Loss Of Innocence In Lord Of The Flies Research Paper

Children are generally regarded as the symbol of innocence and purity throughout literature, media and in real life. However, this is not the case in the Lord of the Flies. At first in this novel, all of the children were innocent as they had just arrived from ordinary civilization. This is evident when Jack hesitates to kill a pig at the very beginning. However, as the story progresses, savagery becomes apparent in children; they perform vicious acts and they lose their innocence as a result of adaptability. Even though most of the children lose their innocence, not all of them do; the little uns in particular do not perform any savage acts, they just play on their own and do not participate in any violent murders.

Lord of the Flies has many major themes throughout the book that represent social, political, spiritual, and psychological problems. Golding uses his own personal experience and the environment of his time to write a gripping novel that speaks to some of the most complex issues of the soul. The theme of innocence vs. experience roots itself deep into the pages of the novel using literary devices such as allegory and symbolism to bring the reader on a journey along with each of the boys on the island. The boys start out their journey as innocent children, and leave as warriors, murderers and leaders.

In the lord of the flies “Part of grief is the lose of innocence” This can be seen through almost the whole book besides a little bit of it, because through the most part of the book the boys are grieving over many things, including missing their parents and homes. This grief lead them to do many things. At first it was nothing but to be civilized, but then it

In Lord of the Flies, Golding subverts the morality espoused by Ballantyne and treats the boys as ordinary human beings and more importantly, as children divesting them of the “White Man’s Burden” (term used by Rudyard Kipling in his poem of the same title). Instead of coming across primitive tribes and their evil practices, the boys confront the evil within them. They are no longer seen civilising the primitive. On the contrary, they themselves revert to a primitive and savage lifestyle of the early man. The novel thus traces “the end of innocence” (Ch12) which is not however transformation from childish goodness to adolescent depravity or a growing into wickedness. It is rather the dawn of an awareness of the darkness in one’s own heart.

In the book Lord of the Flies, a group of young school boys get stuck on an island. While fighting for survival the boy's face many obstacles along the way which cause common themes to appear throughout the book. One common fear that all except one of the boy's face in the book LOTF is the loss of innocence. Innocence is something that all people begin with when they are born. When the boys first land on the island they still have all of their innocence, but before too long their innocence disappears.

In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, a group of boys are deserted on an island from an airplane crash. Without any adult’s, the boys must conjoin together and help contribute into creating a system for survival. When one of the boys who is chosen leader from the others, he soon abuses his power in multiple ways. As there will be arguments/opinions from the rest of the group, this causes outrage and trauma and corrupts their whole system. As the book was set back in the 1950’s atomic war, how effectively has power changed individuals as people, mentally and physically. People who are given power without any power or consequence will abuse it in ways such as unsuccessfully maintaining common goals, doing things the right and respectful way will come unnaturally, while some will only simply want to dominate others without authority.

The ferocious savages who hunt animals and human beings without rationality towards the end of the book differ greatly from the guileless children swimming in the lagoon in the beginning. Golding portrays this loss of innocence as natural results from their increasing accessibility and openness to the innate evil and savagery that has always coexisted within the children. The author implies that civilization can delay or appease the innate evil living inside human beings. Nevertheless, it is also implied that completely vanishing innate evil is implausible. One of the most significant signs of loss of innocence of the boys is shown through Lord of the flies, which is the name given to the sow’s head that Jack’s gang impales on a stake and offers to the beast. Initially, the forest glade resembles a place of peace and innocence, but later in the novel, the bloody sow’s head impaled upon a stake in the middle of the clearing symbolizes that the boys are fouled with impurities. The bloody offering to the beast taints the natural beauty existed before and conveys a powerful message that innate human evil eventually spoils childhood innocence. Even more bothering fact comes by when the children realizes that they had come too far in order to return towards the end of the novel: “And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart” (Golding 202). To sum up, the major reason the boys changed so dramatically throughout the novel is due to being opened to the wild and awakening their innate

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows the evolution of savagery on the island by starting the book with the boys being innocent school boys, but in the middle the boys start to become violent and show signs of savagery. Towards the end, savagery takes over the whole island. Golding has the boys represent innocence at the beginning of the book, savagery and innocence in the middle, and savagery at the end to show the important theme of savagery.

