Lord Of The Flies Innocence Theme Essay

They are lost and alone, no one around, just them, the ocean and a tropical paradise. With no civilization, no regulations, or even mild things like a place to sleep, the young boys will find find out what they must do to survive alone in the unknown. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding the theme loss of innocence is clearly demonstrated throughout the book. The proper British boys were on a plane that crashed onto a tropical island. Without adults and the oldest boy being twelve, the boys must learn to survive themselves. Without civilization and authority to guide them, they turn to savagery and violence. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding portrays loss of innocence by exhibiting how people change when they realize what they

Explanation: We finally learn what the Lord of the Flies is. It says that it’s the Beast, but it’s not the parachute guy version of the beast, it’s the one Simon tried to explain, just the evilness of mankind.

Within the novel innocence is progressively lost through the boys. The boys were placed in a situation where they had no other choice but to grow up, and grow up fast. These boys were put in a very traumatic situation and they had to learn on their own and from each other how to survive and almost create a thriving society all on their own. Slowly they learn that their needs to be a leader, but there are no adults to precede the role of authority. Therefore the children resume power and take the role of authority. All these things make the boys lose their innocence and become very violent. No one is completely innocent and everyone has the ability to turn violent, this is demonstrated in William

How, within every kid there is evil, this evil eventually leads to savage like nature. The boys "become" the beast when they kill Simon. Golding describes the savages' behavior as animal like. In Document F when they kill Simon the savages drop their spears (which is man's tool) and "screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.

Simon is the first to realize that the beast is “only us” and tries to give voice to “mankind’s essential illness” (Doc F). Later, when Simon finds the dead parachutist, he attempts to tell the others the “Beast is only human.” (Doc E). Rather than listening to his words, Simon is brutally attacked and killed by them: “There were no words and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws” (Doc F). Ironically, Simon, the sensitive boy with the goal to tell of man's violent nature, is instead mistaken for the beast. Therefore he is murdered by the true, human beast: the boys with “teeth and claws.”

In the book Lord of the Flies Simon was had died and whether it was an accident or not he did not deserve to die. They had been on their toes all the time about the beast, what it was, and how to kill it, but the beast was in their mind the whole time and Simon was the only one who knew it. The boys were weary about any kind of movement when they were hunting for the beast. They were anxious to get rid of it that when Simon stumbled over an edge they assumed that he was the beast and they all screamed “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his

When unprotected, innocence can become misguided. Therefore, a society needs to defend its citizens’ innocence in order to hinder savage instincts. In Aldous Huxley’s 1932 satirical novel, Brave New World and William Golding’s 1954 allegorical novel, Lord of the Flies, a loss of innocence transforms civility into savagery. Through these novels, the authors emphasize how society must protect the innocent to preserve order.

These boys were grown up sheltered in England, and they cannot handle exposure to living on their own. Piggy’s glasses are a symbol of the loss of innocence. The glasses at first worked for a good purpose, and represents a loss of innocence when they are cracked (Martin). Many of the boys forget about their morals and morality right after the crash. For example Jack and his gang can no longer notice a moral code where killing is wrong (Novels for students 183). Jack and his gang begin to call themselves a tribe and chant, “Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the Pig! Cut his throat!” (Golding 114). This shows their lost of innocence because they officially become savages that enjoy killing. When the boys are stranded on the island, they act like kids. They enjoyed their freedom, but at the same time were scared and homesick. However, at the end of the book, they attack, torment, and even kill each other without any delay or remorse. For example Roger did not hesitate to throw the rock and Piggy and send him to his death Ralph is a very optimistic person at the beginning of the novel, and toward the end he loses hope in any kind of rescue. This shows their loss of innocence as well because Ralph is one of the only hopeful ones and now he “wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of a man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy”

In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there is a theme relating to loss of innocence. To begin, when Jack kills the first pig in Chapter 4, it is showing how his innocence is beginning to diminish. This is shown very clearly when it states, “Jack began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling” (Golding, 1954, p. 91). Killing the first pig shows how the boys are starting to lose the innocence that they used to have. When they first came to the island, Jack could not kill a pig, but as his innocence begins to fade, he is able to kill the pig. In addition to Jack killing the first pig in Chapter 4, another significant part of the novel is when he kills the pig in Chapter 8. This is described in the novel when it says,

