Fear In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Superior Essays
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, fear overrules the boys’ attempts at civilization, starting complications for survival. Despite being alone on the island, they see their independence as an exciting adventure without any supervision. Once the realities set in, the paranoia of a beast that is lurking on the island starts scaring some of the younger children, forming many obstacles and arguments between the older boys in the group. With an ongoing war going on back home, the boys take after the adults’ examples on how to survive; leading to war, deceit, fighting, and savagery. The fear of the Beast eventually disappears once Jack and his tribe believe they have killed it, but it only raises a new terror of being hunted once Jack becomes …show more content…
Eventually, their former acquaintances become their enemies and they have to avoid the hunters if they want to survive. In Lord of the Flies, Golding symbolizes fear within the Beast, which causes separation within the group, leading to Simon’s death, and Jack’s eventual call to leadership, showing that the true fear is within the boys themselves. The feeling of fear in Lord of the Flies first appears when the boys are paranoid of the Beast on the island. The Beast begins to take over the tribe in a negative way when the excitement of independence fades. “Their preoccupation with natural phenomena and survival rapidly changes to a preoccupation with the unknown and inexplicable” (Crawford). When the initial infatuation decreases, survival seems impossible and the fear of being stuck on the island forever encroaches on the boys. Later in the book, suspicion of a predator on the island appears when tracks are discovered while exploring the island. …show more content…
This reveals the fear of being hunted by Jack and his tribe, who will not stand Ralph and Piggy’s rebellious actions. Again, Piggy is able to see a deeper insight on Jack that the others were unable to see. “‘If Jack was chief he’d have all hunting and no fire. We’d be here till we died’” (Golding 93). Jack tries to start a new tribe, but he prioritizes hunting over being rescued, showing that he is not fit to be a leader. Piggy can sense Jack’s annoyance with him from the beginning of their stay on the island, which sets a fear of being Jack’s next target. “‘I been in bed so much I done some thinking. I know about people. I know about me. And him. He can’t hurt you: but if you stand out of the way he’d hurt the next thing and that’s me’” (Golding 93). Piggy reveals Jack’s true character and his feeling of fear without Ralph, which is foreshadowing since Jack and his tribe eventually kill Piggy. Later, Jack and his tribe realize the essentials of a fire and plan to steal Piggy’s glasses to ignite it. “He was chief now in truth, and he made stabbing motions with his spear. From his left hand dangled Piggy’s broken glasses” (Golding 168). Jack and his tribe steal Piggy’s glasses, scaring Piggy and Ralph of their power and intentions. In fact, the main fear in Golding’s novel turns from the Beast to Jack, who becomes his own beast in which the others fear.

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Once Ralph and Piggy wake up they realize that something is missing and that “[Ralph] blinded” Piggy by “[stealing]” his glasses (page 169). Jack and his hunters take Piggy’s glasses for fire that will cook their meat. Once Ralph and Piggy find out, they become furious since Piggy is blind without his spectacles, which causes many major conflicts, such as the death of Piggy. Immediately after, Piggy and Ralph head towards Jack’s territory and start to accuse him, as well as tell him “to give them back. Thief, Thief.”…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the Lord of The Flies, a group of kids are stranded on an island in the Pacific Ocean, and are scared of the unknown. The term beast is defined throughout the story as several different things. The following writing will show what the kids really feared. The beast is first thought of as fear itself.…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The chief led them, trotting steadily exulting in his achievement. He was a chief now in truth; and he made stabbing motions with his spear. From his left hand dangled Piggy’s broken glasses” (199). Jack decided to steal Piggy’s specs so he could make another fire, and so he could have control over the ability to make fire. In the boys eyes, Piggy was quite a useless individual.…

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jack is a character of extreme leadership and strict authority while Piggy is a character that takes a backseat role and an is an easygoing character. It is likely that those who he learned under taught him to act like a leader much like Hitler in that Jack took power away from the other power on the island. Jack demonstrated his authority of Ralph by making his own rival tribe in hope that it could become more powerful than Ralph’s. Furthermore, Jack uses this power to assert his dominance over other kids on the island, including Piggy. But while most would think Jack would leave Piggy alone because he is not an immediate threat to his rule, Jack abuses Piggy verbally and physically.…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jack is trying to take down what’s left of Piggy and Ralph. To him, Piggy is nothing without his specs. Obviously Piggy is way more intelligent than Jack, so if Jack takes away Piggy’s leg up, then in the end he will have the ultimate advantage. Jack is threatened by…

