Jim Garrison
Mr. Wheeler
English 9 CP, Period 3
7 March 2018
The Battle for Innocence: The Consequence that Fear Instills on Ralph’s Innocence Innocence is unknowingly suffering from the ignorance of the truth and the loss of that innocence is something to be feared. In the dystopian fiction novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 14-year-old Ralph must survive on an island in the Pacific with a group of boys aged 5-14. The Cold War was an era filled with fear-based propaganda that caused the government to evacuate children from their homes which led to Ralph and the other crashing on a deserted island. Throughout his time on the island, Ralph suffers from the knowledge of the truth that he lacked in order to assess the
…show more content…
The divergence of the two groups of boys on the island caused Jack’s group to become dangerous and hostile, especially after they had stolen Piggy’s glasses, the only source of fire on the island. Piggy and Ralph then decided to reclaim the stolen glasses, only to have Jack’s hunters push a boulder off Castle Rock which then “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from the chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (181). The death of Piggy is the last connection to innocence that Ralph had, as he was the voice of reason on the island. The destruction of the conch is also symbolic in that it was the only object unifying the boys together. Seeing the destruction of unification and the voice of reason caused Ralph to flee for fear of the tribe as this marked the end of innocence as he realized the cruelty of reality and the darkness of man’s heart. As Ralph attempted to hide, he’s forced out of the jungle by Jack’s hunters onto the beach where a naval officer is standing with a ship behind him on the sea. The hunters stopped their pursuit and Ralph is able to reflect back to when the beach was a safe haven for the boys and then reflected on the events on the island. He thought about the death of Simon and then what Jack had done and then: “The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body… Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (202). Seeing an adult caused Ralph to be able to realize how they have failed in their job to protect him from reality by finally giving in to the fear and trauma he had
William Golding communicates the idea through Ralph that all the order and goodness of the island is gone when the Conch breaks and how the rest of the boys turned into savages. Golding shows in the novel that, “Samneric were savages like the rest; Piggy was dead, and the conch smashed to powder.” This quote it demonstrates how the other boys took everything from Ralph who was the only person still somewhat civilized. The rest of the boys just follow and let the evil inside consume them. The other boys broke the conch to show how they turned on the only person not evil. The conch broke because they forgot how authority works and the do not listen to anybody and more. Samneric turned to evil also and the only person that wasn’t changed was
The impact of Jack’s savagery on the island leads to the boys forgetting the real truth about about themselves. The boys on the island are able to explain that human are evil from the beginning and that they aren’t impacted by society. The boys see the island as a place where they are free from the adult world and without any rules. The boys don’t realize that a world without rules causes the chaos on the island and the savagery within the boys. Jack’s authoritative power forces him to push the rest of the boys out of their comfort zone by making them evil being that was not there true identity before. Upon realizing that the savagery they had obtained was only destroying themselves they “wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart”(202). The power that was developed by Jack impacts everyone and destroys all of the lives that rejected him. Piggy who was the most knowledgeable character and also the weakest character was often disrespected by Jack because he opposed Jack’s power and recognizes that his power not voted for. As as result, Piggy is killed by Jack’s own boys because they too have been impacted by brute force. They killed piggy just like how they hunted pigs. Next, Simon's death reflects the rejections of religion and the idea that the
In the end, they are being rescued, but too much is lost. Their innocence is forever lost along with the lives of Simon, a peaceful boy, and an intelligent boy, Piggy. Throughout the novel, Golding uses symbolism and characterization to show that savagery and evil are a direct effect of fear. Initially, the boys carried on about in a civilized, systematic and fearless manner when first landing on the island. Ralph has just blown the conch and some small children responded to the sound by gathering at the source of the sound.
On my essay I will be writing about the book Lord of the flies. This book is written and narrated by William Golding. The setting of this story is in WW2. Where a bunch of kids are flying to a country but get shot down on the way. They manage to get to a nearby island where they get their bearings. The main characters are Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon. Then there are the little kids A.K.A the “littluns”.
His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. 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, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy (Golding, 290).
The murder of Simon makes Ralph realize that what they did was wrong. The death of Simon was symbolic. Not only does it show parallels between a christ-like figure, for example, Jesus and that they both died knowing the truth, but it shows that there is no more goodness and that everyone has turned to savagery. The goal of civilization and order reaches a low point when Piggy’s glasses are stolen, another symbol of civilization. Ralph and what’s left of his group decide to take the conch to Jack’s group to remind them the most important thing is to create the fire to be rescued; this slowly leads to redemption for Ralph. This is similar to the character, Thomas, in The Maze Runner where they both betrayed, not only their friends, but themselves as well. Ralph betrays his beliefs in order and civilization when he joins Jack and Thomas betrays both his friends and himself when he realized he was actually helping the opponent. They both redeem themselves by being fully committed to what they believe in: for Ralph, not giving up on civilization and order and for Thomas, to forget the past and focus on defeating the
As soon as Ralph calls the others on the island, the boys create a civilization with the characteristics of the societies they knew back at home. They elect a leader to serve as governance, Jack’s choir boys are made hunters to serve as the labor union, the boys attempt to create a distress signal system through the signal fire, and Ralph creates rules similar to those that dictate them at home. The boys may forget their jobs and specific tasks, but Ralph blows the conch, and they meet, reminding them of the task at hand. However, as tensions rise between Ralph and Jack, the group begins to disintegrate, refusing to listen to Ralph or obey the rules set in place. At this point, the conch loses much of its significance, a fact Ralph is well aware of. He refuses to overuse the conch, fearing he might disband the group altogether (Golding 92). As a result, the hunters stop maintaining the fire, which was their original assignment, and begin to do whatever they feel like, namely hunting pigs. In the scenes where the boys hunt, the development of their savagery can be clearly noted. Their hunts progress from hunting pigs for meat, to torturing pigs for fun (Golding 135-136), to murdering Simon (Golding 152), to hunting Ralph and planning to treat him just like the pig. It is just before the hunt for Ralph that the conch is destroyed. This milestone indicates the crossover from civility to total savagery of Jack’s
For example, an event occurs in chapter 11 that is a turning point for the story; “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist… the body of Piggy was gone” (Golding 181). In this passage, Piggy and the conch shell are killed and destroyed. Not only are they destroyed in similar ways, but also at the same time and in the same place. Both Piggy and the conch represent civility, which ends after this event. Similarly, they both support Ralph. After they are gone, Ralph feels isolated from the group and the boys slowly turn against him. This isolation is due to the lack of support from Piggy, and the fact that the conch, which helped them to remain civilized, is gone. Overall, the conch shell is representative of many themes and characters of the book.
