The Fear of The Unknown

Kai Payton

Ms. Pahomov

English 2

April 5, 2018

Fear of The Unknown

The fear of the unknown is a powerful aspect of people’s lives. There are many different forms of fear that a person could experience in their life. People are not aware of the things that cause the fear inside of them, or what fear can do to a person. Most of the time fear lives inside of you and it seems to become a reality. Fear can sometimes control a person to the point that they do not think before taking action. It is something that isn’t controllable. People fear the unknown because they do not know what is going to happen if that fear becomes real.

   In Lord of The Flies, by William Golding is a book that revolves around the idea of fear. Boys are stranded on an island and have to find a way to survive. At the beginning of the story fear wasn’t something influential and important, but as the story went on it can be seen taking over the boy’s minds. A moment in the story occurred where Sam and Eric, the twins, were watching the fire on the island. While doing this they fell asleep and when they woke up they saw a dead man hanging from a parachute. In Chapter 6 the narrator says, “The twins stared at their identical laughter then remembered the darkness and other things and glanced round uneasily.” (97) They saw that man as the “beast” on the island. There was no actual beast, but this still built up fear inside of the boys. The beast started controlling and impacting the way they made a lot of decisions on the island. It influenced the way the leaders made decisions in certain situations. When the twins came back to the rest of the group and told them about the beast, the rest of the group was startled and frightened by their story. The twins along with the other boys have things they fear which in a way brings them back to reality.  The fear continues to grow because there is nobody there to tell them the beast is just in their head and there's nothing to be afraid of. They don’t know what the beast could do to them if they allow it to get them. In addition to that, the boys are only 12 years old or younger. Their imagination is still running wild while it can.

A form of  fear can be as simple as a young child's nightmare that follows people their whole life. It could be that one distinct thing people have been afraid of. Recurring fears are something that makes people feel like they can’t escape. When people go to sleep and have a nightmare they eventually wake up but that fear stays with them. You might go to sleep again and have that same nightmare that fuels your fear to stay and linger within. According to KidsHealth.org nightmares usually, occur for no apparent reason or occur when a child is going through a time of stress or change. With the young age of these boys, they’re going through a lot of changes since they’re still growing up. Seeing as though the boys are stressed with the constant fear of the beast they’re in a living nightmare. Along with that they have built up stress from the fact that their stranded on an island with no adult figure for reassurance.

   Essentially fear is in your head you make yourself scared of things or the people around you give you reasons to fear. With fear people have to think of a way to overcome it because it’s not something, people deal with easily. With the boys on the island, some people were doubtful of the idea of the beast towards the beginning. Then as time went on and things related to the beast started to happen more and more of the boys began to believe that the beast was a real. Just like many other fears, it was just in their heads and it’s not real. When kids are that age they usually have someone to tell them everything will be okay when dealing with fears. Sadly for this group of boys, the only ones who could be of any authority showed fear of this beast too which only strengthens the idea of it. Referring to KidsHealth.org again it states that parents should encourage nice dreams during this time. No one is telling the boys the beast is actually a nice guy and won’t hurt them.

   At one point in the book, some of the boys kill what they believe is the beast. When doing this they had no remorse for it and didn’t stop until it was lying lifeless and still. Once this happened the fear of the beast was alleviated in some way. They carried themselves in a different way after the “death” of the beast. They no longer had as strong of a fear following them while on the island. They felt as if the beast was able to come back they would be able to kill it again since they did it before. Killing the beast brought the boys a form of closure in this situation. This killing of the beast was a way of having a parent tell a child everything will be okay when having nightmares. The points of closure to a person's fear is what destroys the fear piece by piece.

   Fear has a strong effect on many people's lives. The beast influenced many of the boy's choices because they didn’t know what it could do to them. Children fear their nightmares because they never know when they’ll happen or what they’ll see when they have them. People don’t like the feeling of fear because it causes problems outside of it. With nightmares, it can cause a loss of sleep and with the beast, it can cause you to think some things aren’t what they really are.  It affects people in many different ways some stronger than others.

WORK CITED

1. Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.