The boys, first lose their innocence when they crash land into a remote island and are forced to make adult decisions to ensure their survival. This proves difficult as the boy’s former society is completely adult dominated and their voice of reason is suppressed and as a result they are completely dependent of Adults- “I Want my Auntie”. One of their first troubles to make is food. Jack and his tribe of “hunters” are elected to hunt pigs for food as the rest of the boys believe that Jack is responsible. “I cut the pigs throat said jack proudly- “This is the first time that Jack loses his innocence. Normal children are shielded from bloodshed and violence meaning that this could be considered a loss of innocence. Lastly, the boys are obliged to make shelters in order to survive. This is a loss of innocence as regular children don’t have to build their own shelters to survive.

The author Lyman Abbott once said, "Every life is a march from innocence, through temptations, to virtue or vice" (qtd. in Brainy Quote). This march, as Abbott puts it, is maturation. Inevitably, everyone must experience these phases, ending either in, the iconic, good or evil. The novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, examines these very steps. More specifically, Golding displays through the character Ralph; the phases of psychological maturity. Ralph throughout his experiences on the island will progress and digress in maturity. Ralph will begin as a carefree, innocent child—happy to be away from constraints of society. However, through certain events, Ralph will grow to become a leader and choose to stay morally good, while the boys around him digress in evil. More specifically, events that illustrate Ralphs, responsibility, assertiveness, honesty, detachment, and understanding lead to his complete maturation.

Sir William Golding’s 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies, written during the aftermath of the Second World War, is more than just words on paper. It is a satire that reflects what would happen if society did not have civilization, what would happen if our government systems and rules did not exist. His novel expresses his view on the world after personally experiencing a war, seeing the peril of society, witnessing the horrors of the events that took place at Juno Beach and living in a war.

When I was younger, I went to a tiny school where the attendance was roughly 300 people. I had gone there for about 6 years, so I knew all the students, teachers, and rooms. The next year I transferred schools, at this new school I knew nothing and no one. I realized I missed my old school, even though it was quite tiny it was familiar. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is about a group of boys who are stranded on an island due to a plane crash. They elect a boy named Ralph to be their chief, to the disappointment of a boy named Jack. As time goes on Jack developed his own following, ends up overthrowing Ralph, and trying to kill him, in the end the boys are rescued and returned to civilization. There are two claims that can be made about this story, one is that you don’t know what you have until it’s gone and the other is people are afraid of change, but things always change. The theme you don’t know what you have until it’s gone is the best theme.

Is there a savage beast lurking inside the deepest, darkest parts of all of us? Will human nature take advantage of people at their most vulnerable state? The depiction of Pinker’s philosophy on the admirable process that mankind has evolved into, strongly contradict Zimbardo and Golding’s beliefs. The two make it very apparent that the evil within us may only be shown through certain events and situations we are put in. Although humans have constructed a more civilized world for themselves, and convey the impression of a more peaceful era, there are still extensive measures that can be taken revolving around enhancing every aspect of human life in itself.

Imagine many boys stranded on an island with no contact to civilization. This is what William Golding represented in his book Lord of The Flies; he used the book like a thought experiment to see what would happen to them. For the boys it was not a great experience, they broke down and became crazy savages. The book started out calm, but as the book went along the calmness turned to chaos. There were many small factors contributing to this; some of the boys just didn’t get along, we saw this from the beginning of the book. But the main reason for the boy’s break down was losing their innocence to fast.

As children, we are usually brought up from our parents, who teach us the ways of right and wrong. Without their teachings and advice, where would we be now? In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the author shows the reader throughout the story that fear is a key factor in the storyline. Golding shows that fear could have both a negative and a positive effect on fear, you just have to know how to control it, and yourself.