Fear In Lord Of The Flies Research Paper

Fear is something me can’t control, it is naturally in us which cause humans to act on their instinct. The beast in the Lord of the Flies by William Golding is represented by fear from the very beginning when the boys first ended up on the island until they were saved by the naval officer. Putting a group of English boys on an island when the last thing they can remember is enjoying their flight on the plane, would instantly cause a sense of unplanned fear. Other concepts like war and innate human evil are based of and caused by fear itself. War begins when two opposing forces fear one another’s power. For example, the constant power struggle between Ralph and Jack because of their fear of each other and what the other was capable of. Innate human evil is the natural evil inside of every human, fear can control your want to oppose to a certain person or idea. The beast in the Lord of the Flies is fear because fear is the cause and drive of the boys basic struggle for survival.
Most of the book is revolved around the fear of the unknown. Having this fear of the unknown can cause a young boy to image something he doesn’t know much worse than it actually is. Causing them to believe in something they base off of fear, which Jack comes back with, “The thing is- fear can’t hurt you more than a dream. There

aren’t any beasts on this island,” (Golding 82). It’s actually pretty important that Jack mentions that, considering he ends up trying to take over completely in plans to kill the beast he didn’t even think existed. Jack is a prime example of no matter how much you seem to be fearless, you’ll always end up in the same place- terrified of something you’re not even sure exist. At one point Jack says he’ll hunt the beast, but comes back on himself with, “and another thing. You can’t have an ordinary hunt because the beast doesn’t leave tracks. If it did you’d have seen them” (Golding 101). Yes, you could argue that Jack is suggesting the beast can fly, but there’s a deeper meaning into this. Jack does believe the beast exist, but has his doubts in him that is trying to tell him that the beast is something he’s making up out of fear. Even if the beast could fly, at one point it will have to land and walk around, which would leave tracks. Throughout the book the older kids are trying to reassure the liluns that the beast didn’t exist. For example when Percival says, “I was asleep when the twisty things were fighting and when they went away I was awake and I saw something big and horrid moving in the trees” (Golding 85). Which Ralph comes back with, “you were asleep. There wasn’t anyone out there. How could anyone be wandering about in the forest at night?” (Golding 85). Even for the big kids, fear was very hard to control which could send your mind spiraling, like when Simon imagined that the pig head was talking to him. The thing is fear can express itself any many different ways, for Simon it may be imagining a horrid pig head telling him his friends will kill him or when Jack goes completely savage to be one with the beast.
The Lord of the Flies can have several themes, but the biggest and most centered is fear.

The boys constantly struggle for power because of fear of the other’s authority. The liluns coming up with new ways to describe the beast because if random objects on the island. The attempts to keep the liluns’ fear in control when the big kids are struggling with their own fear. All these examples are what fear does to you. Fear controls your actions whether you like it or not, like when the boys attacked and killed Simon in a frenzy and having an overall fear of the beast itself. Fear is the base of almost all of the boys decisions and the true representation of the

beast.