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Fear In Lord Of The Flies

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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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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436 Words | 2 Pages

By saying the beast is alive atop the mountain and that it’s a hunter Jack uses fear to convince the boys that if someone like Ralph stays cheif they won’t be protected becuase he’s not a hunter. This is also shown after the ISIS terrorists attacks in France: “The coordinated attacks in Paris have fanned fears that terrorists could infiltrate the U.S. by slipping in among the refugees—as might have occurred in the case of one of the Paris attackers.” (Berman) This connects to “The Lord of the Flies,” becuase ISIS uses terorists attacks to impliment fear into peoples mindes in order to become stronger and more of a threat. Thanks to ISIS now “More than half of the nation 's governors—mostly Republicans—are now urging the federal government to keep Syrian refugees out of their states.”

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538 Words | 3 Pages

People are often scared of monsters when they are young, but once they grow older and mature, they begin to realize that the idea was made up in their heads. However, some people are so set on the theory of there being mythological creatures that they do not think of the possibility of actual people being monsters instead. We like to believe that we live in a world where none of us are sane and our behavior is superb. When in reality, it is the opposite. We do not realize how much hatred, rape, and violence there is in the world.

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736 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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824 Words | 4 Pages

Have you ever felt too scared to speak your mind because every time you do someone makes fun of you or calls you cruel names? Can you imagine getting stuck on an island with no adult to help me survive? Would you be able to survive? The book the Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding. In the beginning of the story a group of school boys from England are in a plane that crashes onto an island, but they all fell in different areas of the island.

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1484 Words | 6 Pages

Which is stronger, hope or fear? Fear keeps you alive it tells you when to run. If you go for a walk and there is a man chasing you, would you run or keep walking and just hope that he leaves you alone? With hope you will always find times when you are overcome by fear. It is the hope of change that allows you to conquer the fear.

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1148 Words | 5 Pages

At first, the beast is nothing more than a product of the boys ' imaginations. The smaller boys are afraid of things they see at night; rather than be blindly afraid of The Great Unknown, they give their fear a name and a shape in their minds. The boys fear the beast not even realizing that the are committing the evil actions of the beast. Only Simon reaches the final realization of what the beast for what it truly is, their own evil existing inside of them when he says “Maybe there is a beast… maybe it 's only us.”.

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645 Words | 3 Pages

In the novels “The Lord of the Flies” and “The Chrysalids”characters are pushed to their limits, and they are driven to do things that they wouldn’t normally do, what drives them to do these things, is their fears. In both novels they fear a godly figure, and the unknown. The characters deal with their fear in similar ways. Finally, the Waknukians fear eventually lead them to their downfall, and the same thing goes for the boys in the “Lord of the Flies”.

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536 Words | 3 Pages

The characters are frightened of the alleged beast, but only Simon reaches the realization that they fear the beast because it lives inside all of them. As the characters. As the boys grow more brutal, their belief in the beast grows ever stronger.. At the closing of the novel, the boys are abandoning the sacrifices and treating it as a spiritual god. The boy 's personalities is what carries the beast into reality, so the more brutality the the boys act, the more realistic the beast seems to manifest.

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171 Words | 1 Pages

In the short story “Lord of the Flies,” by William Golding, the universal fear of theme is significant because it is a trait that all of the boys have in common. Fear is introduced in the story when the littluns share their fear of the beast with the rest of the boys. Ralph explains, “The thing is—fear can’t hurt you any more than a dream. There aren’t any beasts to be afraid of on this island.” As the chief, it is Ralph’s job to address problems.

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549 Words | 3 Pages

In William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, boys trapped on an island turn into deranged savages and kill each other after they fail to follow the rules of their made-up tribe. Cruelty is used by Golding as a way to communicate his theme which could be that cruelty is in nearly everybody, but civilization’s laws and control prevent that trait from prevailing. The author leaves some evidence of him trying to convey this theme throughout the book. A part of the book that shows this theme being shown would be the demise of Piggy and civilization.

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374 Words | 2 Pages

The novel "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding shows the power of fear through it ability to manipulate and control people, through its ability to divide and polarize the group, and finally through its ability to fundamentally alter the characters' sense of self and identity. One way that fear is powerful in the novel is through its ability to manipulate and control the actions of the characters. For example, the fear of the unknown and the fear of the "beast" on the island leads the boys to act irrationally and make poor decisions. This is evident when the boys begin to hunt and kill pigs for food and eventually turn to hunting and trying to kill Ralph, the protagonist. Another way that fear is powerful in the novel is through its ability

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943 Words | 4 Pages

Fear is an unpleasant caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or a threat.(Mariams Webster). Fear is a thing we all hold inside of us, we are all scared of something or someone it 's just human nature. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses a unique way of showing how fear affects human behavior, he used the boys on the island to show how fear affects the behavior of humans and how the boy 's manner and mentality changed over time. From when the boys first came on the island they are actions were normal then later on as the boys started gaining the fear of the beast they started doing abnormal actions they took certain steps because of the fear in them that had been planted by the beast in this case. One of the main reasons fear is spread through the boys is the beast, though we find out the beast is nothing but their imagination.

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772 Words | 4 Pages

The novel The Lord of the flies, the boys are massively affected by fear, as it manipulates their decisions and their way of thinking. Fear as the most dangerous and destructive force on the island, although natural to the human race it will always be perceived differently by different people. In the beginning of the novel, Being surrounded by beaches, water and exotic fruits. However, this novel only reinforces the idea that suffering is inevitable as it is a result of their inherently flawed nature.

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733 Words | 3 Pages

The Power Of Fear in “Lord of the Flies”: No Greater Illusion Than Fear Fear is intangible yet has perceptible effects. It plays a significant role in human behaviour. Each individual reacts to fear differently, some overcome it, while others give in to it. In William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” the theme of fear is discussed and it becomes clear that fear has the power to take over not only one’s mind but also control one’s actions.

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1127 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the novel of Lord of the Flies, William Golding provides a profound insight into human nature. Golding builds on a message that all human beings have natural evil inside them. To emphasize, the innate evil is revealed when there’s lack of civilization. The boys are constantly faced with numerous fears and eventually break up into two different groups. Although the boys believe the beast lives in the jungle, Golding makes it clear that it lurks in their hearts.

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