The Presence of Fear in Lord of the Flies Essay Example for Free

The Presence of Fear in Lord of the Flies Essay The presence of fear in Lord of the Flies Lord of the Flies is a relatively short book, but within its small amount of text William Golding is able to do much more than tell an exciting story. He digs deep into human nature and the natural corruption in peoples souls. He specifically explores the impact that fear has on people and how it makes them act. In Goldings eyes, humans are doomed just as the children on the island are, and that is because of fear. He believes that just the presence of terror causes people to overreact and lose common sense, tearing away at the bonds that hold society together. In an attempt to calm or soothe their worries, people end up separating, singling out others and letting their inner savage take over, leaving themselves in an even worse situation. In Lord of the Flies, fear slowly drives all common sense and civility out of the boys and brings them back to a state of savagery. The boys are scared from the beginning of the novel. At first, they are too excited about having an island to themselves to dwell upon their insecurities, but nonetheless they are there. The fear is not openly shown or discussed, but the boys are already subconsciously trying to cover it up. The boys do such things such as singling out Piggy in an attempt to make themselves feel more powerful and in control. Then, Jack pulls a knife on the piglet to try to show power and also to try to show immunity to fear, however, when he did so his face was white under the freckles. (31). Jack is already trying to act tough but at this point this cover that he puts on to hide from the fear has not reached nearly the point of savagery that it does later in the story. It is not until the first fire that the boys begin to openly show fear and even then they quickly change the subject. The cause of this realization of reality is that one of the littleuns disappears. The idea of making a rescue fire is so exciting that they let it get out of control. When the fire burns out they realize that one of the children is missing. When asked what has happened to the child with the mark on his face Ralph replies by saying Perhaps he went back to the, the-. . He knows what has happened, the boy was burned to death, but he does not want to admit it. This is like a wakeup call for the boys and they start to see the reality and the dangers of the situation. As the novel continues the fear is progressively growing in all of the children. By page 59, the fear of not knowing what would happen to them and if they would ever be rescued had grown to the point where the littleuns suffered from untold terrors in the dark and they huddled together for comfort. The littleuns were certainly afraid but had no way to really explain their fear or anything to blame it on. It is for this reason that they subconsciously create the beast. At first the biguns are too old and mature to believe in this beast. They realize that it is a figment of the littleuns imaginations and dont give it much thought. However, as their fear of being alone and not being rescued grows, so does their need for something concrete to aim their insecurities toward and to distract them from their real problem. This causes the biguns to begin to lose their common sense and to believe in the beast as well. Simon sees this, but when he tells the others maybe its only us, (89) referring to the beast; he is laughed off. The other boys will not even consider Simons ideas because they have convinced themselves that the beast is reality. As their fear grows so does their image of the beast, and unfortunately their savagery grows as well. This is most evident in Jack. When he is hunting he feels powerful. He is in control and he loves it. Hunting starts to become more than just a food source, it becomes his life. Not only does his hunting activity increase in frequency, it also becomes more and more vicious.