Fear of the Unknown- Lord of the Flies

Fear of the Unknown- Lord of the Flies

The Fear of the Unknown An important theme in William Golding’s novel, ‘Lord of the Flies’ is that the fear, especially the fear of the unknown, is pervasive in mankind in such a way that even strong societies are too weak to protect their own people from the grasping power of it. In his novel, Golding illustrates this sense of fear that is found within every society and that can eventually lead to community or distress, disaster and human corruption. Let us first try and understand what is fear? Fear is a particular state of mind that can be originated either from a realistic circumstance or a sense of uncertainty. The fear of realistic origin could be resolved by removing root cause with time and effort. But the fear of uncertainty has the strong grasping power to which any human may succumb, however strong he is. It has a seating effect on our sub-conscious which is very difficult to get rid off. In this novel, this fear of uncertainty started off when a little one with a mulberry-coloured birthmark announced the existence of the beastie. “He says he saw the beastie, the snake-thing, and will it come back tonight?” “He says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung in the branches.” …read more.

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We can also see this kind of sacrifice made for an unknown superstitious power, in the novel. The Pig’s head was not only a sacrifice made in the novel, but, was also a kind of reassurance to the people. To repel this fear, people tend to do something vicious. This viciousness can also be a reason why people slowly turn to savagery. Therefore, cutting a pig’s head and putting it on a stick also showed that savagery was slowly taking over population. The chanting and the vicious murder of Simon also show that savagery has already taken over. Golding clearly shows us that fear can not only create a certain disruption in the society, it can also eventually lead to savagery. Fear can lead to insight or hysteria depending on what situation they are facing. When a person is constantly told about a certain beast, it eventually creates this seating effect in their minds and they start to picture it or have an insight of it. This insight can be resulted in bad nightmares, especially for the little ones because they are always the first ones to get scared. We see this when Jack points out to the little ones, “Only Ralph says you scream at night. What does that mean but nightmares?” But, this bad insight starts to eventually devour the big ones as well. …read more.