Fear In Lord Of The Flies

In 1971, a psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment to see the impact of fear. What did fear do to man? He was able to simulate an experiment with prisoners and guards and found out at the end of his experiment that the prisoner had severe stress and anxiety. The experiment demonstrated “the powerful role that the situation can play in human behavior”. This experiment showed what a particular situation can influence human behavior. In the book, The Lord of the Flies, the characters are on a stranded island where the environment is governing their human behavior and how they react to one another. The character are influenced by fear and behave in ways that they normally would not act in their everyday lives. Man is controlled by fear and it can cause him to do things that he would never imagine doing. Fear results in letting go of your natural instincts and goes to your survival instincts, and makes you become an animal.

When Ralph was not completely sane anymore and their hope was getting thinner and thinner, the boys looked to their only other option for leader: the stubborn, commanding Jack Merridew. Jack was not a good leader, even though he did get them meat, he was blood-thirsty and hurt boys left and right, making the other boys even more scared of him. The boys saw Jack as someone they had to obey, or be killed. But, when Ralph was a leader, the boys saw him as someone who would listen to them and give them a say in things. An example of this kind of leadership is when they are about to go hunt the beast. “Behind Ralph the tall grass had filled with silent hunters. Ralph looked at Jack. “You're a hunter.” Jack went red. “I know. All right.” Something deep in Ralph spoke for him. “I'm chief. I'll go. Don't argue.” He turned to the others. “You. Hide here. Wait for me’” (Golding 105). Ralph thinks of hunting the beast as his duty as chief and the other boys seem to admire that. If Jack had been the leader at this time he probably would have had all the boys run around with spears trying to find the beast, but Ralph instead decides that since the boys think there is a beast, he will go and kill it for their sake. The difference between Jack and Ralph is that Jack would rather kill the beast just for the sake of killing, while Ralph, would do it for the good of the other boys. Ralph does what the majority of the boys think is correct while Jack would do what he thinks is correct, not voicing the others at all. When the boys are first voting for leader is when we first see the juxtaposition of the two boys and their personalities. “Shut up,” said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. “Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things.” “A chief! A chief!” “I ought to be chief,” said Jack with simple arrogance, “because I'm chapter chorister and head

In 1950, the British mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell once stated, “To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”. During the same time, the world was gripped by the fear of communism and the possibility of nuclear attacks during the Cold War. Published in 1954, the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, expresses the ramifications of fear in a group of young English boys that have been stranded on an island. Golding explores both the physical and chemical reactions of fear, as well as the connection to communism and how it relates to the dynamic on the island.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Franklin D. Roosevelt conveyed human nature in these words, which painted the picture of fear’s grip on our thoughts and actions. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a stranded group of boys transformed to savages as they attempted to extinguish the source of their uneasiness, only they were too late to learn that fright was not something driven away by “a stick sharpened at both ends” (Golding 267). Trepidation was proven to be all controlling throughout Golding's writing as it prompted the juveniles to kill under night’s shadows while pressuring them to act rashly to keep from being hunted by an imaginary monster.

the novel the Lord of the Flies, fear is the root of the trouble that

There are many emotions that do many different things but one of the most destructive of them all is fear. fear is everywhere is the world around us it is a part of everyday lives and it is around every corner waiting. There's only one thing worse than fear itself and that's fear of the unknown. In the novel The Lord Of The Flies fear is brought to a new level of destructiveness when it comes to people's emotions. In the novel fear is a destructive emotion is many ways.

