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Essay On Power Of Fear In Lord Of The Flies

Decent Essays

Nick Hose
Ms. Tantlinger
Honors English 10
2 January 2018
The Power of Society over the Fear and Control of its People
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a fictional work about the struggle of good and evil in man. It uses a group of British boys to show the deterioration of one’s innocence through savagery and slaughter.The boys are forced to maintain order on a deserted island where adults do not exist to maintain it. As the protagonist, Ralph, tries to keep the order and be rescued, the antagonist, Jack, wants to only have fun and hunt for meat. Ralph and Jack fight for the control of the boys, which leads to the rise of darkness and the death of a few boys. Golding shows that through the deaths of Simon and Piggy, social …show more content…

Without Simon, Ralph is terrified of a beast and is helpless to the power of darkness. The shift into a darker fear leaves the boys vulnerable to the evils of the island. Ralph’s courage breaks down when the fears of death begin to overwhelm his mind. Ralph and Piggy begin to detach themselves from civilization when they decide to keep relations with the savages. Piggy and Ralph are “eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society”(Golding 152) until the savages begin to act like animals. The savages “screamed, struck, bit, tore”(Golding 153) like a predator on weak, bloodied Simon until he died. The savages commit this crime because they are afraid of the unknown and believe death is the remedy to this fear. With the emotions of death swirling around in Ralph’s head, his mind comes back to civilization to exclaim, “that was murder”(Golding 156). Ralph becomes the only biggun capable of understanding that darkness has plagued the boys, and the fear it brings with it, making the boys more and more detached from society. Even Piggy justifies the murder of Simon, showing he too has become corrupted. The fear of being a murderer finally surfaces in Ralph’s mind and he cries, “I’m frightened. Of us. I want to go home. Oh God, I want to go home”(Golding 157). Ralph has began to lose courage and this is the first time Ralph is shown to be terrified by the fear of what the boys have become. Golding adds this to show

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