While faced with any part of life, fear may play a role in how mankind reacts to his or her fear. There are different types of reason why fear would influence an individual or a group of people. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the boys are presented with multiple aspects of fear, such as darkness, the Beast, and the evil of mankind. Fear can result in savagery, hysteria, or insight.
In Lord of the Flies the darkness play a role in hysteria, savagery, and insight. The darkness of the island is in tune with the boys, and they can not understand what is real in the island between what is imaginary, causing hysteria amongst the boys.. Simon has an encounter with what he is told is the Lord of Flies, “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could kill...Why things are what they are”(143). Throughout the book darkness lurks in every part of the island. It is also one of the reason for the boys going savage with Jack. Not only does the darkness effect hysterian and savagery, it also helped give the reader insight to the character, and also to the island. Darkness can be effect way thing
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happen at any given moment. Not only did the darkness have an effect on the results of fear, the Beast affected the fear level.
When the Beast was heard of, some boys were sceptical if there really was one. Although some were not sure if there was a beast, the intensity heightened on the island. Savagery was a result in some of the boys on the island. The savagery started when Jack influenced the boys who followed him to paint their faces to camouflage with the wilderness. After their first kill, they were addicted to this lifestyle on the island. The most savage of all the incident was Simon’s killing “The beast struggled forward...but the tearing of teeth and claws”(153). Because the boys were so caught up in their saverary, they were carried away, and believed Simon to be the Beast. The fear of the Beast affected everyone one on the island, and that fear killed one of its
own. Lastly, the fear of how evil mankind could be effected the boys on the island worse than any other. The Beast is the influence that amplified the true evil of mankind. This type of fear has given the reader insight to how the characters react to their fear. The readers are given insight to Ralph’s character when the fear opens the door to knowing more about Ralph’s life before, “When you went to bed...everything was good humored and friendly”(112). Although the fear was lurking in every corner on the island, it still brought on an insight to all the information readers wanted to know about the character. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies he uses fear to result in savagery, hysteria, and insight to cope with the aspects of fear. The aspects such as darkness, the Beast, and the evil of mankind. Fear is affected by different sorts of things, but it can affect people in different ways. The fear of one person can always affect not only the person involved, but the group of people around them.
In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, and Kendra Cherry’s article, “The Milgram Obedience Experiment”, the comparable fear factor, and naive mindset of individuals put under dire circumstances leads to the corruption of society and rise of evil in humans. Fear factors are an influential resource, and useful tactic leaders use to instil dominant power in their citizens, if this power is abused, evil and chaos occurs. For example, in Lord of the Flies, when Samneric get captured by Jack, Jack terrorizes them, snapping, “What d’you mean coming here with spears? What d’you mean by not joining my tribe?” the twins try to escape but fear takes over their morals and they, “...lay looking up in quiet terror” (Golding 182). As Jack threatens
Fear resides within all of our souls and our minds in different forms wether it be mind, body, or spirit. Fear can be brought upon by actions, words or ever our mere imagination. Of course as one being younger your imagination can bring along fear that is non existent but, to one it may seem so vivid and tangible. In this Novel by William Golding we come to grasps with many different forms of fear being from the beast, the loss of humanity, and the fear of realization.
Human's fears should not be taken lightly. Fear could do anything to one's minds, though without fear, man can be as savage as animals. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding presented fear of the unknown to be a powerful force in a man's mind. Fear of the unknown is a powerful force, which can turn to either insight or hysteria. The kids feared of not being rescued off of the island, so they made signal fires on top of the mountain. Then, there and gone, Roger's fear of the old rules he abided to. Also, there were the fears of the beast which confused and isolated the kids from the top of the mountain.
In the Lord of the Flies fear takes over the boys and cause things to go downfall. The boys in Lord of the Flies might be afraid of the beast, but that fear turns out to be more dangerous than any beast could possibly be. The Lord of the Flies even says to Simon that “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?
The most destructive force on the island is not a physical being, but rather a fear that lives within the boys. The three fears that were stated above, Jack’s fear of not being chief, Ralph’s fear of not surviving and the boys’ fear of the beast, has made the most impact in the book Lord of the Flies. Throughout the book, the boys have the power and the strength to overcome their fears and work together as a group but in the end, they choose not to by letting themselves accept their inner savageness. Fear is a very strong motivator, but it is up to the humans to use that for the benefit of others and themselves. Conclusively, it is either the fear controls the person or the person controls the fear.
Importance of Leadership Leadership is something that stands out in people. In a group, people tend to look for the strongest person to follow. However, the strongest person may not be the best choice to follow. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Ralph and Jack each have leadership qualities. Jack is probably the stronger of the two; however, Ralph is a better leader.
A distressing emotion aroused by impending evil and pain, whether the threat is real or imagined is described as fear. Fear is what William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies encompasses. By taking three major examples from the novel, fear will be considered on different levels: Simon’s having no instance of fear, Ralph’s fear of isolation on the island, and Jack’s fear of being powerless. Fear can make people behave in ways that are foreign to them, whether their fear is real or imagined. In response to fear, people may act defensively by attacking, fear can either stop one from doing something, or it can make one behave in an irrational erratic manner.
