Fear In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Innocence with Blood on their Hands

In Lord of the Flies Ralph asks, “ What makes things break up the way they do?”
Throughout the book fear has been represented as the main reason for breaking up the unionization of the boys on the island, although the boys are stranded on this island alone they know they must remain strong and use all of their survival skills to persevere through the end of their journey. In the chapters fear has slowly evolved the young boys to start turning against each other. They once were considered the prey to the unknown sources located on the island to the predators of each other. This evolution underlines what Golding has to say about human nature, he believes the humans are inherently evil and that the

“beast” resides within each human, giving us the capacity to destroy civilization.

Early on in the book Jack Merridew, the leader of hunting, is excited to capture a pig, but is fearful of the reality of having to get his hands bloody and kill the pig himself. Jack isn’t quite ready to let go of the values and norms he grew up with. Civilization with the other boys on the island is what hinders Jack from sheathing a spear into the pig's stomach. In this scene three of the boys and Jack were exploring the island for food and shelter; they come across a defenseless pig caught in a “curtain of creepers”. Ralph and the other boys scrutinize Jack as he can easily obliterate the life out of the creature instead of Jack killing the pig he “ pauses long enough for them to understand what an enormity the downward stroke would be” ( Golding 23). Jack lets the pig loose because he is afraid of what happen if became something he isn’t known to be which is murderous. “ they knew very well why he hadn’t: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the

unbearable blood ” (Golding 23). In Chapter 2 Jack tries to repress his fears of becoming a savage by announcing to the other boys “ We’ve got to obey the rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything” ( Golding 34). Having rules on the island reminds the boys of the adult world they once known of and Jack is fearful of killing an actual being so, he reminds the others on the island that they should remember to follow the norms and values that the English know of because the English are “best at everything”. Jack faces some internal conflicts because he chose fear over actually killing the pig, the consequence of his fears is the shame he tolerated from the other boys when he let the pig escape from him. “He looked around fiercely, daring them to contradict” (Golding 23).
At this point in the island some of the boys fear that they will never get rescued from the island.

Jack tries to diminish the fear of never been found again, so he tries to fixate his thoughts into desires of capturing a pig and ending its life. “The thing is--fear can’t hurt you more than a dream.” Jack is saying that fear is something that resides inside our minds that we create that cannot harm us because they aren’t real. He is now discrediting all his previous fears of killing the pig and breaking the rules. Jack no longer wants to fear another living creature, he wants to overcome his fears by hunting them down. Turning himself from the prey of the beast to the predator. Piggy is particularly bothered by Jacks shift. so he asks him “Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?”( Golding 162). Jack chose hunting and breaking things up because although these two things were his fears initially they no longer survived as fears and became more as desires because of Jack new fascination of blood pouring out of an living thing, thus growing the “beast” inside of Jack. “ Kill the beast, cut his throat, spill his blood” ( p. 135). This tune rang in Jacks head, thus killing the fears of a pig to actually driving him to do it again. Jack has turned into the beast, he is now “…wedded to her in lust, excited by the long chase and the dropped blood” (Golding 120). Jack has no idea what he is turning into at this point. Ralph screams, “ You’re a

beast and a swine and bloody, bloody thief ” ( Golding 161). Jack has not only has become evil, but has married and became his worst nightmares.
When fear is prevalent in our conscious it can prevent us from doing things we otherwise wouldn’t do, fear is something we adapt to protect ourselves from the unknown. Because Jack doesn’t fear hunting or killing anything he can’t be stopped from destroying the rest of the boys on the island. Jack kills Simon and Piggy says how he feels, “ It was dark. There was that- that bloody dance. There was lighting and thunder and rain. We was scared!” ( Golding 139). Death isn’t just something that occurred on the island, but it was feared because it came from one of their own. Darkness struck Jack and the other boys to become the evil beings they were told never to become. What’s really frightful about this passage in particular is that the scene is occurring during a thunderstorm, most transformations occur in the darkest moments. Simon wasn’t the only one killed in this passage, I believe Jack and his boys were taken as well.
After Jack realizes what he has become, he made the moves to relocate with the rest of his boys, so that he can do whatever he wants without any limitations or restrictions.
The consequences of Jack leaving the civilized tribe put more fear put into the minds of the other boys. There was fear of what Jack was capable of doing since he lost his innocence. Jack has bloody hands that he can’t wash away with his sea of sins. Jack and his boys fundamentally just want to kill each other turning them from once the civilized children from England to savages. Thinks break up the way they do because people live life without fears and choose to remain ignorant to their faults, ultimately bringing the evil out of all of us and even destroying a civilization.