The theme Fear in “Lord of the Flies” Zak Dunn 2a

The Beginning In the beginning of the novel, there are many early signs of fear. Piggy mentions there is a war going on. The boys are unknowingly struggling to find a sense of security and safety. They have to mend for themselves to survive for the first time in their lives.

Simon Throughout the novel, the “shady” or “unspoken outcast” character is a young boy with epilepsy, Simon. Simon has a knack of randomly leaving the group without telling anyone. The reason behind this is he is isolating himself during his seizures, in fear that the other boys may make fun of him. He is constantly afraid of Jack, yet he still helps Ralph instead of hunting with Jack. He is one of the only boys who stays loyal to Ralph. Despite his loyalty, his life ends tragically at the hands of the boys, including Ralph.

Ralph Out of all the characters in the novel, Ralph seems to be the most mentally stable, and most mature (besides Piggy, whom the children do not listen to). Although not known by any of the kids (including Ralph himself), Ralph also has his fair share of fears. The biggest flaw that Ralph has is the constant believing that his Father will rescue him. This shows his immaturity and ignorance, and that he will never believe that the odds of his Father finding him are slim to none. Ralph is just as afraid as all the other boys, the only difference is he seems to be the least afraid of Jack.

Jack, Adolf Hitler, Nazism In the novel, Jack is the main source of fear. He uses the boys’ fear to take control of them. Jack is parallel to Adolf Hitler, because he used fear to gain power over all the children, much like Hitler used the German’s fears to become a dictator. Another parallel is the manner in which Jack and his hunters would kill. In the scene where they kill the mother pig, it is gruesome and horribly immoral, just as the Nazis would murder the Jews in the holocaust. Jack even gets to Ralph at one point in the book. During the scene where Jack and his hunters are murdering Simon, Ralph joins in, despite the fact that Simon was always loyal to him. Jack’s abuse of power manipulated Ralph, much like it had manipulated the others.

The Hunters In the beginning of the novel, all the children are scared, but they are still sane. As the book progresses, they slowly begin to lose their civility. They begin talking less intelligently, and they begin to slowly realize that they may die and never be rescued. Eventually, Jack and fear lead them to insanity, and they become bloodthirsty savages. Soon after, they murder Simon and later try to murder Ralph. Somebody who has never read this book may not even notice this drastic change in their behavior until chapter 8, where it becomes obvious.

“The Beast” Throughout the novel, in order to brainwash the children, Jack invents something he calls “The Beast” The children believe that “the beast” has been seen by Jack, and that it can be anywhere at any given time to kill them. Simon finds out what the beast is by an apparition-type hallucination, he figures out that there is no physical “Beast”, but the beast is really the potential evil found in everyone.

Conclusion The theme of Fear is in my opinion, the most important theme in the entire novel. Jack uses it to brainwash and gain power over the children. Eventually fear leads them to savagery and murder. Piggy and Simon are both murdered. The kids also try to kill Ralph, but are unsuccessful.