Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

Through his depiction of a society initiated by seemingly innocent little boys in the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding suggests that fear, especially fear of the unknown, is so pervasive in mankind that even democracies are too weak to save people from themselves. Fear plays an important role in the novel. Fear is evident in all areas of life on the island from the nightmares of the littluns, to the excitement of hunting and the groups belief in a beast.. Even though Ralph and Jack are the leaders and they seem to be like super heroes who do not fear anything, that belief is completely false. Ralph, Jack and the littluns are in fact afraid We begin to see the first hint of their fear when Ralph denies the existence of a beast.“Fear can't hurt you any more than a dream. There aren't any beasts to be afraid of on this island “ ( 75 ). The boys are aware that they are stranded on an island and that there are no adults who knows this. The littluns are scared because they are younger than the others and need security. One of the littluns who is described as having a mulberry colored mark on his face claims that he saw a snakelike “ beastie “or a monster in the night. This brings fear to the group that there could possibly be a monster lurking around the island. The littluns are frightened but Ralph and the other older boys reassure them that there is no monster on the island and the boys vision of a beast is only a nightmare. By dismissing the issue about the.young boy seeing a “ beastie “ Ralph and the others implies that they too are scared there could be a monster. When people are afraid or scared, they usually try to hide behind that feeling and cover it up with something else. Ralph and the others are covering up their emotions of being scared by saying that the feared beast is probably just a nightmare.

Jack, the supposedly brave leader of the hunter says, “If you’re hunting sometimes ... as if something’s behind you all the time in the jungle”, which is evidence that he too is afraid. All that power he possesses and wants so much is just a cover up for how he is really feeling inside. Jack is one of the older boys so, he should have a clear understanding of what is going on. He is scared of the beast, and he tries to hide this fear by not mentioning the beast instead he refers to the beast as “something”. Even though Jack offers to go out and hunt, deep down inside of him is the fear that behind his every footstep the beast is just waiting for the right time to attack him.

To get away from that state of fear the boys hunt for food. Hunting for food brings an excitement that help the boys escape the feeling of fear and hunting also gives them an experience of being powerful and having control. Fear is part of having power because too much power can cause a person fear to do things they do not want to do. The boys act out on their fear and become savages. An example of this wildness is when Jack and his new tribe place a pigs head on a stick as an offering for the beast. As the blood drips down from the pig’s teeth, they run away which indicates that feeling of fear being brought up again.

Being powerful and having power leads into fear of the unknown. The dead parachutist represents the unknown fear because the boys do not know that parachutist is human. All the boys except Simon lack the courage to approach this unknown object. The boys do not want to accept the idea of a beast living on the island nor can they get it out of their head. The dead parachutist represent the termination of all adult supervision because it is almost like this parachutist