Nelson Mandela, The South African president from 1994-1999 and anti-apartheid revolutionary, once said “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” This quote makes perfect sense in today's world full of cowardliness and shortcuts. Children and young adults face the challenge of steering away from being a coward and taking shortcuts in a corrupt society. The importance of not steering away from conquering fear is clear in William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies, in which a group of young boys are separated from civilization as a result of an unexpected plane crash on a remote island. As the boys cope with fear (and the other
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The boys’ innocence plays an important part in the boys’ compliance to civilization, which instructs them that they must face the prospect of the beast with logic, rather than speculation. Rather than making snap judgments, the boys decide that the boy with a mulberry-colored birthmark just “had a nightmare”. The boys use the teachings of the old society to remain in disbelief when confronted with figments of a child's imagination. In comparison to much later in the novel, after the boys have been in solitude for such a long duration of time their minds begin to change and break away from the civilized society from which they came. They sense danger and fear in every encounter and jump to illogical conclusions. Although the boys had been conditioned to brush off what little kids say, the boy with a mulberry-colored birthmarks words still haunt them. His words leave the boys with the fear that perhaps the nightmares are reflecting the child's situation. As the speculation of the existence of the beast continues to occur, the boys begin to know the beast as an inhabitant of the woods, the woods, which are foreign to them, and sacrifice their sense of security which increases their fear. Golding’s use of the beast being seen “in the
The boys’ innocence plays an important part in the boys’ compliance to civilization, which instructs them that they must face the prospect of the beast with logic, rather than speculation. Rather than making snap judgments, the boys decide that the boy with a mulberry-colored birthmark just “had a nightmare”. The boys use the teachings of the old society to remain in disbelief when confronted with figments of a child's imagination. In comparison to much later in the novel, after the boys have been in solitude for such a long duration of time their minds begin to change and break away from the civilized society from which they came. They sense danger and fear in every encounter and jump to illogical conclusions. Although the boys had been conditioned to brush off what little kids say, the boy with a mulberry-colored birthmarks words still haunt them. His words leave the boys with the fear that perhaps the nightmares are reflecting the child's situation. As the speculation of the existence of the beast continues to occur, the boys begin to know the beast as an inhabitant of the woods, the woods, which are foreign to them, and sacrifice their sense of security which increases their fear. Golding’s use of the beast being seen “in the