Fear In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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Is it possible to lose your humanity when you are distant from civilization? Can the fear in 12 year olds lead to evil and sadistic thoughts? This is shared in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a story about children who are escaping a war end up stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere. The boy's face the fear of a monster or beast on the island which ends up leading to the bad decisions made by the children. The beginning of their stay on the island they were very civilized. Although, overtime the children would start to show less and less of a civilized society and an increase in savage characteristics. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows that when there is competition for power, people turn evil, and this leads to the …show more content…

When Jack and his followers are talking at their camp they decide to go and steal Piggy’s glasses. During this Maurice raised his and and Jack said “Maurice and Roger put up their hands. “Maurice” “Yes Chief?””(Golding 161). When Maurice says “yes Chief” it shows that Jack made the decision that he would be the leader of his group so that he has all the power on this side of the island. Jack having all the power in his group shows his desire to be a leader. After the boys decide they want to take Piggy’s glasses they are deciding on how to approach Ralph and his group and during this Jack proclaims “ We’ll keep along by the sands. Then if he comes we’ll do our, our dance again”(Golding 161). When Jack says that they will do their dance again it shows how they like to do this dance when they are about to kill something or someone. This was also present when they killed Simon in the forest after the evil and sadistic chants such as “Cut his throat!” and “Spill his blood!”. After Jack and his group beat up Ralph and his group they also took Piggy’s glasses and went back to their base. “He was chief now in truth; and he made stabbing motions with his spear” (Golding 168). When Jack walked away from Ralph and his camp he made stabbing motions which show that Jack is not afraid to …show more content…

After Jack stole Piggy’s glasses, Piggy wanted to get his glasses back so he went to confront Jack and his followers. ““Grab them!” No one moved, Jack shouted angrily. “I said ‘grab them!””(Golding 178). Jack’s desire to lead the boys makes him command them and when no one does what he says he shouts louder. This shows that Jack has power over the boys when h shouts at them to grab Piggy and Ralph. During their confrontation Piggy and Ralph were talking to Jack and Piggy started to hear something. “Someone was throwing stones: Roger was dropping them; his hand still on the lever” (Golding 180). When Roger starts to throw stones at Piggy it shows his intent to harm Piggy. Roger’s intent to harm another human shows that he has evil in him and he also does not care if he injures anyone else. While Roger is throwing stones and Piggy is still talking Jack, Roger pulled the lever down. “The struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (Golding 181). Roger’s decision to pull the lever and let down the huge rock that killed Piggy shows that they killed another human in cold blood. Also the rock destroyed the conch. The conch symbolizes civilization in the novel so destroying that resulted in the total destruction

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