One of the themes in "Lord of the Flies" is, Fear can not be physically changed or destroyed it must be mentally conquered. Some ways that Golding develops this theme is through the use of characters and plot. At one point in the story the boys are having an assembly and start talking about the beast. During this time Jack says, "You say they dream and cry out. Now they talk-not only the littluns, but my hunters sometimes-talk of a thing, a dark thing, a beast, some sort of animal" (85). This quote shows not only the little boys fear but also that Jack maybe worried that there really is something out there even though he would never admit it.
Later in the book Golding continues to develop this theme by the use of plot. In the first page of the chapter "Beast from Air", a dead man falls from the sky landing on the island. At first all the fear was in the boys heads but now they have what they believe is real evidence that there really is a beast. An interesting thing I noticed was that all the boys except for Simon see the beast at nighttime or when it's getting dark. When Simon actually see's what the beast is and tries to tell the boys he ends up dying. It is as if Golding didn't want the boys to find out the truth about the "Beast". The fear that the boys were experiencing was all in their heads. If the boys had taken the time and had the courage to look at the beast during the day they would have realized that the figure they thought was the beast they wouldn't have to be afraid. Having read further on I think even if the boys had figured out the the figure on the mountain wasn't a beast they most likely would have thought that the adults tried to rescue them but was killed by the real beast. So no matter how the boys saw the beast the fear would always be in their heads.
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