Fear and Human Nature in Lord of the Flies

Katherine Paterson once said, “To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.” William Golding, who is a Nobel Prize winner for literature, writes Lord of the Flies, originally published in 1954. Golding’s novel is about a group of boys who crash land on an island. All of the adults are dead and they are abandoned on an island. The boys try to set rules and create a fire in efforts of being rescued. The group of boys chooses Ralph to be their leader. This choosing makes a literary character named Jack, who doesn’t show his anger until half way through the plot. The novel shows the nature of humans and how fear can control them. The novel also shows the difference between good and evil. Golding experienced this when he was in World War II. There were many times fear controlled the boys in the island in Lord of the Flies.

The first thing fear made the boys do was to kill another human.

The group actually ends up killing a boy named Simon, who was very mysterious, but likeable character throughout the novel. Here is what Piggy, another literary character in Lord of the Flies, says caused the murder, “It was dark. There was that-that bloody dance. There was lightning and thunder and rain. We was scared!” (Golding 156). This quote shows that the boys were truly scared by Simon’s appearance and since they already had spears, their response was to kill. They thought that Simon was a creature on the island set to kill them. This means that they were scared to be killed by it, so they let fear tell them to kill it. The beast was not the only thing that used or created fear in the other boys. Jack also did

this.
Jack is the leader of the choirboys, who are turned into hunters at the beginning of the novel. He uses fear to control other boys, especially the younger ones. Towards the middle of Lord of the Flies, Jack’s anger finally boils over and he chooses to leave the group and start his own. Jack tells the group, “We’ll hunt. I’m going to be the chief” (Golding 133). Jack promises to hunt the beast and to protect all of them. He also promises them that he will provide food by hunting for meat. Jack uses the fear of being killed by the beast and the fear of going hungry to control the boys to join his group. Fear caused the boys to officially choose to go with Jack and leave Ralph, but fear eventually made all of them become irrational.
The boys’ irrationality, especially in Jack, causes them to believe that killing Ralph is a good idea. Jack is fearful of losing control to Ralph once again, like he did at the beginning of the novel. This fear causes him to believe the only solution is to kill Ralph. Jack then tells his group that they are going to kill Ralph, and since none of them can make rational decisions any longer, all agree without any argument. Sam and Eric are the ones that told Ralph about Jack’s idea. Here is what they said, “They hate you Ralph. They’re going to do you. They’re going to hunt you tomorrow” (Golding 188). The fear of being hunted and killed causes Ralph to go hide and then run away from the group in the morning. The group chases Ralph for quite a while until Ralph stumbles upon the sand of the beach and sees a ship. They are finally getting rescued. Throughout the novel, fear has caused the boys to kill, fear allowed Jack to control others, and fear also made the boys make irrational decisions.
Fear controlled the boys throughout the novel, in almost every aspect of their lives on the island. It caused the boys to kill Piggy and Simon. Jack used it to control most of the boys to do what he wanted. Fear also made the boys become irrational. This led to the decisions to hunt Ralph and to let the fire go out because hunting was more important. Some readers of Lord of the Flies may be thinking that it would not be that hard to keep a straight head while on the island. They may be forgetting that these are ten-year-old boys who have not made any decisions without an adult. They have to worry about going hungry, making shelter, and protecting themselves. So should readers really believe this, or do they not understand the conditions the boys were under while on the island?