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Fear In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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Fear In Lord Of The Flies Essay
He who fears something, gives it power over him. When fear grows and begins to control all your thoughts and feelings, it can cause physical and emotional changes in a person. This could alter the kindest people, which can result in horrible situations to occur. Forced to rely on each other, fear alters the boys in Lord of the Flies normal attitude of civilization. Savagery caused by loss of civilization, and false maturity amongst the boys, is blamed by their fears of the unknown.

Fear is an extremely active emotion throughout the entire novel. It affects the boys greatly forcing them to revert back to their ancestral, animalistic ways. Jack, the most savage of them all is consumed by his fears. His savage personality is ignited by the terror of a “beast”lurking around the island. They viciously dismembered the pig they caught and placed it’s head on a stick as an offering. “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in” (Golding 168.) This displays savagery because they believed the sacrificial offering would protect them from the “beast.” However there is no beast, it’s something concrete to distract them from their real problems. This beast they created is what the boys use to justify their …show more content…
Positively, for a brief period of time fear brought the boys together. Initially they worked as a team to provide what they needed to survive. As their time on the island increased so did the negative impacts of fear. Negatively, fear causes you to act in ways that are opposite of societies expectations. Normally young boys would never resort to acts of violence such as sacrificing the pig, to create a feeling of security. The longer the boys were exposed to the influence of fear the more positive aspect of fear faded to the negative. So in conclusion fear can have an impact on our actions, and reactions. Whether it be positive or negative, good or
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