What Is Reason In Lord Of The Flies

William Golding uses his novel, Lord of the Flies, to demonstrate that people cannot reason when they are influenced by fear by creating characters with irrational fears. A common fear among the stranded boys is a beast. They are afraid of something imaginary that they cannot explain, and this fear controls their minds and prevents them from reasoning.
Fear overpowers reason, whenever it is present. For example, Ralph, Jack, and Roger go up the mountain to look for an imaginary beast. On the way, they are extremely fearful of the unknown. Jack is “shivering and croaking in a voice they [can] just recognize as his” (121) and tells them that there is something on top of the mountain. In response, Ralph shakily says, “You only imagined it” (121),
One instance is at Jack’s feast, when the boys start to do their hunting dance. They chant, “Kill the Beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (152), because they are trying to have some false confidence over the beast. Meanwhile, a thunderstorm commences, so panic erupts amongst the boys, and “out of the terror [rises] another desire, thick, urgent, blind” (152). The boys want to kill something using their false confidence and fear, and Simon had just appeared from the jungle. Due to the veil of fear, the children’s judgement is altered, and they mistake Simon for the beast and quickly attack him. After the boys pause for a minute, “they [can] see how small a beast [Simon] was; and already [his] blood [is] staining the sand” (153). They finally realize that they are killing Simon, not a beast. This revelation could have come earlier if they were not blinded by fear. They could have saved the life of an innocent human if they waited and reasoned instead of
When the plane crashes that brings the kids to the island, all of the boys are separated for the first night. During that time alone, the little kids develop an imaginary fear, which they cannot describe, so they name it the beastie. Throughout the novel, the definition of the beastie changes based on the little kids’ imagination. The beastie starts out as a massive snake, influenced by the vines. Then, it becomes a water-dwelling squid, and eventually, it morphs into a ghost. In their own ways, Ralph, Jack, and Piggy, try to reason with the little ones and convince them that the beastie does not exist. After hearing about the beastie, Ralph exclaims several times, “But there isn’t a beastie!” (36), whereas Jack scolded the little kids by reminding them that “fear can’t hurt you any more than a dream. There aren’t any beasts to be afraid of on this island” (82-83). Piggy asked them, “you don’t really mean that we got to be frightened all the time of nothing? Life is scientific, that’s what it is” (84). Despite the logic provided, “among the little ones [remains] the doubt that [requires] more than rational assurance” (36). Since the little kids are under the influence of fear, they still believe in the beastie and do not pay heed to reason. Their fear prohibits them from being logical and using