In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the boys are scared of the beast. One character in particular, Ralph, who is not afraid of the beast, explains to the boys that “fear can’t hurt you any more than a dream” (82). This quote foreshadows Ralph’s personality because his true identity is a scared little boy who does not know what he is doing. If Ralph shows fear, then his group will know that he is not as fearless as he seems to be. Ralph’s weakness is losing because he compared fear to a dream which tells the reader that he wants to convince his group that he is the best person they have right now. His weakness is always jeopardizing him of his dominance and power over the group. For example, when Jack tells the group lies about Ralph,

Fear impacts everyone. For some individuals, fear comes in a good form; it pushes one to achieve success. But for others, it can be dangerous and a continuous burden. In William Golding’s novel, “Lord of the Flies”, the boys’ suspicion of the island and those that roam it, is the downfall in to savagery. The boys first decide to paint their faces, followed by trying to show their aggression to the beast, breaking rules, openly admitting to carelessness, metaphorically raping a mother pig, and remaining naked although they had clothes. Over the course of a few weeks, the boys slowly demonstrated fear and evolved in to uncultured beasts.

In the Novel lord of the flies, it is evident that the stranded school boys attempt to build a civilization. Throughout the building of this new civilization the most challenging factor is leading the school boys and keeping the young boys on track, which is hard enough let alone being on an island with no adults. This making their civilization fragile. A constant fear is looming around the boys, which in the end is what breaks this fragile society. A fear of many factors including; Being stranded forever possibly, A beast and starvation. These fears divide the group of school boys and blinds the boys from the most important goal, surviving till their rescue.

Fear is a necessity to become better in a lot of aspects; in this book’s case, Lord of the Flies, fear is very beneficial, but also it is detrimental. In the book, Piggy and Ralph found out that a snake-like animal they call the beast, could more than likely become a major threat to everyone that has been stranded on the secluded island. Since the majority of the group is scared of being eaten by the snake, Ralph, as the excellent leader that he is, manipulates this fear to his advantages; therefore, fearing the unknown is necessary. Without fear, the group could not have further advanced its resources and knowledge, could not have worked together as well as they had, and could not continued to be sane.

In Lord of the Flies by Golding, fear is a prevalent theme that recurs a number of times. Fear is most recurring with the character Jack and the way he uses fear to manipulate the group into staying together and doing things they wouldn't normally do.

Fear is unique, and can manifest itself in many different ways, like nightmares, or uncertainty before doing an activity that is risky. For many, when the word “fear” is said to them, they think of their worst fears, such as clowns, ghosts, heights, and what not. Yet, on an island on which a plane full of boys crash lands, some uncommon fears lead to total destruction of civilization. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, it it evident that fear can and will eventually tear down the walls of civilization. It all starts when a plane crash lands into the trees of a lost island. The survivors soon meet up one by one along the shore of the island, and it is noteworthy that they are all boys, from the age range of six to twelve years. At once each boy develops their own characteristics with Ralph as their leader, Piggy being the brainiac, Jack the hunter, and many other “littluns” and “bigguns”. However, all is not well for too long, as their stay on the island continues, the boys become more savage-like, due to their fears. The different terrors these boys encounter lead to despicable actions, including two brutal murders. William Golding shows that fear, of all kinds, can lead to the destruction of civilization.

Each of the children in “Lord of the Flies” had a dominant trait that could be easily identified. For example: the lil uns were fearful and immature, Piggy was passive and vulnerable, Ralph was conscientious and mindful of the future, and Jack was violent and controlling. When the children joined forces, they created a complex society that could be compared to a human’s state of mind. I myself, could relate to many of the children’s feelings and reactions.

When introduced to an unfamiliar situation fear can consume people and make one do things they normally would not when incivility. In the book lord of the flies, the little kids on the island after the civilization starts to deteriorate star to become more and more scared of the beasts on the island and the older kids or the biguns do to later in the chapter. Once Percival who is a littlun says “...the beast comes out of the sea”(Golding 88). After Percival makes this accusation he kind of puts the whole island into a panic mode, showing that now they do not feel civilized that they are easily frightened by the littlest things even if they are not true. Later on, in the text fear is expressed in an alternative way when during chapter eight while Simon was

      The boys in the book, The Lord of the Flies, are controlled by their fear of the beast.  This fear is not of the beast itself, but of the unknown. It comes from not knowing whether or not a beast exists.