How Does Fear Cause Conflict In Lord Of The Flies

Fear dictates many people's lives.This is especially true in the novel Lord of the Flies. It demonstrates that fear is the root cause of every conflict. In this story, fear was the cause of three major conflicts: the existence of the beast, separation of the group and survival.
For starters, fear is what drove the existence of the beast thus confirming that fear is the fundamental cause of conflict in Lord of the Flies. Fear is what created the beast because fear gave the boys a false illusion of the island being a treacherous place. For instance, when the boy with the mulberry mark said he saw the ‘Beastie’(Golding 34), in reality, it was vines hanging from the trees. The kids are in a new environment where everything is tainted by fear.

Fear was often used against the boys to gain power, consequently, it powered the separation. As evidence, Jack instills fear in the children to make the boys scared of him. For example, Jack pulverized Wilfred for a nameless crime (Golding 229). This shows that in order to gain authority, Jack used fear against the boys and as a result caused separation. Also, fear lead to the separation of the group in the sense that the boys feared being bullied by Jack and comrades. To demonstrate, If you were not on Jack's team he would terrorize you. For example, Jack would say things like, “Shut up”(Golding 37) to Piggy because Piggy did not support him. Additionally, Jack assures the boys “a feast and have fun”(Golding 176) using fear of starvation to gain power. Jack used fear to control the boys which lead to the separation of the tribe. Likewise, Jack and his companions feared that Ralph was abusing his power. They feared the rules were not fair nor were they in their favor. For instance, when Jack says “He just gives orders and expects people to obey for nothing,”(Golding 139), this implies that Jack feels as though Ralph is exploiting his power as chief. Thereby causing the separation of the group, thus proving fear was the root cause for this conflict as well. Fear was the root cause of many events in the novel, including the fact that fear leads the children to

Fear of death made the boys take charge and take responsibility. Initially, Ralph did not take the role as chief because he wasn't scared of death at that moment. Nevertheless, further into the book Jack and Ralph start prioritizing for survival because they feared that without getting certain things in order they may face death. Proof of this is when Jack and Ralph argue over which is more essential: food or shelter and that they should get their priorities straight (Golding 68). Fear of death made the children take charge and take responsibility which helped them survive. 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). This shows that without fear of death compelling the boys to fulfill their basic needs, those requirements would