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Fear In Lord Of The Flies Research Paper

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"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.
Ironically, the terror brought on by the mysteriousness of nightfall, along …show more content…

All of them continually rationalized that if there was a beast out there, they had to constantly focus on hunting and satiating it. At first, Jack claimed that "fear can't hurt you any more than a dream." He even aforementioned, "There aren’t any beasts to be afraid of on this island" (Golding 82-83). This affirmation momentarily soothed the children. Exploration for meat, in addition to maintaining a rescue fire, again became the focal point of their labors. All seemed well, but one morning, while keeping up the fire, Samneric saw the dead parachutist on the mountain. Despite having a two-against-one chance, they mistook it for their worst nightmare rather than inspecting the situation further. "The bright morning was full of threats and the circle began to change. It faced out, rather than in, and the spears of sharpened wood were like a fence” (Golding 137). This was a major turning point in the novel, because the smoke signal was no longer a priority, while the lads’ thoughts were consumed with fright by the beast and the lust for hunting. In a sacrificial effort to satisfy the monster, they also left the head of their killed pig as an offering (Golding 191). From then on, instead of focusing on being rescued, fright converted the boys' sticks to spears, in lieu of

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