The Ramifications Of Fear In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

The Ramifications of Fear
In William Golding's book, Lord of the flies, the theme fear is often the cause of all of the characters actions. In this book, the main characters are a group of boys; Piggy, Ralph, Simon, Sam, Eric, Roger, Jack, and the littluns. They all get stuck on a tropical island in the midst of a war without adult supervision. Because of this they are forced to take care of themselves. However, things become intense when some of the boys start giving into their savage instinct’s which ultimately causes the death of innocent boys. This story perfectly represents the ramifications of fear. It is the boys' fear that leads to the death of Simon, the death of Piggy, and the birth of strange, erratic, and savage behavior.
The first

boy to die in the book because of the boys fear of the “beast” is Simon. Simon only wanted to help the boys but instead he was killed by them . When he was walking out of the woods to explain to them that there was no beast, Jack and his hunters assume that the figure that was coming out of the woods was the beast and attacked it all together at once. In reality, it was just Simon. They ripped him apart all because they were scared it was the “beast”. “The beast was on its knees in the center, its arms folded over its face. It was crying out against the abominable noise something about a body on the hill”(89-99). In this scene, the boys are attacking what they think is the beast. Though the boys killed him blindly, had there been no beast, Simon would not have died. This shows how much power fear has over us because it can lead us to believe or see things that aren't there, causing us to make rash decisions
Unfortunately Simon is not the only innocent killed due to the control fear has over the boys.

At one point in the book, all of the boys look to Ralph as their leader but as soon as they begin following Jack, things take a turn.He begins using violence and fear to intimidate the boys if they did not listen. “‘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’” (169). In this scene one of Jack's hunters is explaining how Jack is going to beat one of the members. If the boys were not scared of the beast, many of the tragic events that happened wouldn’t have occurred. They would not have come together under Jacks rule at all. This means they would not have given into their savage instincts. However the fear of something so unknown caused them to listen to him. They were scared so they allowed fear to control them. “High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever" (180). In this scene, Roger is pushing the lever which soon causes the rock that kills Piggy to fall. If he had known that there would be consequences for killing Piggy, he would not have done it, but since the boys had already turned savage and were under Jacks rule it didn’t matter and he got away with

it.
Once again, fear takes control of the boys and causes them to do erratic things. In the beginning of Lord of the Flies the boys followed Ralph and saw him as their leader, but then they turn on him and start listening to Jack. However, they only end up doing this because they fear the “beast”. Jack was able to manipulate them to do what he wanted by using fear. “‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in(142)’” . In this incident, Jack is saying the beast exists and he is ordering the boys to kill the beast which is really Simon. This is an example of how he uses the power of fear to control them. They are so scared of the beast that they will do anything to feel safe again. This is why the beast forced them to do things they normally would not. In the beginning of the book the boys would follow everything Ralph would say and saw him as a leader. However once the beast was found to supposedly exist, they turned on him. This alone shows how much fear controls your emotions to the point you become vulnerable and then it allows other people to use it against you. That is exactly what Jack did.
In Lord of the flies Fear, played a very important role in the boys’ decisions. It was the cause of many of the tragic events that happened. It caused the boys to turn savage and kill Simon. It caused the boys to turn on Ralph and follow Jack instead who then allowed Piggy to be murdered. If there was no “beast” to fear, the boys on the island would have never done the things they did. They would have followed Ralph and no one would have died. They would not have turned savage and Jack would not have been leader. Unfortunately that was not the case and instead fear took control.