Fear And Terror In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

Similar to most literary classics, William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies contains allusions to the Christian Bible and character archetypes that convey universal ideas. Golding’s story focuses on a group of British schoolboys who are stranded on an island and ultimately succumb to their innate savage tendencies. Literary analysts often compare components of Lord of the Flies to various aspects in the Christian Bible. For instance, the setting in Lord of the Flies is often linked to the Garden of Eden, and some characters are thought to have religious-inspired names. Critics believe Simon’s name originates from Jesus Christ’s disciple, Peter, whose name was originally Simon. Biblical allusions exist throughout the novel associated with

In the Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, fear is one of the thematic topics. The beast, each other, and savagery are three main sections of fear used in the story.

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

      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.

“The thing is – fear can’t hurt you any more than a dream” (“William Golding quotes.”). Fear lives to haunt and torment the person to a point of destruction and can be within everyone. Although a person is able to overcome fear, it is still very dangerous because it affects the person as well as everyone and everything around. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the boys are all so overwhelmed by fear that the island starts to recede into a state damaged beyond repair. In this case, Jack’s fear of not being leader originally starts to affect him, but it gradually starts to affect Ralph, and the rest of the boys. Ralph’s fear of survival brings out his inner savageness and an innocent life is taken away. Lastly, the boys’ fear

“Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide,” said John Adams, the first Vice President and second President of the United States of America, at the beginning of the modern world’s greatest democratic nation. According to Adams, democracy never possessed a long term future, and the boys on a tropical island in William Golding’s classic novel, Lord of the Flies, make a great example of a crumbling democracy. A democratic government works with the people to serve their best interests and requires participation from it members to function properly. Meanwhile, totalitarian

Literary devices are techniques often used by authors to portray in-depth analyses of major characters, storylines, and central themes, which take place in a story. These analyses help readers understand a message the author is trying to convey. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses different literary devices in order to demonstrate the boys’ struggle against the lack of society and law on the island, as well as the consequences that have transpired due to this loss. This conflict is evident through the different instances of irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism that occurs throughout the novel.

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.

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.

In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, a few dozen boys are stranded on an island after a plane crash. The six to twelve year old kids turn to savages under the lead of the older males, and ultimately cause their own deaths. However, the smaller boys, such as Piggy and Sam and Eric, are the hope and reason of the group. Golding’s purpose of writing the book was to show that the defects in society originate at the defects in human nature. Golding allows the little ones to have no identities or personalities. This is symbolically showing that in society, the ignorant and innocent children are the only hope to a humane society. Innocence is purity, and the innocent children, in which are not corrupted by the bad people and things in the

"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.

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.

What affects can the damaging potencies of fear have on the instability of civilization? Conceivably it can weaken and potentially break down civilization. Anxious of their own security, people may be affected by fear so harshly that civilization to them would be as if it never existed. It may lead to them making irrational decisions that can affect their lives greatly. When fear is present, human instinct would be to certify safety for the thing feared, but in the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, where fear is a protruding theme, it is clearly evident that this is not the case. Instead, fear was used against civilization, causing disorder, destruction, as well as vulgar and savage acts. Fear is commonly viewed as a limitation of

To be an effective society, itś important to have a few key qualities such as teamwork or cooperation and order. These make achieving goals much easier, and in the end, it leads to success by completing the tasks needed to get towards the goal, whether that be obtaining food or conquering an entire continent. In Golding 's Lord of the Flies, a lack of mutual respect between the leaders and followers as well as the failure to unite themselves to work together for the same goals, resulted in chaos, and ultimately, the division and failure of their society on the island.

One of the most crucial components of a storyline is the theme. It is the central message of the story. In the novel Lord of The Flies by William Golding, the message is that even the purest of hearts contain an innate animalistic behaviour. As suggested in the story, savagery is inherent in all beings because true evil lies within one’s genetics, personality, and their surroundings.