What I found most interesting about The Lord of the Flies was the William Golding’s decision to use male children as the main characters. He easily could have written the same book with male adults, but he decided to use young children to explore human nature, even what we consider the most innocent human nature, that of a child. It would make far more sense to most authors to use grown men on the island. After all, it would almost be expected in our culture that adults would revert to some sort of primal nature when stranded on an island together. Adults in our society are considered to be world-worn, battle scarred beings. Adults are thought to have lost their innocent, child-like thoughts somewhere along the way when the real world came crashing upon their shoulders. Children, however, are the peak of innocence.
One of the major themes of the Lord of the Flies is the loss of innocence. When the boys first get stranded on the island they are all good London school kids being shipped away from a war, they are all still innocent.William Golding does not portray this loss of innocence as something that is done to the children instead it results naturally from their increasing openness to the innate evil and savagery that has always existed within them
They are no longer those innocent little English school boys anymore (Golding). They “descend slowly into depravity and atrocity….”( Hawlin 73) These boys have turned to a primitive lifestyle. They are killing pigs left and right and they are running naked and free covered in paint and blood. The boys have been doing things that if their parents saw or heard them, they would be horrified especially about the killing of the other two young boys. Simon's death was out of control. When he found out what the beast of the island. He went and spread the news with the other boys. When he gets to the boys, they are having a chant circle where someone is pretending to be the beast. Simon gets caught up in it and is thrown to the middle. Simon is mauled aggressively by the boys, stabbed repeatedly and beaten vigorously. Piggy’s death is not as aggressive as Simon’s, however it was very traumatic. When Ralph goes with Piggy to retrieve Piggy’s glasses, Ralph and Jack immediately get into an argument.( BOOK QUOTE) During this quarrel, Piggy is trying to yell over everyone about the rules of the island. When Roger from above pushes a rock down the mountain, it hits Piggy in the head and knocks him off the mountain killing him. While all of this is occurring, the conch shell is shattered. This is a major event because the conch shell symbolized their government system. “ The conch exploded into a
As said about nurturing young adolescents, “You cannot create a genius, all you can do is nurture one” - Ninette de Valois. We can only be nurtured into so many things, the rest is the natural instinct of nature. The novels To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, and Lord of The Flies by William Golding all show characters who lose their Innocence. Jem loses his innocence after the Tom Robinson trial. Jack loses his innocence when he goes from killing pigs for survival to killing pigs for his own good. Macbeth loses his innocence when he goes from killing people for protection to killing people for his own good. Macbeth and Jack have a bad loss of innocence because it turns them into savages along the way. Jem had a good way of losing his innocence. He gained something good from losing his innocence, he gained the feeling of empathy. He gained the feeling of putting himself in others shoes. As we grow up we are being nurtured into doing things that some people might consider right or even wrong.
The power that makes the loss in innocence also occurs in the writings. “‘You got your small fire all right.’ (…) the boys were falling still and silent, feeling the beginnings of awe at the power set free below them. (44)” In The Lord of the Flies, children put the fire in half of the island. Since there are no adults to punish them, they feel the awe at the power that have set them free and that causes the loss in innocence. “Ralph, camed away by a sudden thick excitement, grabbed Eric’s spear and jabbed at Robert with it (114).” Ralph was the leader and he was civilized. Indeed, he was innocent as well as the boys on the island. However, they turned savage when they don’t have adults to control them. “However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick (103).” Simon is one of the most innocent boy in this book.
“I think that’s the real loss of innocence: the first time you glimpse the boundaries that will limit your potential” (Steve Toltz). In the previous quote, Steve Toltz discusses the transition from innocence to corruption. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies illustrates the loss of innocence through various characters: Jack, who struggles with pride and a thirst for power; Roger, who revels in the pain of others and uses fear to control the boys; Simon, who represents the demise of purity when humans are at their most savage; Ralph, who illustrates the struggle people endure when attempting to be civilized near the savage; and Piggy, who suffers because he has the only technology necessary to survive. Golding enforces the theory that true innocence will often pay the price to sustain true evil by arranging the characters' personalities and actions in a way that correlates to the effects of Darwin's evolution theory, "survival of the fittest" (). Jack is a good example of this as he exerts power over the weak and uses his skills in hunting to survive. The thirst to prove his masculinity overrides his innate purity, effectively corrupting him. Jack’s loss of innocence begins a domino effect that begins to influence the others.
... people are out in the wild, and also have no civilization or government to keep their evil suppressed. At the very end of the book when the boys are rescued Golding writes, “ His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. 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, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (202). In this quote Ralph is crying because he has now lost all of his innocence that he once had before he got on that horrible island, due to everything that has happened on the island. He is also crying because he had just lost his friend Piggy because of the savagery acts of the boys and now he realizes how evil everyone is.