The Grim Disease…Fear
Fear is a disgusting emotion, which causes humans to do the unthinkable. Why do humans have fear? Why do we need an emotion that causes nothing but chaos and negativity? Do we need fear to stop us from being reckless, but doesn’t that just hold us back from doing what we truly want to do? In “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, the concept of fear is clearly demonstrated in the novel in a fascinating way. The three scenarios fear is used within the novel are: is when the author introduces the “beastie”, when Simon encounters the Lord of the Flies, and when Piggy states how we as humans can become afraid of people.
In this novel, William Golding takes the idea of fear and uses it in “Lord of the Flies”. This time he uses fear as the “beastie” and the characters all do multiple
…show more content…
For example when Ralph calls for an assembly to talk about the problem of the “beastie” it escalates to when the boys talk about the fear plaguing the tribe. This is the minute Piggy says “Unless-…unless what? ...unless we get frightened of people” (90). This validates that humans can be fearful of one another. This is proven when Piggy and Jack first meet, Jack has harassed Piggy day and night to terrify the rest of the boys into following him, this fear is also used when the deranged Roger demonstrates how on the island he can get away with anything no matter how gruesome or how violent he gets, he does this by torturing Samneric and brutally murdering Piggy in cold blood. Now that the blood thirsty Roger follows Jack no one other than Ralph opposes Jack due to the fear of being eradicated. Overall the writer uses the fear of other people skillfully, and takes his own personal experience from war and descriptively engrains that experience within his writing which causes a rush of a certain thrill. Which again could be due to our interior savage
In the Lord of the Flies fear takes over the boys and cause things to go downfall. The boys in Lord of the Flies might be afraid of the beast, but that fear turns out to be more dangerous than any beast could possibly be. The Lord of the Flies even says to Simon that “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?
In the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the author, by way of vivid imagery and a tense mood, places the timing of the death of one significant character, Simon, at a pivotal point in the novel in order to display his opinion on the natural state of man. Closer to the end of the novel, Golding creates a dramatic atmosphere through the use of weather, just before Simon passes. Using vivid imagery, the sky is described as having “great bulging towers [of clouds] that sprouted away over the island . . . The clouds were sitting on the land; they squeezed [out] tormenting heat” (151). At this point,
Fear is a present topic in Lord of the Flies and the acrostic, False-Evidence-Appearing-Real, directly relates to chapter 9. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of young boys were stranded on an island. At first they incorporated the civilization that they grew up with into their lives, but as time progressed they began to accept a savage lifestyle that came with consequences. In chapter 9, while the biguns and littluns gathered in a group, chanting and dancing, Simon came down the mountain after finding out the beast was actually a dead man in a parachute. Because it was dark and Simon was unrecognizable, the boys feared him to be the beast and killed him. If the boys had not been so afraid of the beast then they would not have been prompted to kill Simon. In chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs diction, repetition, and animal imagery to convey the theme that fear can cause savagery to develop in anyone.
... and the fight on the island. Not only is fear damaging in Lord of the Flies and A Separate Peace , but it also affects our society today in many ways. For example, the war on terror/terrorism is an example of both an external conflict and the savage nature of man. It has caused so many catastrophic and fatal events in our history, like the 9/11 attack and any war that followed it. The attack on the twin towers shows just how inhumane humans can be and starts a world-wide conflict. Our “follow-up” attack was done out of fear and equally as savage as theirs and shows what we will do just to protect our country. Again this goes back to the concept of survival of the fittest but in an international scale. Fear is an everyday emotion that the human race must face, and it can bring out the best and worst of us, but its how we choose to deal with it that truly defines us.
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the beast gives the children a sense of fear throughout the story. It also shows that it is one of the children's top priorities, as they hunt for it and try to protect themselves from it. The children use the beast to work together, but as the novel progresses the group goes through a separation. The beast is an important role in the novel, having many forms of concepts about it. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the concept of the beast as a whole is used as fear, reality, and evil.
When we hear the word “beast,” most of us will immediately think of some enormous hairy creature with razor sharp fangs and massive claws coming to kill and eat us. Although these types of beasts do exist, the boys in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, show that a different, much more sinister beast is present in all of our everyday lives, and, like the boys in the book, most of us don’t even know about it. Throughout the book, the existence and meaning of the beast go through significant changes. In the beginning, the boys believe the beast to be a substantive being. At first no one believes it, but later they begin to believe its existence. Later though, the beast reveals itself as an internal flaw within everyone on the island, and slowly begins to take over the children’s free will. As the belief in the beast goes up, its manifestation as the “typical beast” that we all think of goes down, which is ironic because they are creating the beast in their minds, while also living it out in their actions.
