Fear in Lord of the Flies
In the novel the Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, fear
is the cause of all of the problems that take place on the island. At
first, the island is thought to be splendid and a paradise, but as the
boys' stay on the island increases, so, too, do their fears. The boys
soon become afraid of each other and soon after that the boys break up
and fight because of the fear. The boys' original fears are of what
they think are beasts. "Then people started getting frightened"
(Golding, 88). This was spoken by Ralph at an assembly because he knew
that things were breaking up and he also knew why. It was the fear. In
the novel the Lord of the Flies, fear is the root of the trouble that
is caused on the island.
The boys' fear turns into fear of each other after only a short time
on the island. Many of the boys leave Ralph and join Jack's tribe of
hunters because Jack provides them with fun. Jack's tribe goes hunting
and has feasts and everyone, even if it is only for a short time,
forgets about the beast and ignores it. After a while, though, some of
the boys are in Jack's tribe because of their fear, but not their fear
of the beast. They stay in Jack's group because they are afraid of
Jack and, eventually, Roger. Jack controls them all by showing he is
merciless;
He's going to beat Wilfred.
What for?
Robert shook his head doubtfully. I don't know. He didn't say. He got
angry and made us tie Wilfred up (176).
Jack beats up members of his tribe for no reason at all, except to
instill upon them the fear of himself. Soon, everyone is afraid of
Roger also. The twins are forced to join Jack's tribe and are
terrified of Roger. "You don't know Roger. He's a terror." "-and t...
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...ic, see a beast sitting on top of the
mountain and Ralph, Jack and Roger confirm what the twins saw, there
is complete fear. No one is willing to walk alone or even to go deep
into the forests, except for Simon. The boys are terrified and this is
when things start to break up. Now, the fear moves on from what they think
is the beast to something much more dangerous. Now, they are afraid of
each other.
At first the island is thought to be a paradise by the boys. It is a
dream come true. The boys are living every child's fantasy. Then
things start to go horribly wrong. Fear sets in. In this novel,
William Golding illustrates that fear is everywhere and can wreak
havoc on many things. In this case the boys become afraid of each
other and for all of them survival becomes impossible. They eventually
they realize that dreams can easily turn into nightmares.
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?
Fear is a present topic in Lord of the Flies and the acrostic, False-Evidence-Appearing-Real, directly relates to chapter 9. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of young boys were stranded on an island. At first they incorporated the civilization that they grew up with into their lives, but as time progressed they began to accept a savage lifestyle that came with consequences. In chapter 9, while the biguns and littluns gathered in a group, chanting and dancing, Simon came down the mountain after finding out the beast was actually a dead man in a parachute. Because it was dark and Simon was unrecognizable, the boys feared him to be the beast and killed him. If the boys had not been so afraid of the beast then they would not have been prompted to kill Simon. In chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs diction, repetition, and animal imagery to convey the theme that fear can cause savagery to develop in anyone.
When the boys first arrived on the island, their behaviour was civilized and they attempted to convince themselves that they would soon be rescued by their parents. As the days passed, the boys began to open their eyes and realized that sitting around was not going to benefit them in any way, and most importantly it would not help them survive. Because of their new unrestricted life on the island, the boys become ruthless and replaced their previous identity.
When the boys initially land on the island, they have tons of fun and are completely carefree. Only a couple of days later though, the “little ‘uns” begin to have dreams about beasts attacking them at night.
While the boys stranded on the island begin with the basis of a plan to keep order, as time progresses, they are faced with conflicts that ultimately brings an end to their civilized ways. Initially, Ralph, the assumed leader, ran a democratic-like process on the island; however, later in the story, Jack, one of the boys, realizes that there are no longer any consequences to their wrongdoings for the reason that there was no control. This ties in with the ideal that moral behavior is forced upon individuals by civilization and when they are left on their own, they return to their fundamental instinct of savagery. Furthermore, there is a differentiation in beliefs that result in chaos due to the fact that some favored an uncultivated manner of life over an ordered structure. Opposing ideas are commonly known t...
