his knife”. Jack will not let Robert run away because he is not done with letting his fear out by hurting him. Jack uses violence as a way to vent his fear, and even starts to threaten and brandish his knife to show how he feels like he needs to control Robert to control his fear. The radical behavior during Piggy’s abuse and Robert’s torment represent the way that fear leads to abusive and violent behavior.