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Essay on fear in life literature
Essay on fear in life literature
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Every modern male has, lying at the bottom of their psyche, the capacity to become evil and barbaric. In order to unlock this ability, there has to be a situation where one cannot overcome the fear of wilderness, irrationality, intuition, emotion, and nature. The author of the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding, explains this theory by generating a story that establishes fear as a component of this community. This book was written in 1954 during World War II while William was teaching school. Golding starts this story off with a group of British boys stranded on an island. The island is the situation that transforms these pure boys into barbarians. The author refers to Ralph, their chief, as a “fair boy,” and Piggy as the “fat boy.”At …show more content…
Simon, a timid young boy, is neither a part of Jack or Ralph’s group. Simon is the individual who encounters the Lord of the Flies. The Lord of The Flies tells Simon that “There isn’t anyone to help [him]. Only the...Beast” (Golding 201). Simon is suffering from hallucinations. Tries to tell the group about the Lord of The Flies but he knows they will not understand. Simon then blackes out and as he is woken up, he finds himself covered in dirt and blood. He trips and falls down the mountain. Simon stumbles upon the rest of the group but they think he is the Beast. Everyone is chanting “Kill the Beast! Cut his throat! Bash him in!” (Golding 213). Chanting phrases usually brings calmness to individuals and lessening fear. Everyone, including Ralph and Piggy, get a stab at killing the “Beast.” Later on Piggy tries to justify these actions by saying that “It was dark,” and “it was an accident” (Golding 219-220). The death of Simon represents the death of innocent on the island. Everyone has contributed to this and everyone regrets it. Without innocence, they resort to even more
William Golding, the author of the novel The Lord of the Flies, lived through the global conflicts of both world wars. World War II shifted his point of view on humanity, making him realize its inclination toward evilness. His response to the ongoing struggle between faith and denial became Lord of the Flies, in which English schoolboys are left to survive on their own on an uninhabited island after a plane crash. Just like Golding, these boys underwent the trauma of war on a psychological level. Ralph, one of the older boys, stands out as the “chief,” leading the other victims of war in a new world. Without the constraints of government and society, the boys created a culture of their own influenced by their previous background of England.
The boys’ fear of the beast causes them to pay no attention to their morals and act savagely to defeat it. However, Simon is ultimately able to understand the beast and avoid savagery because his embrace of nature allows him to avoid any fears of the island. Simon demonstrates this lack of fear when he climbs the mountain by himself in order to find the beast, despite the dangers that might await him. The hunters and even Piggy and Ralph want to avoid the mountain because that is the last place where the beast was seen, but Simon seems to Once he reaches the top, he finds a physical beast, but not the kind the boys were expecting: a dead parachutist. The parachutist serves as an ironic symbol of Simon’s understanding; the monster the boys were afraid was a human. In contrast, Piggy displays immense fear throughout the novel, especially about Jack. For most of the story, his appreciation of logic and order help him remain civilized, but eventually his fears overcome him and he acts savagely the night of Simon’s murder. As Golding states, “[Piggy and Ralph] found themselves eager to take place in this demented but partly secure society….[the crowd] leapt on the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore” (136). After this occurrence and the theft of his glasses, Piggy decides to
As Jack hunts his “frustration seemed bolting and nearly mad” which shines in his slowly deranging eyes (Golding 67). In Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, stranded boys struggle to find order and civilization on an island with no other humans. After their plane crash lands, a few boys, such as Ralph and Piggy, are quick to set up standard rules. But, not everyone agrees that rules and rescue are what is most important. Jack, a boy who cares more about hunting, disrupts the goodness and order that remains in the boys. When a simulated hunting influenced and led by Jack goes awry, the boys kill Simon. The now deceased Simon is the purest and kindest of the boys. Jack leads the elimination of the only good left on their island. Whether it is his intention to kill him or not, Jack should be held responsible for Simon’s demise because he leads the group to kill him, regardless of his age.
Simon, the wisest, calmest, and maturest of all the boys, is off by himself “talking” to a pig, perhaps going crazy. All others are sitting around the fire relaxing, ignoring the fact that one of the the wisest men of all has himself begun to lose sanity, possibly symbolic of the condition of people on the island. Of course, readers know, by the description of the bulging clouds, that the sky will soon break and, symbolically, something terrible within the plot will soon happen. Indeed, the entire novel has built to this point, as readers have observed the downward spiral of morality amidst the moral characters and increased savagery. Simon has observed this, and perhaps because he tends to take in everything inwardly, his depression over the gradual decline in the children on the island has caused him to become somewhat senile. Simon continues his “conversation” with the pig whom he calls “the lord of the flies” (“Beelzebub” in Hebrew, meaning “the devil”), and it is as if he is being tempted by the devil, or corrupt immorality that has taken over the other children on the island. However, he is able to be triumphant over the temptations, and staggers back down to the island to inform the other children that the beast on the island is
As Simon was trying to tell the boys that the beast did not exist, his death symbolises that mankind can’t face the truth about their inner desires. Part of Golding’s intent was to demonstrate that the evil is not recognised in specific populations or situations. On the island, the beast is manifest in the deadly tribal dances, war paint and manhunt; in the outside world, the same lust for power and control plays out as a nuclear war. Throughout ‘The Lord of the Flies’ Golding has managed to show that evil is present in everyone.
