Fear In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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Fear is the most destructive human emotion, as it can drive one to do horrible things. Whether or not it is rational, it invokes paranoia in one’s mind and enslaves other emotions in order to protect the mind from what it fears most. In Lord of the Flies, the new environment in the minds of innocent schoolboys provokes fear that overcomes their ability to think rationally and problem-solve, therefore fueling the fire for the conflicts on the island. The boys’ inability to understand the fears that lurk within them leads to conflict from the beginning of the novel to the end. Some characters cope with fear better than others, but ultimately fear divides the group in many ways.

It is evident that fear begins to

set in right from the start of the book. At this point, the boys are thrown cluelessly into a new and dangerous environment where nature is their only enemy, and it is crucial that they work together in order to survive in this grueling and demanding setting. To start off, the fear of the unknown in the island is shown when Piggy says in chapter one that “We may stay here till we die”(Golding 14).

After he says this, Golding writes that “with that word the heat seemed to increase till it became a threatening weight and the lagoon attacked them with a blinding effulgence”(14). This phantom increase in heat illustrates the fear in the boys when Piggy says that they may not escape the island. The negativity in this thinking due to fear affects how the boys view their situation on the island, and it will lead to problems staying on the same page for the goals of the island and their plans for escape in the future. Similarly, fear of the unknown leads to not much being accomplished on the island at first. When Jack and Ralph are talking to each other in chapter three, Ralph asks Jack if he had noticed that “‘Well. They’re frightened’…. ‘They talk and scream. The littluns. Even some of the others. As if -’ ‘As if it wasn’t a good island.’”(52) This underlines the fact that many of the littluns and even some other boys on the island are scared of the beast and the island itself. This leads to little work getting accomplished or delayed on the island such as building shelters to help with their

conflict against nature. Furthermore, the absence of adults in this demanding environment invokes fear into Piggy, who had looked up to them for protection and acceptance his entire life. This is shown when Piggy says that “‘Perhaps there aren't any grownups anymore.’ The fat boy looked startled’”(8). In this quote Piggy is described as being surprised that there is no adults on the island. This fact makes him startled and makes him feel lost and scared at first on the island. To summarize, the new setting that the boys are exposed to abruptly brings fear and paranoia that slows down progress on the island towards survival aspects and leads to many boys being unsure of their safety and future on the island.

Similarly, fear plays a big part in the conflicts between the boys themselves on the island. The uncertainty and paranoia causes trust to slowly deteriorate and leads many characters down the slow path of savagery, as well as fuels the main conflicts within and between the tribes. Fear can also be abused by individuals in order to gain power, authority, and loyalty in their groups. For example, Jack uses the well known fear of the beast in the boys in order to maintain his leadership over his new tribe. This is shown when Jack tells his tribe that “‘We’ll kill a pig and give a feast’....’And about the beast . When we kill we’ll leave some kill for it. Then it won’t bother us, maybe.’”(133) By saying this, Jack wants to subconsciously put into his tribe’s mind that if they hunt with him and stay with his tribe, that they will be protected from the beast. He uses the fear of the beast that he knows bost of the boys have at this point in order to gain power and control over his tribe by telling them that by hunting and gifting a portion to the beast, it will leave them alone. Likewise, Jack uses the fear of being harmed in order to send a message to his tribe members to stay loyal. When Roger asks why Jack is going to beat up Wilfred, Robert answers “‘I don’t know. He didn’t say. He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up’....’he’s been tied up for hours, waiting-’”(159). By tying Wilfred up and beating him, Jack invokes fear in his tribe members by showing an example of what could happen to them if he feels like they did something wrong. The random nature of this incident further emphasizes the power that Jack has in the eyes of his tribe members, and this signifies how efficient fear is in keeping a group loyal and in line. In addition, Jack’s path to savagery is noticed by the boys, especially Piggy, who says that he is “Scared of him”(93) and that “‘If you’re scared of someone you hate him but you can’t stop thinking of him. You kid yourself he’s all right really, an’ then when you see him again; it’s like asthma an’ you can’t breathe’”(97). Since this quote is after the meeting in chapter five where Jack seems to show disregards towards the rules and the conch. This shows that Piggy and the other boys are noticing that Jack is acting less and less civilized, and that the fear of the beast is causing many people to stop doing their roles on the island, which is why Ralph had suggested he give up on being chief. In summary, fear has impactful effects on the boys’ relationships with one another, and it can be devastating to the morale of the group, and can also be manipulated in order to gain control in situations of conflict.

In contrast, fear is not only a factor in the physical conflicts on the island such as survival in nature and disputes between members, it also has a deeper and more sinister effect on the mental state of the boys, and it is the most evil thing that lurks within everyone.

The most evident form of fear in the minds of the boys is the beast. Throughout the novel, the beast is mentioned many times, but is never truly seen. This fear provokes self-conflict in the boys that leads to many important events on the island. To start off, when Samneric find the dead parachutist on the mountain, they describe him as “‘It was furry. There was something moving behind its head--wings. The beast moved too’ ‘That was awful. It kind of sat up--’.... ‘Teeth--’ ‘Claws--’”(100). These made up descriptions of the “beast” symbolizes how the fear in their minds had altered the reality of what they were seeing, leading to many problems afterwards, because of this imaginary encounter, the fire had to be moved and many of the boys were too scared to go on the mountain again or be alone, because they thought that now there was definite proof of the existence of the beast. Likewise, this fear makes the boys question simple things on the island, and the paranoia makes them not want to do seemingly simple tasks. This is shown when the boys are hunting the beast and want to climb the mountain, but they want someone to go back to tell Piggy, who was in the shelters with the littluns, that they were

coming back late. “‘Someone’s got to go across the island and tell Piggy we'll be back after dark.’ Bill spoke, unbelieving. ‘Through the forest by himself? Now?’ ‘We can’t spare more than one.’” This quote shows that the fear of the beast has prevented most of the boys from doing a simple task such as going back to deliver a message, and it shows how the internal conflict of fear is starting to weaken them slowly. Lastly, it is evident that the fear of reality is existent within the group. After Simon’s death, when Piggy and Ralph are discussing what happened, it is evident that they are denying the reality of the situation, because the truth scares them, and they don’t want to face the reality that they took part in this. The boys say things like “‘It was dark. There was that bloody dance. There was lightning and thunder and rain. We was scared!’”(156) and “‘P’raps he was only pretenting’…. ‘You were outside. Outside the circle. You never really came in.’.... ‘It was an accident’.... ‘He was batty. He asked for it’”(157) This illustrates the fact that the boys can’t truly understand the reality of the situation, and they think that it was just an accident and that they had no part in the murder of an innocent boy. The fear of leaving civilization and joining on the path of savagery is too great in the boys during this stressful moment, leading to the denial of the situation. In summary, the fear inside the boys leads to an internal fight between morality, logic, and paranoia, which causes problems within the boys as they try to figure out just what they are truly scared of on the island.

In conclusion, in Lord of the Flies, a variety of conflicts on the island are provoked and fueled by fear. The novel shows that fear is an extremely powerful and dominant feeling inside of one’s mind, and that it can affect how one approaches and deals with different situations and how one’s rational thinking and decision making can be easily taken over and manipulated by this emotion.