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Fear In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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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. The Beast in Lord of the Flies is an important symbol that has a significant influence on the characters and demonstrates that fear resides in all of us. The beast is a key symbol because it was the predominant source of savageness on the island. A major idea of the novel is how society can quickly give in to evil, and the beast was the start of it all. When Ralph calls an assembly, he brings up the …show more content…

Fear is a huge motivator, and the beast is fear itself. After Ralph and Jack went up the mountain and saw the beast, some of the boys discuss what they are going to do about the fire. “‘What’s the good of climbing up to this here beast when Ralph and the other two couldn’t do nothing…’ ‘No go, Piggy. We’ve got no fire. That thing sits up there--we’ll have to stay here’” (Golding 128-129). They are so afraid of the beast that even climbing the mountain is out of the question. Not only does the beast keep them from starting the fire, but it also causes all of the boys to live in belligerence. When Simon came stumbling out of the woods, the rest of the group jumped on him out of fear, thinking he was the beast. In addition to the beast being significant to the characters, it is also significant to a major concept of the …show more content…

In the novel, the beast doesn’t exist and was in the boys themselves all along. During an epileptic episode, Simon has a vision of the beast speaking to him. “‘Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill…’ ‘You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?’” (Golding 143). The beast was the embodiment of the fear that resided in the boys. They used the beast as a way of coping. The boys transferred their fear from something that they had no control over, which was their dire situation, to something that they could comprehend, such as a beast. Simon was the first to realize this, but before he could enlighten the others he was killed. This conveys the fact that fear resides in everyone, in one form or

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Once they kill Simon it explains deeply about how they kill him and how cruel and brutal it was. They kill him by biting and clawing and acting like savages. Simon says that it's themselves that is the beast and it shows in the part of the story how they act savage and

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Simon knows that it's not possible what they are afraid of when they are searching for the beast and tries sharing that thought that maybe they are the beast but the rest of the boys weren't having it. “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. (6.140)”Simon also always backed up his friends and helped them when they were in need. Like when all of the boys on the island were calling Piggy useless Simon stood behind him by saying that they use his glasses ““We used [Piggy's] specs...

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The other boys start to fear the beast more and more, thinking it was a physical being, but Simon understands that it is not real and that it is only created by the boy’s fear. When Simon comes out of the forest to try to explain this to the boys, they mistake him for the beast and end up killing him. Simon's

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Fear of death made the boys willing to do anything to survive. As evidence, when the kids thought they killed the beast (Golding 211), in reality, the boys were actually killing Simon which proves that the boys were ready to do whatever it took to survive (Golding 212). The children felt as though they were at death's door and had no choice but to be willing to do anything to survive. Also fear was the driving force that pushed them to survival and without it, some basic needs potentially would not have been met. For instance, if the boys were not worried about survival, they wouldn't be compelled to kill the pig (Golding 96) or built shelter (Golding 62).

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Obviously, the boys' fear of the ‘beast’ and their ironic need to destroy it shows that the tight grip which society's rules once had on them has been loosened in the duration of the time they have spent on the

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At first, the boys believe that the beast is an animal on the island after seeing a snake-like figure in the jungle. However, when Simon meets the “Lord of the Flies”, he realizes that the beast is, in fact, roaming the island but not in the form the boys imagine. Simon, a young boy in Ralph’s tribe, wanders off discovering a pig’s head on a stake and starts to hallucinate that the head is talking to him. “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter,” (143).

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Could it possibly just be the fears that the individual boys have? Or is it the darkness in each of their hearts? Therefore, in Lord of The Flies, is the beast just fear? Do the boys just imagine their worst fears because they are scared? Think about it, little boys stranded on an island with no one there to comfort them, for their nightmares are coming to life.

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The “beast” not only has a physical form of a human, it also represents the savagery of human nature that is displayed through the boys. Throughout the novel, the boys slowly lose their sense and morph into horrendous and violent monsters. The most prominent example of this savagery is during Simon’s murder. A very “beast”-like and aggressive vocabulary is used during this scene to describe the boys attack on Simon, including, “leapt… screamed, struck, bit, tore… and the tearing of teeth and claws,” (Doc F). While these words are expected to be used to describe a monster, they describe the boys instead.

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This shows that the boys are only afraid of themselves, because they are their own worst enemy. He is the first to figure out that the beast is not an actual beast, and how it is only the boys becoming savage, and starting to be afraid of one another. As Simon began to explain this to the doubtful boys, he was the only one who died knowing the

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From the beginning of the novel, the boys are afraid of the beast, even though they do not know what exactly the beast is. They believe at first that it is a physical creature that was on the island, waiting to attack them. However, as the story progresses, it becomes clear that the beast is not real, but instead a manifestation of the boys' own fears and the darkness within them. As Simon says, "Maybe there is a beast... maybe it's only us" (“Golding” 80).

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However the beast truly is only within them, Golding uses the beast to symbolise and show the reader the evil within everyone including a pack of young boys, the concept the boys have of the beast begins to break down the order on the island.

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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.

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943 Words | 4 Pages

When the beast is first brought not many people believe its true while the fear of the beast strikes other people really quickly. Fear can manipulate and influence people 's actions and choices. The following quote shows how piggy isn 't scared of the beast because he doesn 't believe its real so he is calm and isn 't freaking out about the beast. "I know there isn 't no beast—not with claws and all that, I mean—but I know there isn 't no fear, either" (Golding 84). But the boys that are afraid of the beast are afraid because they don 't know much about it they do not know much about it to fight it

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733 Words | 3 Pages

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).

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The name “Lord of the Flies” is a reference to the name of the Biblical devil Beelzebub, which symbolizes the evil that potentially exists in the heart of every human. The beast was first introduced in the novel by a boy, described as “shrimp of a boy, about six years old, and one side of his face was blotted out by a mulberry-colored birthmark.” (Golding, 27). In reality, the beast is not real, it actually represents the children 's fears about themselves. The boys end up letting out the beast, which is the savagery hiding within them.

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