According to Franklin D. Roosevelt, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” (qtd. from www.thinkexist.com). He is saying that the fear we create ourselves is what creates the fear other people are afraid of. During World War Two, fear is all around the soldiers, and they scare the enemies. However, they are also frightening themselves, as a result of the fear they initially create. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he extends this idea of fear. In the novel, a group of well-behaved, prepubescent, British schoolboys become stuck on an island. Their childhood innocence gets to the best of them when they begin to fear a beast, representing their transition from their world to the real world. The beast scares them, showing them that …show more content…
While Ralph and the others laugh and say that there is no such thing, Jack says, “There isn’t a snake-thing. But if there was a snake we’d hunt it and kill it” (36). This is foreshadowing the beast’s intentions. The little boy has only been in the island for an hour or two, but he already sees “the beast”, when in fact the beast chooses him first. He chooses the vulnerable, helpless, young boy instead of the more mature, older boys because it needs something to use to bring fear into the boys. He is successful, as shown when the boy with the birthmark mysteriously disappears. The reader assumes that he perishes in the fire. However, he would not be just running around, unless the beast persuades him to go toward the fire. He wants the littlun to go into the fire because it would start bringing out the mayhem the boys will experience later in the novel. This is successful, as shown when the book says, “The boys looked at each other fearfully, unbelieving” (47). This just extends more into the fear that the boys build up, and they begin to question the presence of a beast within them at the end of that chapter. They question this idea later when several people think of ideas of where the beast may be hiding. One place is from the sea, when Maurice says, “My daddy says there’s things . . . As Piggy says, life’s scientific, but we don’t know do we?” (88). Another possible explanation is of the …show more content…
They do not want the beast to kill them, so in order for them to not be the kill, they bring out sacrifices to the beast, as a way of happiness and peace toward the two. The main offerings they use are the pigs that live all over the island. Pigs represent the barbaric behaviour that the boys become. The inner beast inside them begins to kill those pigs. However, the pigs are a part of the beast’s plan, as the amount of blood inside the pig, and the meaty, smoky, fatty aroma of the beast makes the boys dependent on the pig, and they become bloodthirsty for them. One person shown to change by the effects of pigs is Jack. The beast manages to turn an arrogant, proper, mature person like Jack into a savage, barbaric, primitive being, with only one thing on his mind: pig. However, Jack is still shown to be somewhat afraid of the beast, and wants to bring an offering to the beast. He and his hunters plan to kill the beast. “When we kill we’ll leave some of the kill for it. Then it won’t bother us, maybe” (133). The fact that he says “maybe” suggests that the beast will never stop bothering them, after seeing what the beast is doing to these poor boys. Nevertheless, the beast does not care. It’s like a jack-in-the-box; you do not know when it is going to pop up, but when it does, it scares the living heck out of you. Speaking of the offering that Jack and his hunters plan to leave
Throughout the whole novel, the beast progressively grew, later symbolizing the inner savagery of humans without discipline. In the infancy of the novel, the boys started to recognize a strange beast like creature that had shaken and alarmed them. One of the boys declared to the others- “But if there was a snake we’d hunt it and kill it. We’re going to hunt pigs to get meat for everybody, and
Fear controls the boys. At night, the littluns wake up screaming from night terrors. The older boys become more and more skittish during the day. Gradually, their fear consumes them. This general fear is universally personified as a beast (document A). The boy with the birthmark brought up the idea of a beast that was “ever so big” and “turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung in the branches” during the day (document B). Their fears are not helped by Jack, who tries to reassure them that if there was a beast, they would hunt and kill it. Although what Jack is saying
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was right in saying that the “only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. Jack Merridew’s evil ways are evident as he uses fear to control the boys on the island. In the beginning of the book, his presence itself at the election of chief instills the first of the fears within each of the boys. Jack uses his personality as a menace to the boys on the island. Although Jack garners support from the majority of the group, they assist him only through fear of what he is capable of doing to them if they do not do as he commands. As one can see multiple times throughout the book, Jack deems it necessary to hunt down pigs on the island, but why? Jack carries a demon inside of him that allows him to do such acts. If things are not done as he wishes, his fury is unleashed on everyone around him. While the others find hunting as a chance for adventure, Jack practices it as if it were a ritual. This ritual extends beyond the pig caught between the “creepers”; pigs are eventually replaced with human flesh. The boys’ fear keep them in the circle of dancing for they are afraid that one of them will be the next in the center of the dance. This outlook on violence is what drives the fear inside them. Later on, Jack uses the belief of the beast to further enlarge the terror of the schoolboys. The idea of the beast was originally brought up by a “littlun” but Jack uses the little boy’s fear to his advantage. The sacrifices made, the spears, and the face
