In William Golding's lord of the flies the decline in the islands society can be attributed to the introduction of fear. The first person to introduce fear was Johnny in chapter 2; he said that he saw a beastie in the trees. Then in chapter 6 Sam and Eric see the dead man with a parachute, and they think that is the beast. In chapter 9 the boys are on the beach at night having a feast when Simon comes running and screaming out of the woods. The kids think that he is the beast so they kill him.

In chapter two when Johnny says that there is a beast no one really believes him, but the littluns. The littluns are sacred and think that the beast is coming to get them. Ralph, jack, and Piggy try to tell the littluns there is no beast, but the littluns don't believe him. This is how it all gets started with the beast.

In chapter 6 Sam and Eric go to light the fire and stumble across the dead man with the parachute, and they think it is the beast. After they tell everyone there is a fear of the beast. No one will even go near the woods. Jack and Ralph compete on getting the beast, and this is when the big problems start.

Finally the big tragedy happens in chapter 9 when Simon is mistaking for the beast, and is killed during one of the kids' big chants. After he is killed they find out it was Simon and they don't really talk about it. This is definitely a big part of the book because Ralph is ashamed of what he did, but on the other hand Jack uses Simon's death as an example later in the book. So now the fear of the beast has caused a death, and the society to start to fall.

So the decline in the island society can now be traced back to introduction of fear. Not only did fear ruin a society, but it also leads to people dieing. It also makes the group turn on one another when they go to hunt the beast. So the fact of the matter is that fear can ruin ever the strongest of societies.