One of many prominent themes in William Golding's novel, the Lord of the Flies, is Fear. From the very first chapter, until the last, fear plays an important role in this text. It is the only thing, which stops the boys from acting rationally at times, from questioning curious circumstances and it physically hindered so many of the boys, so many times. The active role of fear in Lord of the Flies, was intentionally used by Golding, because he knew what images it would create. Fear is described by Mirriam- Webster's English dictionary, as To be uneasy or apprehensive'. This feeling is mutually experienced by all of the boys on the island in many different ways. Initially the boys have an obvious fear of being alone, which then brings upon the fear of what we know as the beast, or as the littluns refer to is, as the beastie'. While this fear continues for the whole of the novel, we are also exposed to three other incidents of fear. The first of these is the civilised fear of consequences, displayed only when the children are seen as young civilised boys, in the earliest chapters. The final two are of a different nature, with those fears being the loss of power, the fear of rejection and the fear of being in the minority. All of these different fears, then relate back to the character, and as was expertly planned out by William Golding, influences the characters attitudes and behaviours.
The murders that took place throughout the novel, “The Lord of the Flies”, have symbolized savagery in a great deal. The killing of the sow shows a turning point into savagery for Jack and his hunters. “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! . . . 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 the way they are?” (143). This quote reveals that the beast is within themselves. When the boys lose control over themselves while having a feast, it strikes back leading up to the event of the brutal killing of Simon. “The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.” (153). Savagery has once again, taken over the boys as they eliminate the only good from the island. When Ralph runs from the hunters as the jungle burns down, he has no time to plan out his next move; he can only run...
Beforehand, everything was all fun and games on the island, and Piggy was the only one that actually worried about anything. However, the idea of the beast brought fear to them again and again. Whether it was when it was first mentioned as a snake, or when it was thought to come from the sea, or when it was guessed to be ghosts, the idea of something being there at the island made the boys afraid even though there was no actual evidence of the beast. Golding wrote, “‘He says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung in the branches. He say will it come back tonight?’ ‘But there isn’t a beastie!’ There was no laughter at all now and more grave watching.’” At the idea there there was some sort of mysterious fearsome monster that might come after the boys, the previously joyous atmosphere quickly bursted as fear settles on them. Though the beast only symbolized fear in the beginning, by the latter parts of the novel, it had become a representation of the savagery within a human. Simon was the first one to notice, at how he pointed out how maybe the beast lived within themselves. Also, Jack’s bloody offering to the beast, the sow’s head, represented how the darkness has taken over the hunters. Their belief in the beast strength as their savagery increased, it was almost as if they worshipped it, leaving offerings and such. Also, the Lord
Fear is a powerful force that controls the characters, it does not only act as a light and dark force but it can act as a general force that causes immense change. In the Book Thief, an immense change caused by fear is the holocaust. Max Vandenberg lived a fairly normal life as a Jew, however it is the holocaust that separated him from his mother. As Max left his mother, Max felt that he should have “...turned for one last look at his family as he left the apartment” he would have felt that “the guilt would not have been so heavy.” as the guilt of leaving his Mother due to fearing for his life caused an immense change for Max and his family. Both the Book Thief and Lord of The Flies share this immense change caused by fear. A rumored beast on the island caused an immense amount of fear for all. The tension caused by the fear caused changes to their actions. Fear of the beast is what killed Simon, on a night when they were eating pig around a fire they began a chant, saying that “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” and as the chant progresses “The movement became regular while the chant lost its first superficial excitement and began to beat like a steady pulse.”(Golding, 152,eventually this lead to everybody being seduced by this savage chant. In the meantime, Simon had just returned to tell them that there is no beast as he found the dead parachutist. As a result Simon was killed, and the death of
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the beast gives the children a sense of fear throughout the story. It also shows that it is one of the children's top priorities, as they hunt for it and try to protect themselves from it. The children use the beast to work together, but as the novel progresses the group goes through a separation. The beast is an important role in the novel, having many forms of concepts about it. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the concept of the beast as a whole is used as fear, reality, and evil.
In the blink of an eye, everything can change. For the young schoolboys in the novel Lord of the Flies life changed for the worse leaving the boys stranded on an island. After a deadly plane crash, the pilot was killed along with nearly half the boys. After the crash, the schoolboys were exposed to not only unknown surroundings, but to an unknown world with no adults. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he effectively uses the person vs. person conflict to illustrate the idea that the fear of the unknown can be a powerful force that can turn people to either focusing on what is important or losing their moral compass. He illustrates this through the use of symbols, such as; the Beast.
Fear can make you do amazing things but it could also lead to someone's downfall. A bunch of boys get stranded on an island without any grown-ups, and try to start civilization, but everything falls into chaos. In chapter 9, while the boys are dancing around the fire, Simion finds out the beast is just a parachute man. He tries to tell everyone, but gets beat to death in the process. This is an example of how fear can lead to savagery. In chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs animal imagery, repetition, and symbolism to convey the theme that fear can lead the most civilized people to savagery.
When Simon runs into a feast hosted by Jack’s savage tribe, he is mistaken as the beast and beaten brutally until death. Golding reveals how fear collapses logic as the primitive survival instinct causes the boys not to recognize Simon as human. This drives them to act out of bloodlust in the hopes of gaining security and control, as reflected in Golding’s explanation of Piggy and Ralph’s involvement in the murder: “Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable” (Golding 152). While the boys fear an external threat that would challenge the stability of their society, the decline of social order occurs due to the internal flaws of humanity.