Fear is a concept that is prominent in everyone’s life. Whether it is rational or not, we all fear something. Fear is the distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, pain, or evil. The differences in fear arise in how one copes with their fears and where their fear is derived from. The fear that humans most commonly succumb to would be the fear of the unknown. The epitome of the fear of the unknown is found throughout the novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding. In the novel, several boys are stranded on an island where a great fear is provoked by a beast, that depending on how one rationalizes fears, may or may not actually exist. As the boys adjust to the lifestyle they have created for themselves on the island, the beast becomes …show more content…
Jack’s belief in a heinous beast that is roaming the island is due to his longing for power that would be gained through slaying the beast consequently earning both respect and honor from the other boys. Jack is able to harness the boys’ fear of the beast to his advantage, weaseling his way into power. One way this is accomplished is by acknowledging the beast as the island’s common enemy. Jack shouts, “Bollocks to the rules! We are strong, we hunt! If there’s a beast, we'll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat!” (Golding 130). For one thing, this is effective in deterring the leadership of Ralph who is in full support of order and rules. Additionally, it proves Jack’s strong will and determination to give up everything in search of the beast. Jack believes that killing the beast is the way to gain immediate and ultimate control on the island. Not knowing the actual identity of the beast allows his innate evils to emerge. This emergence of evil applies to the boys on the island as well. Fear has the ability to bring out the worst in people. With no assurance of what is to come they cannot dismiss their fears of the unknown, allowing savagery to prevail. The newfound savagery gives Jack more leverage in taking charge. Jack pushes to stray from civilization to reveal their inner savage that has surfaced, so they can fend off the beast. This is done by beginning chants like, “Kill the beast. Cut her throat. Spill her blood” (Golding 96). Jack’s belligerent promises to protect the boys from the beast gives them a feeling of safety and security, manipulating them to fall under his
We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat-” (Golding 99)! After the tribes success with hunting the pig, Jack feels confident, but not capable enough to ‘kill’ the Beast on his own. Jack states to the group that we will hunt Beast as group, which is a similar statement to when they hunted the pig. Jack fears the Beast because he has not experienced the presence of the Beast prior to the statement.
As Jack becomes more restless on the island, it is evident that savagery becomes satisfying for him. Almost like he needs to kill to breathe, like this was the missing piece of his life that he can now satisfyingly appeal to. “His mind was covered with memories…knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink.” (Golding, 74). Jack denies the ideas of the beast similarly to Piggy.
Jack repeatedly interrupts Ralph and asserts, "Bollocks to the rules! We're strong–we hunt! If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down! We'll close in and beat and beat and beat–!" (91).
Prominent authors have written books discussing terror and how it is employed. Indeed, William Golding and Suzanne Collins both address the theme of fear in their works. Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding is a story about a group of boys left stranded on an island due to a plane accident. Shortly after their arrival, the boys try to maintain all their humanity and conscience. Nonetheless, as the story unfolds, they start to concede to the inner darkness and forsake all sign of civility in exchange of ruthlessness.
Being on the island everyone is contsantly faced with the fear of the unknown the younger boys need someone to protect them from the fears on the island. Although nothing manages to scare the boys as much as the beastie does. When a little boy with a mullberry birthmark informs everyone that he has seen a beastie. The older boys emitiatly belive its his imagination but even later in the novel the boys start to question the exsitance of the beast. After the killing of simion, jack is belives ut was simon disguised as the beast, and that the beast is not dead.
The novel The Lord of the flies, the boys are massively affected by fear, as it manipulates their decisions and their way of thinking. Fear as the most dangerous and destructive force on the island, although natural to the human race it will always be perceived differently by different people. In the beginning of the novel, Being surrounded by beaches, water and exotic fruits. However, this novel only reinforces the idea that suffering is inevitable as it is a result of their inherently flawed nature.
Fear is what you make of it because nothing is inherently scary it is what you take from the object or experience that makes it scary and fills your head with fear. This can have an effect on society and how people and their respective governments react to types of issues and problems. This leads to in extreme cases war and mass murder of a society that is being exploited as a scapegoat. In the book Lord of the Flies the author William Golding suggest the impact fear has on human nature and how it disrupts order and disorder in a society.
By saying the beast is alive atop the mountain and that it’s a hunter Jack uses fear to convince the boys that if someone like Ralph stays cheif they won’t be protected becuase he’s not a hunter. This is also shown after the ISIS terrorists attacks in France: “The coordinated attacks in Paris have fanned fears that terrorists could infiltrate the U.S. by slipping in among the refugees—as might have occurred in the case of one of the Paris attackers.” (Berman) This connects to “The Lord of the Flies,” becuase ISIS uses terorists attacks to impliment fear into peoples mindes in order to become stronger and more of a threat. Thanks to ISIS now “More than half of the nation 's governors—mostly Republicans—are now urging the federal government to keep Syrian refugees out of their states.”
He explains how it is a hunter and how it came from the sea, but was disproved and how it has wings and claws and swings in the vines at night. That causes nightmares, stress, and anxiety on a lot of the kids, so Jack promises fun to all of those who leaves Ralph’s group and joins his. Everyone is frightened by the beast and frightened about whether they will die on the island or be rescued, which is a lot of stress for little kids. Jack tells them to forget about the beast for a moment and to let loose, or to have fun, with hunting or doing other things rather than trying to survive and be exhausted trying to get rescued by the grown ups, if there are still any left. The groups represent civilization and savagery during this great divide of the main group which will cause future conflict.
When we later find out it wasn't the beast and it was simon. Jack used courage to attack Simon and to overcome his fear of the beast.
Lastly, Jack is known as the rebel of the story who disagrees with the leaders, and is pure evil from middle to end. Although Jack is evil, his bad character trait ensures his survival and alliance with the boys. The first example of when Jack’s evilness is shown in the story is when Jack hunts the pig and puts its head on a stick, the line says “ Jack held the head up and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end of the stick which pierced through into the mouth. He stood back and the head hung there, a little blood dribbling down the stick” ( Golding, 150). This shows Jack’s evilness because instead of fearing the beast he is offering him the head of the pig that he just brutally murdered.
Jack makes the boys believe that the beast will not hurt them as long as they do what he says, this gives Jack more control over the boys. When Jack and his hunters go hunting, they find a sow and kill it. When they
“...fear can’t hurt you anymore than a dream. There aren’t any beasts to be afraid of on this island... Serve you right if something did get you, you useless lot of cry-babies” (79). When Jack, a main character in Lord of the flies said this, he didn’t believe in the fear that was growing within the boys or that it could cause harm to them. Lord of the flies by William Golding is centered around how fear can take over one 's mind and make them lose control of themselves within it.
In this instance Jack tells the boys that he somehow has control over the beast. This shows how Jack uses the beast to draw the children towards him as the leader of the group. He always desires to rule over the boys and the beast is his scapegoat to do
The Power Of Fear in “Lord of the Flies”: No Greater Illusion Than Fear Fear is intangible yet has perceptible effects. It plays a significant role in human behaviour. Each individual reacts to fear differently, some overcome it, while others give in to it. In William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” the theme of fear is discussed and it becomes clear that fear has the power to take over not only one’s mind but also control one’s actions.