In Lord of the Flies, Golding proves that fear draws out man’s inner evil and barbarism. Within the novel, Golding uses characterization of the boys and symbolism of the beast to show the gradual change from their initial civility to savagery and inhumanity. Learned civility, order and humanity become ultimately futile in the face of fear. The author teaches that without logic, fear consumes endlessly. He shows that fear clouds the mind, thus making it absolutely imperative to maintain reason and logic throughout life. Fear will always end in a fate worse than death for those who survive it.
Fear in Lord of the Flies In the novel The Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, fear. is the cause of all of the problems that take place on the island. At First, the island is thought to be splendid and a paradise, but as the boys' stay on the island increases, so, too, do their fears. The boys soon become afraid of each other and soon after that the boys break up.
To conclude I agree that Lord of the flies is a terrifying novel and Golding does this be creating a chilling message, characters such as Roger and the Beast who cause terror in both the story and in their hiding meanings, in the bullying and eventual demise of two boys who wanted nothing but to help them survive summing up to a book which directly is very terrifying but when looked at deeper is full of implications and hidden meaning which should terrify the reader.
One of many prominent themes in William Golding's novel, the Lord of the Flies, is Fear. From the very first chapter, until the last, fear plays an important role in this text. It is the only thing, which stops the boys from acting rationally at times, from questioning curious circumstances and it physically hindered so many of the boys, so many times. The active role of fear in Lord of the Flies, was intentionally used by Golding, because he knew what images it would create. Fear is described by Mirriam- Webster's English dictionary, as To be uneasy or apprehensive'. This feeling is mutually experienced by all of the boys on the island in many different ways. Initially the boys have an obvious fear of being alone, which then brings upon the fear of what we know as the beast, or as the littluns refer to is, as the beastie'. While this fear continues for the whole of the novel, we are also exposed to three other incidents of fear. The first of these is the civilised fear of consequences, displayed only when the children are seen as young civilised boys, in the earliest chapters. The final two are of a different nature, with those fears being the loss of power, the fear of rejection and the fear of being in the minority. All of these different fears, then relate back to the character, and as was expertly planned out by William Golding, influences the characters attitudes and behaviours.
Golding has a rather pessimistic view of humanity having selfishness, impulsiveness and violence within, shown in his dark yet allegorical novel Lord of the Flies. Throughout the novel, the boys show great self-concern, act rashly, and pummel beasts, boys and bacon. The delicate facade of society is easily toppled by man's true beastly nature.
Human's fears should not be taken lightly. Fear could do anything to one's minds, though without fear, man can be as savage as animals. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding presented fear of the unknown to be a powerful force in a man's mind. Fear of the unknown is a powerful force, which can turn to either insight or hysteria. The kids feared of not being rescued off of the island, so they made signal fires on top of the mountain. Then, there and gone, Roger's fear of the old rules he abided to. Also, there were the fears of the beast which confused and isolated the kids from the top of the mountain.
“There is nothing to fear but fear itself” (Roosevelt). “Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-or-flight response” (Layton). Fear affects the brain and can help people or make them in a worse situation than they were in the first place. Fear most motivates/influences people during times of crisis by clouding judgement and becoming a weapon of power.
A distressing emotion aroused by impending evil and pain, whether the threat is real or imagined is described as fear. Fear is what William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies encompasses. By taking three major examples from the novel, fear will be considered on different levels: Simon’s having no instance of fear, Ralph’s fear of isolation on the island, and Jack’s fear of being powerless. Fear can make people behave in ways that are foreign to them, whether their fear is real or imagined. In response to fear, people may act defensively by attacking, fear can either stop one from doing something, or it can make one behave in an irrational erratic manner.
This leads to the fact that a beast really does exist within all human beings, but is only expressed when human instinct for survival becomes the main objective. At first the boys aren?t able to kill, but as survival instinct starts taking over, the reader?s are able to se the true character?s play out, and lives are compromised. ?You feel as if you?re not hunting, but- being hunted, as if something?s behind you all the time in the jungle,? (pg.53) proves that it?s every man for himself and people will do anything to survive. An example of this in the novel was when Robert became the ?pig,? and was wounded even though it wasn?t intentional, but the situation became worse when Piggy?s death happened as a result of all civilization lost and evil taken over.