Fear In Lord Of The Flies

Though many decisions are made unconsciously and many world events happen by accident, when examined they come down to fear. The world often operates on fear. Fear surrounds us, leaving no way to avoid it. Thus, it is important to understand how fear affects society and what role it plays. Why exactly is fear the major emotion that drives world events? William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies as a way to explore the many aspects of human nature, fear being one of them. Lord of the Flies illustrates how boys would behave if left on an island with no adults. Each boy comes from a different background, and though they elect a leader in the beginning things soon began to fall apart. Golding demonstrates that a large part of this is that fear controls

failing to detect and (over-) react toward danger can be so devastating or deadly… risks of losing one’s chance of reproducing one’s gene” (6-7) and therefore, the “brain must also have developed mechanism to systematically underestimate trust (while overestimate fear)” (7). Darwin’s idea of survival of the fittest can be applied not only to physical traits but mental ones. By choosing to not react to fear, the loss could be a lot more extreme than if someone overreacts for nothing. Consequently, the ones who react

As evolution continues, people will continue to deal with fear in severe ways. They will have big reactions, which can cause large-scale events. One example of this is the stock market crash of 1929. When the stock market began to decline, people began to panic. If they didn’t pull their money out of the banks, they could lose their entire life savings. In their minds this is compared to the few small effects of leaving their money in the bank. Those who took their fear to the extreme and pulled all of their money out fared better than those who didn’t. Overreacting to fear remained part of human nature because of this. The stock market crash was a dominant source for the Great Depression, indicating that individual actions like pulling money from a bank can lead to the major world events, all driven by fear. The idea of the beast in Lord of the Flies creates a fear in the boys that is the motivation behind their actions. Their reactions to the fear allows them to survive. The majority of the primary events in the book are based on this fear of the beast. One event is when Ralph and Jack, the two main characters, along with Roger, go up the mountain to hunt for the