Beads of perspiration, pumping blood, and muscles tensing as every hair stand on edge. These are instinctual behaviors, subconscious reactions to an alarming disturbance in the environment. Fleeing comes to mind but is dismissed by the off chance of an encounter with the "unknown." After all, there may be something lurking in the shadows. This is fear in its most natural state; the gut retching mystery of the unknown that consumes all rationale. Fear exposes the most primal human reaction; a trait depicted in the boys of Lord of the Flies, where an ingrained reaction to self-preservation overcomes wit, reasoning, and conscious forethought and illustrates the darkest characteristics in man. .
In the beginning of Lord of the Flies, the boys were intrigued by the island and were having a marvelous time without any restraints. The first sense of alarm came from a littlun who conjured up a "beastie" out of shadows. The littlun's fear of this object originates from his description of "something moving among the trees, something big and horrid" (85). This idea was a "vivid horror so possible and so nakedly terrifying" that it grasped the congregation of boys (85). The meager attempts to refute the mysterious monster were useless. Without any proof but a conspiracy theory from a littlun, the notion of a beast was installed into everyone's mind.
With the discovery of the island's "hidden evil", the boys armed themselves. The more adventurous hunters set out to scour the jungle armed with makeshift spears. As the boys were afraid of the unknown, they began to lash out as a means of protection. "The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away" when one of the elder boys said, "Bollocks to the rules! We"re strong-we hunt! If there's a beast, we"ll hunt it down! We"ll close in and beat and beat and- (91). This uproar marks the moment that the irrational boys separated themselves from the sensible and derived blind confidence from the adrenaline rush of fear.
