Lord Of The Flies Fear

Words: 1768
Pages: 8

The most powerful emotion in the human psyche, fear can drive humans to do anything and overpower the most logical of minds. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Golding shows that the only true power is fear. This is shown through Ralph’s decisions being totally influenced by fear. Furthermore, Jack is solely motivated by fear. Finally, fear causes the boys of the island to become enslaved to their fears. These all exemplify that the only thing that can motivate and empower people is fear.
To begin, the boys of the island are overwhelmed by their fears. For instance, as soon as they reach the island, the boys are afraid of not being rescued. After Ralph presents the idea of building a fire for smoke so they can alert potential rescuers, The narrator says:
At once half the boys
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In The Lord of the Flies, Golding exemplifies this ideology by the way of the boys becoming enslaved to their fears. Supportingly, The actions of Ralph are determined by his deep inner fears. Chiefly, Jack’s power and influence is solely derived from his use of fear in the other boys and himself. Given these points, it is easy to see the power of fear. In our world, and throughout history, fear has been used by rulers and elites to control populaces. This ‘culture of fear’ has been used by many political groups today, such as many european right wing groups, who use the threat of terrorism to excuse denying sanctuary to thousands of fleeing Syrian refugees . It is important to understand how potent fear is so we can learn how to overcome and eventually defeat the fears lurking inside us and make the wisest decisions. Nelson Mandela said it the best, “ I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that