In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows that fear of the unknown can destroy order, and may help violence erupt. Not knowing what is out in the wood and what to expect causes the boys to do things that they would not normally do.
Concern causes many people to panic and go against what they would normally do. For example, a little boy on the island who is frightened asks Ralph, ”What are you going to do about the snake-thing?” There is no snake but the boy’s fear of what might be out in the woods causes him to imagine he sees a beast. He brings this up at a meeting and throws everyone into a panic. In addition, when Jack hears about the beast, he wants to go after it while Ralph wants to focus on the fire. Jack’s belief in the beast tears him and Ralph even further apart, eventualGolding has stated in his book The Hot Gates, that he used the fable form to present the truth as he saw it. A fable is defined as a story that uses symbolic characters to teach a lesson. In this novel, Golding certainly accomplishes this purpose. Through the boys, he clearly teaches man's inhumanity to man and mans inherent evil. In fact, Golding states that "man produces evil as a bee produces honey". Golding shows how civilization on the island breaks down and leads to anarchy and terror "because the boys are suffering from the terrible disease of being human".
Lord of the Flies as a religious tale
Since man is a fallen being who continuously pays for the original sin, his nature is characterized by base evil. Golding, in Lord of the Flies, is concerned about this evil and how it relates to mans soul and its salvation. Throughout the book, the author depicts the contrast between good and evil, kindness and cruelty, civilization and savagery, guilt and indifference, responsibility and anarchy. The rational good of mankind is represented by Ralph and Piggy, with the conch their symbol of authority; the evil savagery of mankind is represented by Jack and his hunters,...