The lagoon, often described as a “mirage”, represents the initial impression of paradise and peace while the rocky cliffs on the other side of the island represent a harsher reality: “A kind of glamour was spread over them and the scene and they were conscious of the glamour and made happy by it… On either side rocks, cliffs, treetops, and a steep slope…” (29). Golding uses these symbolic images to contrast the fantasy of goodness and the reality of corruption. At first, the boys spend happy, carefree days in the lagoon unclouded by corruption and evil. As the plot progresses, however, Jack starts gravitating toward the rocky side of the island, which symbolizes his gradual transition into corruption. In the end, when Ralph reflects on all the horrific experiences the boys have on the island, “For a moment he had a fleeting picture of the strange glamour that had once invested the beaches. But the island was scorched up like dead wood- Simon was dead- and Jack had…” (202). The disappearance of the “glamour” as the island is engulfed in flames is symbolic of corruption driving out (the illusions of) innocence. The fire can be considered a metaphor, for it shows how experiencing corruption incinerates former misconceptions about innocence. The boys arrive on the island with the expectation that the world is a safe place and that
When the boys first arrive on the island, they all had the impression that their stay would be fun without having adults supervising. However, after Jack gained power and leadership over a small group of boys who in turn become obsessed with hunting, the rest of the boys begin to unleash their savage side as well. Eventually, almost all of the schoolboys join Jack’s tribe and become wild and uncivilized, shouting, “‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’” (152) while hunting. After joining Jack’s tribe, the once innocent children suddenly change their morality standards while being caught in the excitement of acting unrestrained by adults. Without realizing what they have become, they lose themselves to savagery and easily take the lives of others, losing their innocence in the
The power of fear consumes people and is one of the strongest weapons there is. Fear takes the form of an imaginary beast, a regular school boy, and a rotting pigs’ head. As simple as they may seem, they symbolize the fears and faults of humans. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies twists the limits on humanity, and proves the evil in the ways of human nature.
together into a society. That natural state that they exist in upon arrival on the island is
At the beginning of the story, one can see that there was not a lot of trust on the girl’s end of the relationship. She always speculated where
Fear is within all people. It is hard to control fear but, it is easy for fear to control people. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the passage on pages 157 to 159 is meant to show fear. Throughout the book, there is a build-up to the moment of finding out if the beast is real and if so, what is it. Through diction, literary devices and structure, Golding reveals the purpose of the passage; amplification of internal terror.
He writes: “The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water”! (153). This symbolizes how the boys lost the good in them by killing Simon. Even nature itself attempts to disrupt their fear-driven savagery: “Then the clouds opened and let down the rain like a waterfall. The water bounded from the mountain-top, tore leaves and branches from the trees, poured like a cold” (153). Fear and hysteria ultimately destroys the boys’ humanity, and the Golding’s use of symbolism illustrates how the boys allowed their fear to overpower the good within
In The Lord of the Flies, fear is the cause of all destruction and violence, which leads to savagery, and disobeying of human morals. Throughout the entire book fear is what drives these young innocent boys into savagery, and what also pulls most of them away from expectable human behavior. Without the normal rules of society helping to guide them, they become disoriented with the new surroundings, therefore freighting them into savage ways.
The boys’ savage and immoral behavior should be blamed on their environment and their surrounds.”Being marooned on a lost island was a key factor in the boys' increasing tendency towards savagery. Without adult supervision and with no social norms other than what they had learned during their upbringing, the boys literally "ran wild" (with their comportment degenerating over time).
Islands were designed by the government to preserve society’s lack of knowledge of the past and new, curious ideas. Those who are sent to the island are described as, “the people who, for one reason or another, have got too self-consciously individual to fit into community-life. All the people who aren 't satisfied with orthodoxy, who 've got independent ideas of their own.” Since society lacks knowledge and curious thinking, those who do not fit that standard are sent away to prevent their ideas and curiosities from spreading throughout