William Golding's Novel 'Fear Of The Unknown'
Ellie Powell
Mrs. Cogswell
ENG2D- 02
October 15, 11
Fear of the Unknown
People are quick to judge, fear and hate the unknown. Some people may not admit it but everyone is plagued with the tendency to let our imagination take over reality and turn it into the unknown. An excellent example of this is in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. All the boys in Golding’s novel are totally indulged in the theme of fear of the unknown. All of these have some “unknown” element to them; they can’t see in the dark, they don’t know what’s on the island, they’re unsure of what the beast really is, and they’re ignorant of the depths of their own violent capabilities. Fear has caused the littluns, Jack and Piggy all change from being civilized, …show more content…
However, he has good judgment until fear has crept into his thoughts and has made his ideas illogical according to Ralph. In the assemblies Jack covers up his own fears by blaming things on other people,
So this is a meeting to find out what’s what. I’ll tell you what’s what. You littluns started all this, with the fear talk. Beasts! Where from? Of course we’re frightened sometimes but we put up with being fright-ened. Only Ralph says you scream in the night. What does that mean but nightmares? Anyway, you don’t hunt or build or help—you’re a lot of cry-babies and sissies. That’s what. And as for the fear—you’ll have to put up with that like the rest of us. (Golding 88)
Throughout this chapter Jack is getting more and more argumentative, which is caused by fear of the unknown and it is now taking over his thoughts. Jack lives by the motto, you can’t defeat a “nothing,” but you can hunt and kill a “something”. Jack says even if there is a beast he will kill it, showing fear is starting to overwhelm him and making him become more uncertain of himself and those around
Mrs. Cogswell
ENG2D- 02
October 15, 11
Fear of the Unknown
People are quick to judge, fear and hate the unknown. Some people may not admit it but everyone is plagued with the tendency to let our imagination take over reality and turn it into the unknown. An excellent example of this is in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. All the boys in Golding’s novel are totally indulged in the theme of fear of the unknown. All of these have some “unknown” element to them; they can’t see in the dark, they don’t know what’s on the island, they’re unsure of what the beast really is, and they’re ignorant of the depths of their own violent capabilities. Fear has caused the littluns, Jack and Piggy all change from being civilized, …show more content…
However, he has good judgment until fear has crept into his thoughts and has made his ideas illogical according to Ralph. In the assemblies Jack covers up his own fears by blaming things on other people,
So this is a meeting to find out what’s what. I’ll tell you what’s what. You littluns started all this, with the fear talk. Beasts! Where from? Of course we’re frightened sometimes but we put up with being fright-ened. Only Ralph says you scream in the night. What does that mean but nightmares? Anyway, you don’t hunt or build or help—you’re a lot of cry-babies and sissies. That’s what. And as for the fear—you’ll have to put up with that like the rest of us. (Golding 88)
Throughout this chapter Jack is getting more and more argumentative, which is caused by fear of the unknown and it is now taking over his thoughts. Jack lives by the motto, you can’t defeat a “nothing,” but you can hunt and kill a “something”. Jack says even if there is a beast he will kill it, showing fear is starting to overwhelm him and making him become more uncertain of himself and those around