The impact of Jack’s savagery on the island leads to the boys forgetting the real truth about about themselves. The boys on the island are able to explain that human are evil from the beginning and that they aren’t impacted by society. The boys see the island as a place where they are free from the adult world and without any rules. The boys don’t realize that a world without rules causes the chaos on the island and the savagery within the boys. Jack’s authoritative power forces him to push the rest of the boys out of their comfort zone by making them evil being that was not there true identity before. Upon realizing that the savagery they had obtained was only destroying themselves they “wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart”(202). The power that was developed by Jack impacts everyone and destroys all of the lives that rejected him. Piggy who was the most knowledgeable character and also the weakest character was often disrespected by Jack because he opposed Jack’s power and recognizes that his power not voted for. As as result, Piggy is killed by Jack’s own boys because they too have been impacted by brute force. They killed piggy just like how they hunted pigs. Next, Simon's death reflects the rejections of religion and the idea that the
From the time that the boys land on the island, both a power struggle and the first signs of the boys' inherent evil, Piggy's mockery, occur. After blowing the conch and summoning all the boys to come for an assembly, an election is held. "I ought to be chief , said Jack with simple arrogance, because I'm chapter chorister and head boy"(Golding 22). After Ralph is elected Chief, Jack envies his position and constantly struggles for power with Ralph throughout the rest of the novel, convincing the rest of the boys to join his tribe rather than to stay with Ralph. Also, soon after the boys arrive at the island, Piggy, a physically weak and vulnerable character, is mocked and jeered at by the other boys. After trying to recount all of the liluns' names, Piggy is told to "Shut up, Fatty," by Jack Merridew. Ralph remarks by saying, "He's not Fatty. His real name's Piggy." All of the boys on the island, except for Piggy, laugh and make themselves more comfortable at Piggy's expense. "A storm of laughter arose and even the tiniest child joined in. For a moment the boys were a closed circuit of sympathy with Piggy outside."(Golding 21). The boys instinctively become more comfortable with one another after Piggy's mockery and create a bond, leaving Piggy on the outside.
On contrary from all the other boys on the island Simon, a Christ like figure in the novel, did not fear the ‘beastie’ or the unknown. “Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us” Simon explained. (p. 97) The fear of the unknown in the novel contributes to the boys’ terror of the beast, the beast is an imaginary figure which lays in all of the boys’ minds and haunts them. Golding uses the beast as a symbol of the evil that exists in every creature. "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?" The sow head announced to Simon to be the “lord of the flies”. The “lord of the flies” is a figure of the devil, and brings out all the evil and fear in people. It wants you to fear it, but if you don’t believe in the “lord of the flies” nothing can happen to you. Therefore Simon didn’t fall into the trap, but the beast killed him, meaning the other boys on the island did. Simon discovered that the beast is in fact just a dead parachute man before he died and ran down to tell the boys about his finding. When Sim...
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 fear the children felt helped push them towards the state of savagery that lead to the murder of Simon and Piggy. There was no outside factor, no real monster; it was all internal. The children came up with a monster to fear and this began to pick away at their peace. “Things are breaking up… we began well; we were happy. And then… Then people started getting frightened” (Golding, 74).
Baker brings to the table the reasoning for the boys moral failure- that they failed to look within themselves for the beast. He notes at the end of the story even Ralph was unable to figure out how the boys had gone to complete savagery and Baker signifies Maurice explains with doubt that he doesn’t believe in the beast and they don’t know for certain either. As the novel proceeds, only the “three blind mice” are left by Jack’s tribe for rationality, and Ralph asks for a sign from the world from which they came, but it’s only another sign of what the beast truly is. When Simon heads up the mountain to see the “Lord of the Flies,” he sees
Since the beginning of humanity, fear has driven peoples’ actions. Fear, the natural response to danger, has saved people from hurting themselves and others. Without this natural instinct humans would be extinct. However, fear can take a person away from the path they wish to go. If left alone, fear can take over a person instead of saving them, making the thing they fear most, themself. In Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and Golding’s Lord of the Flies, fear is a driving force of the narrative. Despite differences in the use of characterization, conflict and imagery, both authors develop the theme that fear controls a person, leading them away from their ideals and principles.
He dubs it The Lord of the Flies because of the insects that swarm around it. He believes that it speaks to him, telling him how foolish he is and that the other boys think he is insane. The pig's head claims that it is the beast, and it mocks the idea that the beast could be hunted and killed. Simon falls down and loses consciousness. After he regains consciousness and wanders around, he sees the dead pilot that the boys perceived to be the beast and realizes what it actually is.
Simon is ridiculed for his thoughts even though he provides a more omniscient point of view. “Simon’s effort fell about him in ruins; the laughter beat him cruelly and he shrank defensively to his seat” (Golding 81). Simon is very caring and complicates the battle of savagery and civilization displayed by the two main leaders, Jack and Ralph. He is caring, giving, slow to anger, and very intelligent. All of these traits seem to be unheard of in this makeshift civilization. Before death both Jesus and Simon have life changing encounters in a garden. Jesus is comforted by and angel in the garden before his arrest and death, where the Lord of the Flies reveals to Simon the secret of the monster. Simon’s dies varies from the death of Jesus, although in both situations the crowds do not comprehend what they are doing. Simon dies without receiving salvation. He never is granted the chance to share what he has learned about the true monster being located with human souls. Simon is then stabbed repeatedly when he is mistaken for the monster. Jesus dies on the cross after being betrayed my Judas, one of his disciples. In both cases, both individuals die with an understanding of sin and the flaws of
Throughout the novel, Lord of the Flies, Simon has been unable to effectively communicate his message about the reality of beast, that the beast is really the innate evil nature that exists in everybody. Simon tries to articulate his idea, but yields when the others brush him off: “Maybe there is a beast.... maybe it's only us." (Golding, 80). Simon's inability to convey his message to the others stemmed from his own evil nature.