Jack had tried to lead the inhabitants of the island by terror and savagery instead of by order and civilization when he had declared himself chief of his hunter-driven tribe. Both his lust for blood and lust for power had aided him in becoming the savage tyrant and an antagonist of the book. Jack’s widespread fear would not have been substantial enough to build his stature in the hierarchy if the “beast” was not included in the story. The beast has been portrayed to the readers as a dead parachuter from the world war happening beside them. The characters, however, had no clue about the outside world or the parachuter who fell on the island. Therefore, the beast became a part of their fear on the island. The beast was the main antagonist in the middle of the story. It caused the most discord in the already terror-ridden state of the boys. The internal fears of the characters, the feeling of terror towards the other characters, and the nightmarish imagination of the youth, had all shown the dominating abilities of fear taking over the vulnerable sense of
The relationship between the beast and the school boys is played out through the conversation between Simon and the Lord of the Flies. The Lord of the Flies or pig head tries to intimidate and forewarn Simon calling him,”just an ignorant, silly little boy”(184) and scoffs at Simon for thinking the beast is “something you could hunt or kill!” (184) Golding uses this symbolic beast, the Lord of the Flies, to reveal the truth to Simon which is that “they”(184) the boys on the island are the real beast. Before Simon faints the Lord of the Flies warms Simon that
Ralph, the leader of the boys on the island, has a natural fear. He doesn’t fear the beast as much as his fear of not being rescued and being isolated on the island for the rest of his life. When the boys first arrived on the island Ralph immediately stepped up as leader and set up a few things they had to do. "There’s another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire."(P. ) This quote shows that Ralph’s instinct is to become civilized not act like an animal or hunt. Ralph and his ‘lieutenant’ Piggy are like partners, they make some decisions together and stick up for each other. Piggy is very intelligent and he states that “Life ... is scientific.... I know there isn't no beast ... but I know there isn't no fear, either.... Unless we get frightened of people.”(p. ) Ralph and Piggy do not believe in the beast so much, because they are both focused on other more important things. What they both do fear is losing memory of what their objective is: to be rescued. The fear as each perceived it over came each boy one by one. In some circumstances even Ralph becomes deranged by his inner evil from the beast. "Ralph...was fighting to get near....The desire to squeeze and hurt was
The first fear to arise in Lord of the Flies is a fear of abandonment, for a group of young English school boys that were in a plane crash while in the process of fleeing the war. The boys may feel like the have no home or place they belong. When they are on an uninhabited island and stuck with no one older then thirteen to lead them. When Piggy and Ralph meet, Piggy shows his sense of abandonment when he says “They’re all dead,’ said piggy an this is an island. Nobody don’t know we’re here.” (Goulding 9) This feeling of being abandoned ignites the fear in the young boys, and paves the path for the fear grow like fire. As if abandonment is not enough piggy shortly after brings up an even scarier topic, “We may stay here till we die.” (10). Being abandoned is a harsh feeling, but an even scarier feeling is dying, dying
If you had been alone in the jungle, with the thought that something might be out there to get you, the sound of shelter, protection and food sounds very appealing. Which is a strategy jack uses in order to gain more followers in his group. These are adult promises which appeal to the children. They are afraid that if they do not join his group, they will suffer. But before he gets to making his own group, he weakens Ralph’s ability to create a sense a security by saying,”’He’s not a hunter. He’d never have got us meat. He isn’t perfect, and we don’t know anything about him’” (83) Jack says this to make a point that Ralph isn’t fit to lead the group, he is creating fear in the children's minds that they won't be safe under Ralph’s watch. Once Jack has the attention of some of the children and gained their loyalty he sets rules in place. “‘We’ll hunt. I’m going to be chief. [...] And about the beast. [...] Forget the beast. And another thing. We shan't dream so much down here.’” (133) At that point it seems as if jack is trying to eliminate some of that fear from the kids to build strong hunters on his side. The children are afraid. Once jack degrades Ralph in front of them, they are afraid of inadequate safety, which they now feel that jack can provide. Fear is evident in the children at this point in the
The beast is important, because it is a universal personification of the fear that ensnares most of the boys on the island. The strong belief in the beast allows Jack to take control. Furthermore, the fear of the beast scares Ralph to such a degree that he calls a meeting to vote on whether the beast is real or not. The book points to clear evidence of this: “Maybe, ...there is a beast, I don’t know, what I mean, maybe it's only us,” (Golding 84). This quote shows that Simon wasn’t terrified of the beast like the others as a living, breathing monster. Simon fears that the boys are becoming the beast by their actions on the
Fear is a driving force in The Lord of the Flies. How does fear in all of its forms influence the boy's attitudes and behaviours?
One of the main problems that the boys had on the island was the beast. In their minds the beast was a terrible creature that was out to kill them. Their fear of the beast ruined
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.
It can be interpreted as the viciousness and inhumanity saved inside the heart of every boy in the island or the external savagery and ferocity that can be developed due to a lack of civilization. At first, Ralph and Piggy assured the littluns that the beast was fear of the unknown, a creation of their minds that caused them to be blindly scared. On the other hand, Simon believes that the beast is only themselves; the heartless side of each and every boy that is engendered by the instinct of survival that consequently evokes
At first, there a boy with mulberry birthmark bring up the idea of the beastie. He said it is a snake-like creature that live in the wood, wanted to eat him during night. Percival said the beast doesn’t live on the island, it live in the sea “Jack listen to Percival’s answer and then let go of him … Jack cleared his throat, then reported casually. “ He says the beast comes out of the sea. ””
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.