Fear In Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

When FDR said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” he explains when being afraid of something, one must face their fear. If one avoids it, it will stay with them and will not go away unless it is confronted. He is saying that the fear of something is probably worse than the event turns out to become. Furthermore, It is the weakness of the imagination that compels us to do the unimaginable—the unspoken. People must only be scared of being scared, as fear itself destroys them. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, fear is the cause of why the boys do certain things. They do things that they would never have done if they were not scared, because they do not want to be scared. The negative actions or behaviors of the boys on the island

We’re strong—we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat—!” He gave a wild whoop and leapt down to the pale sand. At once the platform was full of noise and excitement, scramblings, screams and laughter.” The boys are scared of the beast, and Jack does a better job of easing their fear because Ralph doesn't care about easing the fear of the beast among the boys, and focuses on rescue, but Jack focuses on the beast, and eliminating it. The boys’ main fear is the beast, and since Jack hunts, he makes the boys feel comfortable with him leading them to defend them from the beast. Jack has found out what motivates the boys by understanding what they want most. The boys feel less scared in Jack’s tribe is when the boys are scared to go to the mountain because of the beast, but Jack gives them a sense of safety that they can kill anything, and be stronger than anything or anyone. To illustrate, Jack says “And about the beast. When we kill we’ll leave some kill for it. Then it won’t bother us,”(133). Jack tells the group the the beast will not bother them. When he says “When we kill,” it gives the boys a sense of safety knowing that Jack will actually do what he says, and the fact the he has killed a pig before reassures that. They understand that Jack will follow through with what he says, which builds trust and credibility with Jack being the leader. The behavior of the boys from the fear of the beast is why the

The beast was on its knees in the center, its arms folded over its face. It was crying out against the abominable noise something about a body on the hill. The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws” (152) demonstrates that the fear of the beast controlled the boys, and influenced them to kill Simon. It is the cause of Simon's death. When everybody joins the dance, the mob’s mentality is that they are in a wildly excited and uncontrolled state. When they mistake Simon for the beast, they choose the fight instinct over the flight one, because Jack has told them that they can kill the beast. He is killed because they were scared of what might of occurred if he was the beast, but the influence of fear has turned them into the beast. After his death, Piggy admits that they were scared, “It was dark. There was that—that bloody dance. There was lightning and thunder and rain. We was scared![…]“We was scared!” said Piggy excitedly. “Anything might have happened.”(156) Piggy understands that Simon was killed because the boys were scared, and that they were influenced by what could have been. Fear destroyed the boys, as it destroys society, and will always be present