Fear has the ability to manipulate people into believing there is danger when there is not, causing them to make rash decisions. These decisions can result in a disobedience to one’s cultural beliefs, as seen in Lord of the Flies and Beowulf. Even though the characters from Lord of the Flies and Beowulf come from cultures built around nobility and loyalty, fear tears them apart from the society they had worked hard to achieve. Although the boys from Lord of the Flies tried to keep their culture’s morals, the fear of the unknown caused the children to betray their Culture.
This expression of savagery depicts how fear will control the mind and express itself in an unimaginable manner. In chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs repetition, symbolism, and natural imagery to convey the theme of fear controlling the human mind and inculcates one to act abnormally.
The boys are given a chance to be rescued from their fear-stricken lives but stubbornly reject it to continue their violence. After Simon discovers that the beast is a pilot’s corpse and runs to tell the others, he stumbles into their ritualistic dance and is mistaken for the beast: “...out of the terror rose another desire, thick, urgent, blind... the sticks fell and the mouth of the new circle crunched and screamed. [The beast] was crying out against the abominable noise something about a body on a hill… At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore.
A plane filled with children are stranded on an island. There are no adults, only children. They do everything they can do to survive, but once evil and fear take over, they will have more to worry about than just surviving. Evil and fear play a big role in society. Sometimes the effects may be good, but sometimes the effects will be deadly and tower over you.
Fear is a strange thing, it starts out little and innocent, but if it is left uncontrolled it festers. In the book, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, people wonder, “What happened to those innocent, little boys?” and “Who is behind this new-found fear and corruption inside the boys?” It isn’t until the Lord of the Flies is introduced this questioned is answered.
How can fear lead to savagery and violence? In Golding's novel Lord of the Flies it talks about how the boys get stranded on an island which ultimately leads to fear and violence between them. Jack is a perfect example because he loved having power over the boys, he would threaten and scare the boys. This causes fear and reckless behavior. The paint on the boys' faces symbolizes how they’ve transformed from civilized individuals to savages.
Ralph, who is the chief of the boys, realizes that the entire perception of the beast had been penetrated into each of the boys’ mind; this was a drastic turn of events towards the civilization and the boys, who now became aware of the beast’s “existence.”
In the novel Lord of the Flies, fear plays a vital role in showing how hysteria can provoke mankind’s violent nature, hence relating to Golding’s theme. Chapter 6 states, “Simon, walking in front of Ralph, felt a flicker of incredulity—a beast with claws that scratched, that sat on a mountain-top, that left no tracks and yet was not fast enough to catch Samneric. However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human, at once heroic and sick”(page 103). Although Simon is the only character in the novel to understand that the beast is actually inside of the boys, it doesn’t rule out the fact that he still fears it. Simon fears that the hysterics surrounding the idea of a physical beast will eventually cause the rest of the boys to lash out and put themselves against each other.
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there are many symbols that represent important ideas such as fear and hope. In the novel, a group of boys crash land on an abandoned island. On that island, there is an elusive beast that terrorizes the boys. A few doubt its existence, some of whom are Ralph, Piggy, and Simon. Even so, they all fear it.
While fear is a natural instinct that humans have for survival, it is a destructive weapon that can be used by evil and good leaders and individuals. People can be coerced into committing violent crimes out of fear of consequences by their leader, or out of fear over the value a person can possess. Williams Golding's allegory Lord of the Flies takes place on a remote island, where crash landed English school children are left to fend for themselves. Many characters promote peace and cooperation like Simon. Simon represents the good within people as he never has confrontations with others and is willing to help others.
Since the beginning of mankind, humans have been revealing their tendencies to build fear when experiencing unfamiliar situations. People experience fear around 3 to 4 times a day which can result in a big impact. The fear building up in humans has been a result of chaos throughout the existence of mankind and through this fear, humans reveal the true tendencies hiding within. In Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, Golding is continuously revealing the true effects of the unknown and how it imposes fear on humans. The fear of the unknown in this novel exposes the capability of humans to reveal the inhumane and evil side of themselves, portraying the effects resulting from different worries within society.
The boys on the island often feared there may have been a vicious “beast” on the island. The island shaped them into their own beast. For them not realizing that their fears were drastically changing the way they acted towards one another, and turning them into ferocious, brutal barbarians. Their terrors were taking advantage of their minds in ways that are unimaginable
Some people get stuck in certain situations and ask themselves is fear naturally the best feeling to feel within the human or is it an influence from other means? What role do society's rules play in the existence of human fear? Does the capacity for evil vary from person to person, or does it depend on the circumstances each individual is presented with? These questions are at the heart of Lord of the Flies a story brought to life by William Golding, through detailed depictions of the boys' different responses to their situation, presents a complex articulation of humanity's potential for evil.
The collective fear of the unknown leads to the untimely and accidental death of Simon. The distress present in the boys causes their impulsive action, of Simon’s horrific murder. Fear of “the beast” an imaginary creature causes the boys to act irrational, and provokes survival instincts as a result of life threatening terror. The fear of the boys in this moment is epitomized when they chant, “Kill the beast!, Cut his throat, Spill his blood!” (168).
“His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, the knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long, satisfying drink.” Ralph and the boys crash-landed from a plane and woke up on an island and realized that they stuck with no way of getting out. Their only hope was to signal someone. As time marched on, almost all of the boys had become so savage-like that the few who remained with morals were in a fight for survival.
