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Fear of the Unknown Lord of the Flies Essay

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Fear of the Unknown
Lord of the Flies

By: Sam Baldwin
2012-05-22
Ms. Reis
ENG30S
Fear is one of the most powerful emotions that control the way any human being acts in certain circumstances. A distressing emotion aroused by impending evil and pain, whether the threat is real or imagined is described as fear. One of many prominent themes in William Golding 's novel, the Lord of the Flies, is Fear of the unknown. From the beginning of the novel, the boys fear what they cannot see, the parts of the island they haven’t explored, the mysterious beast, and of course, though they may not realize it at first, they fear the damage they may do to one another. All of these have some “unknown” element to them; they can’t see in the dark, they …show more content…

Through all the fear and savagery, one boy saw through it all, and began to speculate as to what the beast really was, this boy being Simon. As the idea of a beast arises, the tribe becomes chaotic. Simon however, a persona of neither savagery nor civilisation, questions the existence of a beast. “Maybe there is a beast...maybe it’s only us” as quoted by Simon, shows that he believes that there is a beast, but not the same beast everyone else has in mind. Instead, Simon, unaffected by the fear, believes that the beast is within each boy. Later on in the book, Simon’s speculations are proven true, as in a vision, he sees the Lord of the Flies who confirms that "You knew, didn 't you? I 'm part of you? Close, close, close! I 'm the reason why it 's no go? Why things are what they are?"(Page 143). Simon also discovers the supposed beast is just a human being. Certain of this, Simon runs towards the tribe in order to tell them the truth. Fearful however, the boys see him as the beast and kill him and their only way of destroying the beast. From this, it is evident that the boys could not destroy the “beast” as they had killed the only boy who knew the truth.
“Which is better- to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like ralph is? Which is better – to have rules and agree, or to

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