Childhood In Lord Of The Flies Research Paper

In his novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding depicts childhood as a tumultuous period of time marked by struggle, savagery, and terror, contrary to the common image of inherent innocence. This controversial interpretation serves as a central point for many of the novel’s themes surrounding man’s instincts and behavior. Golding’s interpretation of childhood exposes the role of society in shaping the meaning of innocence and further alludes to the regressive characteristics of war.
The loss of societal values and rules throughout the novel often marks the boys’ gradual descent into savagery and thus, their loss of innocence. In the beginning of the novel, the boys simply play and do as they wish without any parental control; however, they remain tame and overall nonviolent, as those restrictions imposed by

society still linger. The most prominent example of this is when Roger throws rocks at Henry but aims to miss, as “the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law” surrounded Henry and “Roger’s arm was conditioned by…civilization…” (Golding 62).

Golding implies that Roger’s natural instinct would be to harm the child, an action only restricted because authority figures have made it so. Through the use of discipline and punishment, the boys have been taught to repress violent and wild behavior all of their lives. However, as the memory of parents and the law fades in the children’s minds, they begin to normalize cruelty to one another. For instance, when the hunters support Piggy for reprimanding Jack, it “drove Jack to violence” and “able at last to hit someone” (Golding 71), Jack lets out his anger by punching Piggy. The boys begin to adopt use of physical harm to silence opposition as the level of physical force escalates from a mere punch to murder. Such sinful and violent acts taint the image of naïveté and innocence created by society. Finally, the death of Piggy and the destruction of the conch mark the true loss of authoritative power over the boys. The conch was a

device used to maintain order and rules, and even leading up to his death, Piggy constantly relied on its power and claimed, “I got [sic] the conch!” (Golding 180) before speaking. However, the boys had become savage and disregarded rules of the island or of society as a whole. The boys were freed of any restraints once Roger pushed a rock onto both Piggy and the conch. As the boys chiseled away at their own innocence, they failed to obey the rules imposed on them by a seemingly forgotten society.
Though society has conditioned the boys to behave a certain way as to stay controlled and humane, the state of the world outside of the island remains in turmoil as war rages on. In fact, after failing to eradicate the idea of the beast, Ralph desperately asked for a sign from the adult world. Indeed, a sign came “from the battle fought at ten miles’ height” (Golding 95) in the form of a dead parachutist. A product of war helps escalate the problems on the island that stem from growing fear. In this case, the wildness of the boys is only in response to the horrors of civilization’s war against itself. Likewise, at the end of the novel, the naval officer rescues the boys from playing war, but the “trim cruiser in the distance” (Golding 202) indicates return to a different kind of war. The hunting and war on the island, defined by savagery and loose morals, parallels the war of the adults, where war is viewed as a harsh but necessary situation. If savagery is associated with war, then the circumstances that bring about war degenerate society as a whole and show its regression into primitive times. Society has only repressed the natural instinct to hunt and be violent, but one can interpret war as an acceptable manifestation of “mankind’s essential illness” (Golding 89).
The violent childhood the boys experience on the island merely parallels the war of the adult world and supports the notion that society is responsible for shaping both the image of innocence and the accepted evil in the world.