After the plane crash, everyone became frightened of being on the island without adults but they did not show their fear until the assembly when a littlun said that he saw a beast in the forest. “He says the beastie came in the dark”(35). Boys started to believe that there is a beast on the island and Ralph noticed that the fear was spreading among them.Ralph was trying to control the spread of fear by saying “...there isn’t a beast!”(36).
Later on, Ralph and Jack were continuing discussing the issues of fear with out presence of littuns, they knew there is a chance that the beast is real. Ralph called an assembly to “talk about this fear and decide there’s nothing in it”(88). “...may be it’s only us”, Simon said by the end of the assembly(96). Simon was dealing it from a different angle from all the other boys, he represents the spiritual human goodness and he pointed out that the actual beasts are themselves.
Ralph wanted the boys to eliminate the fear and focus on fire and rescue while Jack dealt with their fear by hunting the beast. They stand at opposite positions to each other, which is civilization and savagery. Simon and Jack were separated from the group. Fear was controlling them in different ways. Simon was the closest to the answer but end with death. Jack combined the hunters’ fear of beast to form a tribe and has became the chief, he led them by their fear as well.
The development of the fear synchronizes with change of the boys from innocence to savagery. The fear of the beast controlled the boys and has driven them to violence at the end of the novel.
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