Simon is intellectual and begins to hint at a possible truth about the “beast.” For example: “As if it wasn’t a good island.” (Golding 53) Simon observes that it is as if the island was bad, and not the good island from when they first arrived. Something was haunting the island, and it began as soon as they arrived. The author uses Simon to indicate the island is good, however, it is a different story when it comes to what arrived on the island. As the novel continues, the reader begins to find out what it was, that was haunting the boys. For example: “ What I mean is… maybe it’s only us.” (Golding 96) This quotation shows how Simon is the first character in the novel to see the “beast” not as an external force, but as a component of flawed human nature. This shows how Simon's words are central to Golding's point that primitive human evil exists. The author makes Simon have a seizure and create the “Lord of the Flies,” providing insight about the “beast.” For example: “Or else, said the Lord of the Flies, we shall do you. See?” (Golding 159) This quotation provides the reader with the idea that the “beast” links itself to the negligence of the rules that society has placed, and how savagery tries to overtake civilization and purity. It is like saying “The evils inside the other boys and I will get

Throughout the novel I was able to tell that the boys changed whom they were in order to survive. At the end of the book the boys have trouble remembering who they are. For instance, Percival forgot his name. The boys try to follow their moral code and work towards achieving something but it all ends up in the death of several boys. At a point all the boys try gathering together to kill the beast, but the only one who knew the truth was the one who died. Simon spoke the truth and said, “ What I mean is… maybe it’s only us”(Golding 89) which ended up costing his life. I think that Golding’s message is to show that humans tend to perform barbaric actions when people’s morals aren’t bonding. In Lord of the Flies the boys show the true nature of man.

In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys are stranded on a remote island and in their struggle to survive, come in contact with a number of elements which symbolize ideas or concepts. These concepts indicate the boys’ true ideals on a variety of elements and how they react to life beyond society. Similar to how the characters change, the elements also evolve as the story progresses. Through the use of these symbols, Golding proves humans, when operating outside the guidelines of civilization and society, allow their primitive tendencies to dictate their behavior.

The next example of loss of innocence can be seen in Lord of the Flies. When the children on the island first arrive they are scared and worried about when they will be rescued. As time goes on the children, Jack in particular wants to live and rule the island forever without adults. As one reads Lord of the Flies, they can see the different stages of childhood and the decline of society on the island. One example of lost innocence can be seen here: “Simon’s dead body moved out toward the open sea,” (Golding 154).

Jack has an extremely important role in showing innate evil within an individual and the developmental abilities of this quality. Differing from many of the island boys, he exhibits traces of uncivilized behavior almost as soon as he is introduced in the novel. His innocence shows sparsely when he is unable to kill the first pig. As evil begins to takeover, however, he understands his ability and power to kill or harm a living creature. “Killing the first pig is Jack’s first taste of sovereignty” (Diken and Lausten 434).

The boys project their irrational fears as a derivative of their immaturity, in an attempt to identify a realized external enemy. Literary critic Lawrence S. Friedman explains, “Too immature to account for the enemy within, the boys project their irrational fears onto the outside world. The first of these projections takes the shape of a snakelike “beastie,” the product of a small boy’s nightmare.” (233) The boys’ irrational fear of the unknown, one of a small boy’s nightmare, only serves to exemplify their immaturity in handling situations like this. It is a stepping stone to events to come, prophesied by Simon. In addition, the character of Simon alludes to the fact that there evil ‘beast’ can really be traced to their internalized innate evilness. Simon argues, “maybe there is a beast… What I mean is… maybe it’s only us.” (Golding 89) While all of the boys attempt to explain the phenomena of the ‘beast,’ Simon is the one who realizes that the boys themselves are the evil ‘beast’ they perceive. There is no external force, the ‘beast’ only serves to be a placeholder for the boys’ true primal nature. However, it is Simon’s death, at the hand of the boys themselves, that only serves to prove that evil truly exists in all of these boys. Friedman suggests, “The ritual murder of Simon is as ironic as it is inevitable. Ironically, he is killed as the beast before he can explain that the beast does not exist. His horrid death refutes is aborted revelation: the beast exists, all right, not where we thought to find it, but within ourselves.” (236) His death is truly the tipping point, a point of no return for the boys. After his killing, Simon’s philosophy of inner evil is realized. It is clear that his own philosophy is what ultimately leads to Simon’s death, as unfortunate as it may be. It is reflected of the group’s fear of the unknown, and their