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, eventually ruining their friendship. In fact Simon is the only one who realizes the beast is not real, but he is too soft spoken to tell anyone and, after Ralph and Jack see the parachute man and decide not to go back up to the mountain Piggy says, "We got no fire on the mountain. But what's wrong with a fire down here?" The nonexistent beast forces the group to move the fire to a much less visible area threatening their already slim hopes of rescue. Simon says he thinks the boys should climb the mountain but as usual no one listens to him and horror stops anyone from agreeing with him. The boys" fear ruins any form of civilization they had, which in turn tears them apart.
While fear may cause some to panic it can make others become violent. For example, when the young boy first mentions the beast Jack says, "If there was a snake we"d hunt it and kill it". Jack does not even know if there is a snake but he has already decided to kill it. His uncertainty about the beast makes him even more vicious than he normally is. In addition, when a creature comes out of the forest during the party, "A thing was crawling out of the forest Simons dead body moved out towards the sea.
