Ashley Lotoszynski
Darren Pagtakhan
Social Justice
December 17, 2013
Imaginary Fear
Teddy Roosevelt once said that, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. Fear is a product of the absence of knowledge and thoughts that are blown out of proportion. As humans we are scared of the unknown and what it conceals from us. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of children crash land on an unknown island without adults. As time passes, the kids become uneasy and try to seek comfort in their leaders. When their imagination takes over, the unknown soon ignites their fear and apprehension hinders the juveniles as they attempt to restore order. Since fear is fueled by imagination, the boys’ outward attempt to conquer it only results in violence and chaos.
Because we are scared of what we do not know, we believe that the unknown can hurt us. In the beginning, the littluns become scared and speak of a “beastie”. Piggy asks one of the littluns what he saw and reports that, “he [the littlun] says he saw the beastie, the snake thing...he says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung in the branches”(Golding 36). The “snake thing” is a figment of the littluns’ imagination, causing the children to be more scared which in turn leads them to conjure up more imaginary objects that they believe will hurt them. It is also evident that the boys are scared when Ralph says to Jack that, “they’re frightened...they dream. You can hear ‘em...They talk and scream...As if it wasn’t a good island” (Golding 52). The boys have nothing to fear on the island however they want to return home where there is danger and war. It is ironic that the boys want to leave the island and return home where there ...
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...(Golding 181). Jack is a character that instills the fear in the other boys to manipulate them into getting what he wants. By putting the fear into the other boys, they follow him and carry out his evil work leading to violence and chaos. This not only shows that Jack is manipulative, but that he also has a fear of not being a leader and in control.
Imagination is the root of fear and leads to destruction and death in the novel. It can make people do irrational things and triggers responses in our security center. In the Lord of the Flies, fear is more dangerous than any beast because the boys are afraid of themselves. Everything that the boys are scared of have an unknown aspect to them. Instead of conquering fear, imagination provokes violence and chaos. The only thing we really have to fear, is fear itself due to its mentally and physically destructive nature.
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.
... and the fight on the island. Not only is fear damaging in Lord of the Flies and A Separate Peace , but it also affects our society today in many ways. For example, the war on terror/terrorism is an example of both an external conflict and the savage nature of man. It has caused so many catastrophic and fatal events in our history, like the 9/11 attack and any war that followed it. The attack on the twin towers shows just how inhumane humans can be and starts a world-wide conflict. Our “follow-up” attack was done out of fear and equally as savage as theirs and shows what we will do just to protect our country. Again this goes back to the concept of survival of the fittest but in an international scale. Fear is an everyday emotion that the human race must face, and it can bring out the best and worst of us, but its how we choose to deal with it that truly defines us.
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.
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.
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.
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.
One of the three children who did not survive the island was the mulberry colored birthmark boy. He represents the weaknesses and insignificance of all the littluns that are on the island. The littluns are younger, less developed and less experienced compared to the older children. As a result the littluns are at a disadvantage to the other boys. The mental weakness of the littluns is evident when they talk about their fear of a monster on the island: “He still says he saw the beastie. It came and went away again an’ came back and wanted to eat him.”(35). As most young children do, the littleuns confused fantasy with reality and as a result a monster was believed to live on the island. The littluns lack of maturity and concentration is shown when Ralph and Simon are building the shelters and Ralph says, “I bet if I blew the conch this minute, they’d come running. Then we’d be, you know, very solemn, and someone would say we out to build a jet, or a submarine, or a TV set. When the meeting was over they’d work for five minutes then wonder off.”(51). The death of the mulberry colored birthmark boy clearly shows that the littluns are insignificant to the other children on the island. When the children built the fire on the mountain and the flames caught on the canopy below Piggy realizes that the mulberry colored birthmark boy was not with them. Piggy shows the littluns’ insignificance when he says, “That little ‘un-‘ gasped Piggy-‘him with the mark on his face, I don’t see him.
Symbolism in Lord of the Flies Fear has the power to control, twist and break the ways of the human mind. The body, and mind are tricked and we find ourselves confused and fighting to piece together a troubling puzzle of straying emotions. Franklin D. Roosevelt stated, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, projecting that fear knows no bounds and is a great power. Fear and power go hand in hand, without fear there is no power, a teacher has no power over a student if the student is not afraid of the consequences of stepping out of line.
In most cases, fear can greatly alter how people act and therefore can shape lives for the better and for the worst. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a plane crashes on an island leaving the remaining boys all alone without any adults. This leaves them overwhelmed and afraid as they have never been in this situation previously, but also puts other fears that the boys may have suffered through prior to this experiences into action. This fearfulness that the whole group has, whether it be for their survival or because of personal issues, alters their views and thoughts so greatly as it therefore led to the inhumane killing of Simon. Simon death was overall a result of the fear of the unknown, Jack fearfulness of not being the
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
"Maybe there is a beast... maybe it's only us." In William Golding's post-war novel, The Lord of the Flies, he illustrates how darkness is within everyone by portraying the island as a replica of World War II. The island symbolizes life in the real world by allowing people to view the war through these young boys. The background of the book and the outside world are shown to correlate through the symbols. The archetypal symbols, characters, and setting relay the idea that the beast is within.
In the words of Bertrand Russell, “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Russell). Fear causes many problems in our lives. Fear influences many of a person’s actions and decisions. However, people usually regret the decisions or actions they made out of fear. Also, these actions and decisions can cause problems for those people in their future. Fear is a harmful emotion, for it clouds people’s judgement, disables them from taking action, and causes them to make decisions that they will regret later.
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.
The symbolical allegory “Lord of the Flies” written by William Golding, symbolizes through different characters of how humankind are evil from the core. The story of a group of schoolboys trapped on a deserted island takes more of a symbolizing story than it might seem. Each detail takes a position in the story to show the core of humanity. A group of young boys together without adult supervision causes the boys to slowly reveal their savage core. Being a part of the English society has taught them to make rules and follow them, but slowly as they realize that there are no grownups are there to stop them, the revealing of their nature begins. William Golding states in his interview concerning the theme of the book, “The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature.” (Golding 204). The human race has been evil ever since Adam and Eve sinned, but through the Bible, we try our best to cover the core of our hearts with rules and morality.