    • 778 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fear is something that everyone has experienced; it is demonstrated constantly in characters throughout the novel “Lord of the Flies”. In the book Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is about a group of young, British schoolboys being deserted on a tropical island after their plane crashed. No adults survive and the boys are forced to face the harsh conditions of the island and conflicts that uprise within their group. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding articulates that fears provokes humans to sever their moral instincts, act irrationally and allows for manipulation.…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    With this exclusion, he is viewed as an outcast by the other children which prevents him from having any power or influence upon the group. This results in Piggy becoming dependent on Ralph’s support and confirmation as he “glanced nervously into hell and cradled the conch” (Golding 44), instead of confronting Jack after the forest fire. As a result of lacking self confidence, Piggy begins to question if he has the right to speak rather than just speaking his mind, even though he is already…

    • 1452 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jack is in charge of most of the boys except for Piggy, Ralph, Simon and the twins this causes Jack to crave more power because he can't control them. Jack sends boys to go to into the camp to steal piggy's specs, so they can light a fire to cook the pig. Jack's obsession with power has gone corrupt that he is willing to kill people, not just animals, plus he has no remorse of the deaths of Piggy and Simon. Jack attacks Ralph, he does this because if they're all dead then he can be the boss of everyone. This quote is the situation that Jack is in because all the power he gained it just corrupt “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Anna Miller English Dr. Ogle Fear: Overcome or overpower? “Fear doesn't shut you down; it wakes you up” -Veronica Roth Award winning author Faraaz Kazi once stated that:“Fear is the most potent weapon.” This philosophy is supported by innumerable events in history, and is thoroughly described by William Golding in his book Lord of the Flies. In this novel, several English schoolboys crash on an island, and are forced to continue a civilization without adults, and therefore, without rules. The plot continues and the human capacity to become savage is evident.…

    • 1231 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lord Of The Flies Lessons

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In Lord of the Flies by, William Golding, the author displays many different lessons and, provides a good plot line. In Lord of the Flies, a group of boys crash land on a random island and are left stranded. After being stranded on an island, the boys have to come together to find a way to collect food, make shelter, find a way to make fire, and most importantly find a way off the island. All of the boys have different ways of going about things. This creates conflict between the boys, which leads to bigger problems for them.…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Ralph made a step forward and Jack smacked Piggy’s head. Piggy’s glasses flew off and tinkled the rocks. Piggy cried out in terror:” (71). This is the first time that Jack had actually physically harmed one of the other boys, and thus it is a clear sign of the changing society and a large step towards total savagery. Finally at the end of the book, Jack has developed a completely primitive and savage mindset, to a point where he attempts to kill Ralph.…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Has it ever occurred to you the monster that could be under the bed could be more than just a monster? Lord of the Flies pertains to a group of boys from ages six to twelve on an island. The group of boys are unsupervised on island with no way of contact. The boys were ripped away from the comfort of civilization and start to develop fears. These fears manifest themselves in the form of a beast.…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Beast Everyone is fearful of something although in the book "The Lord of the Flies," the most feared thing happens to be a beast. This is like how little kids are fearful of a monster under their bed. In this story the boys happen to be stranded because of a failure to evacuate them away from world war 2. The boys get stranded on an island and try to have structure but civilization is quickly lost especially because of a beast that is supposedly on the island. In the book the beast adapts throughout the story as more events happen to the boys on the island.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Due to the nature of the laissez-faire leadership, it contains very bright individuals and ideas but lacks control and continuous feedback. Piggy is an intelligent individual but because he favors this style of leadership, he lacks control and proper communication. As a result, the assertive jack can take advantage of him. When Piggy was suggesting ideas that Jack could have done to prevent the loss of fire, Jack “stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach. Jack stood over him, His voice was vicious with humiliation……

    • 1425 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While the English school boys, on the island, evolved into demonic beasts without a strong parental-esque influence supporting them, modern U.S. high school students are not much different. Many adolescents let unachievable standards set by the media and their own peers dictate their social lives, and as a result, many teenagers, depressed, resort to unhealthy methods of dealing with stress if they are not able to reach the set standards. A hope for solvency, parents possess the ability to stop these cycles of conformity; as University of New Hampshire’s Amber Carlson puts it, “parental support is the largest influence on creating preferable behavior in adolescents” (Carlson, 42). In a speech to the Brookfield East student body regarding the…

    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays