Fear is an obstacle that mankind has had to face since the beginning of time. "The Lord of the Flies" captures the terror of being all at once alone with yourself, yet surrounded by the unknown. When Jack came back from his hunt and spoke of his fear to Ralph, when SamnEric thought they saw the beast, and when Simon explained his fears of the boys becoming the beast themselves, they were all beginning to succumb to the allure of fear. Fear is a dangerous thing; it can hunt you down, catch you, and become you.
In the beginning of the book, when Jack had just returned from one of his hunts, he took a moment to explain to Ralph his apprehensions while on the hunt. Though short in content this conversation marks a cornerstone of the books underlying symbolism. By revealing his feelings of paranoia to Ralph, Jack showed us that in this dark wilderness fear can penetrate even the most rugged exterior.
"You can feel as if you're not hunting but being hunted," (page 53)
This quote proves that the dread of the unknown has led not only little'uns to imagining the worst but Jack as well. Fear is 'hunting them down' through their imagination by giving them the feeling of being hunted, and by causing them to wonder what this 'hunt' may lead to. What eventual terrors they may face.
Later in the book SamnEric have just woken up and they discovered the man entangled in the trees. How ever this "sign from the grownup world" because of fear, was beheld as a beast from the likes of a nightmare. When the twins saw this "beast" they raced with all their strength down the mountain and described the horrible event to the rest of their party.
"Eyes, claws, teeth, it almost touched us." (page 100)
This quote shows how a mixture of both imagination and fear made them exaggerate this occurrence to the point of dishonesty. Although this supposed beast they created in their minds didn't 'catch them' in reality, this scene marks the over all exception of the 'fact' that there is a beast on the island. In essence it is the point where fear catches and ensnares the boys minds, and there becomes no doubt of the beast's existence.
During a tribal meeting near the middle of the book Simon stood and gave his views on the subject of the groups growing fear of the so beast. Although after mere minutes of Simons shy speech was is shunned and taunted into sitting back down, during those minutes Simon tried desperately to explain his point. That they themselves are indeed creating this beast with their imagination, and in truth the beast is... just them.
"Maybe,...there is a beast, I don't know, what I mean, maybe its only us." (page 84)
This quote showed that unlike the others, Simon was not afraid of "the beast" as being a living, breathing, monster. That instead, Simon feared the beast in the sense that he was beginning to fear himself, and the rest of the boys; Fearing the 'beast' that the boys are becoming. This 'beast' 'becomes' the boys by becoming all they think about. It is what they dream of, what they worship, what they fear, what they live, what they eat, and what they breath.
In both real and symbolic terms they were the beast that they feared, and that fear made them fear each other and then fear everything. They began to draw on that fear and savagery was inevitable. Fear is not the absence of hope or civilization, but the parasite that eats away at them both. It can make you feel as if nothing exists but that object of your fear. You become desperate to either alleviate the fear or to find a way to sink quietly into its darkness.