The Unknown

In Lord of the Flies, the theme of fear is quite prominent and present around the novel as it is a factor that led the boys down into savagery. This kind of fear that the boys experienced had been mainly fearing the unknown, which ties in well with the main idea of the novel that William Golding had wanted to convey, the fear of the unknown. The sort of unknown fear branches into different events in the novel, although a majority ties in within the middle of the novel where they were hesitant of the existence of a sort of beast.

The first sign of said beast had been one such large creature that was flying in the air, the beast had actually been a plane in the middle of a dogfight, but the boys had interpreted  such as a beast. None of the boys would believe such as it would be too foolish of a statement, yet there had still been an amount of fear due to the boys not knowing what had been above them. The eventual outcome of the dogfight had been another claim of a beast, a pilot's corpse hanging on a tree.

Eventually the boys were calmed because Jack had claimed he had trekked the entire island in search of the beast and ending with the notion that no such thing exists. All the boys had been calmed and relieved at first, until another claim of a beast came through, a small boy named Percival had claimed that the so called "beast" Jack had been trying to hunt emerges from the sea. This very claim had brought the boys into a state of heavy discomfort, confusion, and arguing saying that no such beast could come out or no such beast exists. Given how the boys aren't certain in what to believe, they go into a state of anxiety, fearing something they don't even know exist.

The boys had been in a state of confusion, not knowing what or who to believe and it had been like they were in a riot. Simon would step in claiming that there isn't actually a beast, the beast was really a figment of the boys' imagination and it was really the evil inside them that had caused them to be like this. None of the boys understood what Simon had meant and argued on what he could mean, saying there were ghosts or spirits inhibiting the island.

The boys had a great state of confusion in what to believe and what not to believe as they were in a state of anxiety. They had too many things to fear that they don't realize that the only thing to fear is themselves.

Picture Source

- “HOME.” I Love Real Estate, iloverealestate.tv/tbt-defusing-the-fear-of-the-unknown/.