Imagine that someone is just a child who has survived a plane crash and landed on an isolated island with no adults. He has no experience in taking care of himself and must figure out how to establish order without turning against another. This is the dilemma that the children in The Lord of the Flies by: William Golding have found themselves in, so one can picture the fear that comes with this more than unfavorable situation. In the novel, the theme of fear is shown most distinctly through the symbols of the Lord of the Flies, the beast, and the conch.
The first symbol that is a huge representation of fear in the novel is the Lord of the Flies itself. For starters, the actual representation of the Lord of the Flies is capable of inhibiting terror. It is a pig head stuck on a stick that is sharpened on both ends that is often surrounded by flies, so this visual could scare some of the children. In addition, the idol scares Simon through the
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Since the island is full of children, their minds begin to play games on them. They make the dead paratrooper into a mythical being that is set on killing them. However, the beast is actually just inside of each of them. The fear that manifests in each of the children causes the craziness that ensues, and it is in many ways, the beast. This is a major symbol as over and over the children say how the beast is a threat to them that they need to kill. When, in all reality, each of them is capable of having the beast is inside of them the whole time as Piggy explains in the following quote. “I know there isn 't no beast—not with claws and all that I mean—but I know there isn 't no fear either. Unless we get frightened of people." (Golding 64) Finally, this fear drives them to kill Simon and Piggy, and it drives them to attempt to kill Ralph. This shows that irrational fear can be so strong that it can turn perfectly civil boys into