Innocence In Lord Of The Flies

Innocence is when humans lack the mental capacity to truly understand our actions and effects, and when this innocence is lost, humans begin to acquire knowledge and start to realize the truth behind how the world works. In William Golding’s Novel, Lord of the Flies, Golding writes about a group of boys who get stranded on a island and is about them surviving the island, and also surviving each other while trying to maintain peace and order. They create a group to maintain peace and order and the leader behind this group is Ralph, along with Jack as the leader of the hunting group. They started having conflicts between the importance of hunting vs shelter and trying to escape. In Golding’s novel, the three characters within this story are

Ralph, Jack, and Roger who are forced to grow up to survive and to a large extent lose their innocence.
The first character who’s lost their innocence is Ralph, who is the leader and also the freeholder of the conch which represents their law and order.

Ralph’s innocence is lost when he realized that they were not going to get off the island, and so he had to worry about survival of the others and himself. Ralph’s innocence is shown when he talks about his dad soon coming to rescue him and the others from the island as soon as he finds the map, “I could swim when I was five. Daddy taught me. He’s a commander in the Navy. When he gets leave he’ll come and rescue us. What’s your father?”(Golding 13). This quote helps convey his innocence because he lacks the mental capacity to truly understand the situation that he’s in, which is he’s stuck on a random island. He still believes his dad will come rescue him as soon as possible, “he’ll come and rescue us.” This quote also reveals that he has no worries in the world and has a casual conversation with Piggy even though they were just involved in a plane crash and are now stranded on a island. Ralph doesn’t truly understand what’s happening on the island and thinks he’ll be rescued in no time, but in reality he’s going to be stranded and is going to have to find a way to survive along with his tribe. Ralph starts an assembly to discuss the situation they are in and where they are, “We’re on an island. We’ve been on the mountain top and seen water all round. We saw no houses, no smoke, no footprints, no boats, no people. We’re on an

uninhabited island with no other people on it.”(Golding). This quote helps unveil how Ralph loss his innocence because he’s realized what’s really happening and that they are not going to get anywhere without setting up a plan and working together. Ralph’s realized that they are alone when he states that they are “on a uninhabited island” which is a difficult situation because their tribe consist of teens and children. Loss of innocence is when you acquire knowledge, and in this case, Ralph gained the knowledge of how they are alone on this island and there are no resources such as “no houses, no smoke, no footprints, no boats, no people”. Another character within this story who has lost his innocence is Jack, the hunter.
The next character whose innocence is loss goes by the name of Jack who is fixated on hunting and killing which leads him to commit terrible deeds. Jack’s innocence is lost when he realizes that he needs to resort to violence in order to get things to go his way. Jack innocence is shown through his addiction with killing pigs, “All the same you need an army–for hunting. Hunting pigs–””. This quote helps the reader understand that Jack is still innocent because he still believes that the major key to survival is killing pigs. During their meeting, Jack immediately mentioned that “you need an army-for hunting” which shows his childish addiction to hunting even though he has not hunted before. Jack’s obsession makes him a dangerous character to deal with. Jack in this point of the story is still innocent and has not killed or used violence. Jack is clueless about escaping the island and all he cares about is hunting pigs on the island which shows that he doesn’t understand the predicament he is in. Jack’s innocence is lost when he becomes aware of what he has to do on the island to survive so he resorts to violence, “This from Piggy, and the wails of agreement from some of the hunters, drove Jack to violence. The bolting look came into his blue eyes. He took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach. Piggy sat down with a grunt. Jack stood over him. His voice was vicious with humiliation”. The moment Jack resorted to violence, his innocence was lost. His innocence disappeared because he’s realized that he has to resort to violence to get things to go his way. He’s not the same choir school boy he was at the beginning of the story, he’s changed, in a bad way, into a ruthless person. You can tell that Jack has changed due to the details the author provides such as describing his eyes as a “bolting look” and also describes him as “vicious with humiliation.” The final character who’s lost his innocence is known as Piggy.
The final character is Piggy, Piggy is not his real name but is his nickname, he is described as a fat young gentleman who is very knowledgeable and he also has asthma. Piggy’s innocence was lost due to the circumstances he faced such as how everyone used him. His innocence is shown when he mentions how he use to live with his aunt, “I use to live with my auntie She kept a candy store. I used to get ever so many candies”(Golding 13). Piggy’s innocence is shown in this quote because he talks about his life before the plane crash and how enjoyable it was because of the “ever so many candies.” The way Piggy is talking reveals that he has no cares in the world even though he is stuck on the island which shows that he’s still innocent because he has no knowledge of what is happening and he just thinks they are on a island. Piggy’s loss of innocence is shown when he talks about Simon’s murder, “Go on, laugh. There's them on this island as would laugh at anything. And what happened? What's grown-ups goin' to think? Young Simon was murdered”(Golding). Piggy’s realization of what they did shows that he’s lost his innocence because compared to the other boys, they think it was the beast but Piggy knows the truth of who it truly was. He views the others as savages and immature because they “laugh at anything.” Piggy has truly understood his actions and the effects of those actions which is shown by how he wonders that the adults would think about what they did, “What’s grown-ups goin’ to think”. Piggy acknowledges that it was a murder unlike the other boys who believe it was a beast.
Ralph, Jack, and Piggy are forced to grow up and lose their innocence within the novel, Lord of the Flies.

Ralph’s innocence is lost when he realizes that his tribe and him are stranded on the island, and he has to do something in order to survive and get off the island. Jack’s innocence is lost when he understands that the only way to have things his own way is to resort to violence. When Piggy’s innocence is lost, it’s caused by the fact that everyone was against Piggy and hated them and made fun of him and they also used him which made him realize the truth behind them. In conclusion, when you lose your innocence, it leads you to think deeper about things that you do and also makes you think harder about what happened by understanding the action and its

effects.