Loss Of Innocence In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

Killing a pig was way too low for Jack. Jack and his followers killed a pig in need for food. If an adult civilized group was stuck, They would kill the pigs, but not that brutally. The civilization of Jack was gone and they were living like cavemen.

William Goldning’s Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel where literary techniques are utilized to convey the main ideas and themes of the novel. Two important central themes of the novel includes loss of civilization and innocense which tie into the concept of innate human evil. Loss of civilization is simply the transition from civilization to savagery; order to chaos. The concept of loss of innocense is a key concept to innate human evil because childhood innocense is disrupted as the group hunted animals and even their own. Through the use of literary techniques these ideas are seen in the passage where Simon confronts the “Lord of the Flies.”

“They were black and iridescent green and without number; and in front of Simon, the Lord of the Flies hung on his stick and grinned. At last Simon gave up and looked back; saw the white teeth and dim eyes, the blood—and his gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable recognition” (Golding 138). Once an offering to the “beast”, the pig’s head swarming with flies that had been severed by Jack and placed on a stick, manifests into the Lord of the Flies, representing pure evil. Simon, embodying the goodness of man and peace stumbles upon the head. The interaction between Simon and the Lord of the Flies is almost an interpretation between good and evil. The strong symbolism in this book gives a deeper meaning and a definite truth

The encounter with the Lord of the Flies supports Simon’s thoughts that the beast that the boys are hunting for is not an actual animal. The Lord of the Flies tries to persuade Simon to let go of his rational thoughts and be taken over by his primal instincts in order to have fun like the other boys. However, when Simon’s silence declares that he refuses to let go of logic and rationality, the Lord of the Flies realizes that Simon knows what the beast really is—the innermost part of the boys. Simon seems to make this connection that the Lord of the Flies is representational to the inner beast within the boys almost instantly. “His gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable recognition”(Golding 139). Simon instantly The Lord of the Flies quickly makes the connection, too. “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?” (Golding, 1 ). The Lord of the Flies is symbolic to all the evil that is in humans. As Simon realizes that he was right about the beast, he tries to go back to the other boys to warn them about his discovery, but the Lord of the Flies gets angry. “This is ridiculous. You know perfectly well you’ll only meet me down there—so don’t try to

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

He and his hunters have trouble trying to hunt and kill a pig because he has not had any experience in anything like this before. He continues struggle in being a hunter. At this moment he still has not made his decent into primitive savagery as he ends up at the end of the novel. However, the author does mention that Jack has primitive urges of a savage characteristic early “He [Jack] tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up." (51) This shows how Jack’s primitive desires are truly to hunt and kill. After a couple of attempts, Jack and the hunters finally brutally attack and kill a pig. This is the first step of Jack's transformation from being civilized into savagery Jack has lost his innocence in killing his first creature. From then on Jack becomes very confident in his hunting abilities and transitions into savagery, which brings out the evil in him. He now wears a mask over his face and always has the desire to hunt and becomes thirsty for

(Golding 33). Being stranded on the island has majorly changed Jack, he is praised for killing pigs because of it supply of meat. The amount of praise and the feeling of victory after a kill has caused Jack to go mad. The society within the island has corrupted Jack and many of his hunters because they are praised so greatly for killing a pig that they have now adapted this hunting as an evil game, the hunts are no longer for food but instead for self pride, and praise, and power.

While Jack and his hunters started out as just choirboys, they become obsessed with violence and are driven to kill. In the beginning of the book, Jack hesitates and misses his chance to kill a trapped pig. Later on, as Jack and his newly formed tribe hunt in the forest, they discover a sow. Following the desperate chase after

For a character to be morally ambiguous the reader cannot determine whether the character is purely evil or purely good. Readers must take into account everything such as actions, dialogue, descriptions, and interactions with other characters, weighing each as good or evil. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies portrays Ralph as a morally ambiguous character struggling to repulse the innate beast within him and the boys. Ralph’s morals are undetermined as the leader on the island, the role he plays in Simon’s death, and the civility he tries to maintain.

While Ralph, Jack, and Simon were exploring the island, they found a piglet caught in a curtain of creepers, trying to get itself out of the trap in all the madness of extreme terror. As the piglet attempted to struggle its way out, Jack “raised his arm in the air. There came a pause, a hiatus…” The diction, “hiatus” describes that Jack took a long pause and was afraid to kill the piglet. This part of the book was described in detail to show that Jack was nervous to kill the pig. While his arm was raised in the air he pauses allowing the piglet to escape. As a result, Jack, Ralph, and Simon laughed ashamedly and began to hike back on to the track. Nevertheless, in Chapter Four, “’I cut the pig’s throat,’ said Jack proudly, and yet twitched as he said it.” The author referred to the “pig’s throat” as it is important to “let the blood out” in order to feed on it. Jack learned that he had to cut the pig’s throat from Chapter One. The diction, “proudly” was applied to describe that Jack had fun in killing the pig. It seems that Jack enjoyed killing the piglet and is excited to kill even more. When the boys were chattering and dancing, and the twins continued to grin, “There was lashings of blood,” said Jack, laughing and shuddering, “you should have seen it!” The diction utilized to describe the blood changed from “unbearable” to “lashings” shows that he liked to perceive the glory of the pig. The

In Lord of the Flies one of the ways the characters lose their innocence is through death. After slaughtering the pig, power consumed the boys and in a blind rage they killed Simon, thinking

“Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.” In the book, Lord of the Flies, small boys were flown out of England to keep them from World War II, but as they were flying they crashed on an island. After the boys realized that no adults were with them, they tried to create a society. The boys tried to be civil, but the lack of maturity throughout the children brought them to chaos. The boys on the island lost their innocence when they slaughtered a mother pig, when they murdered their another boy Simon out of cold-blood, and when everyone on the island hunted for Ralph.

Upon reading your fascinating novel Lord of the Flies, I found myself following along with the ebbs and flows of the book more than any other I have read in my young life. I was especially enthralled with the ways in which you brought the characters to life in such a fashion I could hardly comprehend. Each character has an external meaning or stands for something bigger than them, which brings the story full-circle. The irony you display by using church boys and evolving them into absolute savages embodies the theme of loss of human innocence, and accomplishes everything you tried to convey through this grossly realistic scenario. However, the loss of innocence them advanced throughout the novel did present challenges. Innately, as humans we are sinful and evil; however, it is challenging to admit the facts that even sweet choir boys, such as the ones you present in the novel, could turn into barbarians.

In William Golding’s book, Lord of the Flies, he uses the loss of the children’s innocence as a way to expose every human’s inner savage instinct. Their conversion from virtue to brutality is supported by the battle between savagery and civilization. This battle gets increasingly difficult the longer the boys are stranded away from society.

Although William Golding’s seminal classic, Lord of the Flies, does not quite meet the qualifications for the “Horror” section at Barnes & Nobles, it had just about the same impact on me as any Stephen King novel might have. The tale’s obvious themes of civilization descending into savagery and the depravity of the human condition were enough have me shaking in my boots and put me into a lengthy existential crisis. I learned that beginning a conversation in middle school with, “So do you guys think cruelty is a mere result of circumstances or a genuine feature of mankind,” was a great way to find out who my best picks for buddies were. Lord of the Flies, jam-packed with metaphors, symbols, and bloodthirsty twelve year-olds, allowed me to develop