One apparent theme is "There is nothing to fear but yourself."
William Golding most obviously portrays this theme with the plot. The plot is the rise of the antagonist, Jack, which is made possible because of the fear of the beast and Jack's promise to kill it (like Hitler). But, as we know, the beast was merely an illusion, starting with littluns. First, the littluns started to see a moving shadow in the forest, and when they told this story to everyone else, the boys lost control and lived in constant fear of "the Beast" (like Swine Flu). Then Samneric "see" the Beast on the mountain, which is just a dead fighter pilot, and they run down and exaggerate the tale. That is when Jack takes control. He takes advantage of the fear in humans caused by other humans, and makes promises of being able to destroy the beast, and nobody doubted him for he was a hunter.
Another way that Golding portrays this theme is by the use of characters in the story. In fact, he uses a specific character, namely Simon. He has Simon explore the island at night, causes the littluns to see things after they have a nightmare. Then he even has Simon attempt to explain that maybe the fear is all in there heads, that maybe the boys just fear each other. Then Simon finally climbs the mountain and sees "the Beast". But, when he climbs back down to tell everyone that there's nothing to be afraid of, they think that hes the Beast and murder him.
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