Compare and Contrast Essay: Beowulf vs. Lord of the Flies

There is no doubt that fear has consumed the world. It is deep within, taking only a single opportunity for its hopeless colors to explode, and lost in this chaos is societal structure. Both Beowulf and Lord of the Flies express the turmoil that lands upon a society when fear rages. But how does an absence of fear affect each individual? In Beowulf, the poet expresses that a presence of fear can destroy, but an absence of it can create. Golding expresses the same when it comes to fear uprooting the basis of civilization; however, his story Lord of the Flies follows the boys who eventually birth their absence of fear into evil and ultimately it is that which leads to their demise. 

At first, the stranded boys kept their firm grasp on reality. From the freedom of speech conveyed through a “conch given to the next person to speak” to the civilized election of a leader, the boys had generated a functioning government (Golding 33). In an attempt to make a feast for the boys,  “Jack drew his knife again with a flourish” (Golding) to kill a young sow. His fear, however, stopped him as the anchor of reality kept him morally grounded. As the days passed, the fear began to bubble over as the boys became increasingly paranoid. The anxiety of the unknown ultimately spread once they found out “the beastie or the snake-thing, was real” (Goldman 48). However, once this was disproved, as the beastie was simply a passed soldier, the newfound absence of fear rusted the metal of the binding anchor, consequently snapping it. Now, a sow was not Jack’s victim, rather it was a human. He had nothing to fear now, nothing to hold him back. He had borne the absence of fear into evil with the rest of the boys following. The absence of fear ultimately marked the beginning of a chaotic world for these boys which culminated into the killing of each other. 

The arrival of Grendel in Beowulf also marked the arrival of fear. He marched around “haunting the marches, marauding round the heath” upturning the lives of many (line 103). While he was “inflicting constant cruelties on the people'', he was simultaneously destroying every piece of structure those souls had (citation). Sensing the mounting peril, Beowulf makes his way to prove his warrior-like traits. He was a predestined hero; fear did not affect him, rather, he was the object of fear. He battled Grendel in an weaponless manner, fought underwater with Grendel’s mother, and even battled the “the ground-burner” on his lonesome (lines 2713). His absence of fear led to his honorable success. The story of his thanes, however, is different. They were fearful and even resorted to leaving their faithful king to fend for himself. Fear split these “brave” knights apart; however, an absence of it brought two great warriors together. It resulted in Wiglaf’s own fearlessness as he remained the one thane that came to his noble king’s aid once he became “inspired again by the thought of glory” due to his absence of fear (lines 2677-2678). Fear broke down the strongest of knights, but an absence of it was used as an advantage, and their strong internal anchors kept these two warriors connected to society.

Both Beowulf and Lord of the Flies show how fear can bring entropy and dread. However, the difference is how an absence of fear is portrayed in each respective story. Ralph, Jack, and his distraught tribe betray their society, becoming savages that cannot be pulled back to reality due to their loss of fear. Once its presence left, they had nothing to be scared of but themselves and each other sending them into a whirlwind of chaos and murder. While fear consumed the society around him including his trusted men, Beowulf and Wiglaf’s internal anchors were secure enough to help them hold onto what society had taught them. Both acted as true heroes and used their fearlessness for the betterment of their society. The absence of fear in the end in Lord of the Flies led to savagery and destruction. The absence of fear in Beowulf led to success and the defeat of a common evil. 

Fear is a tool of destruction. It ruins and warps reality in its victims minds. An absence of it, however, can create or destroy. The choice is up to it’s receiver. Beowulf used it to his advantage to influence those around him, while the boys in Lord of the Flies fell victim to its destruction. Even though fear may have consumed the world, out of that dark hole climbs those who have defeated it using its own absence.