Loss Of Innocence In Lord Of The Flies Research Paper

The Fall of Naivety
Innocence is: the state, quality, or fact of being innocent of a crime or offense, or lack of guile or corruption; purity. Many examples of this are shown in the the classic novel, Lord of the Flies. The book was written in 1954 and is a dystopian novel by Nobel Prize-winning English author William Golding. It is about a group of British boys stuck on an uninhabited island who try to govern themselves with disastrous results. Golding expresses the loss of innocence using personal experience in his own life and the time period in which he lived to influence the novel and its characters. He uses complex archetypes, symbols, and characters effectively to portray the loss of innocence in his novel.
Through the entire hypnotic

novel, Simon slowly progresses deep into a world of lost innocence and understanding. When describing Simon’s early perspective of the island, Golding says, “Evening was advancing toward the island; the sounds of the bright fantastic birds, the bee-sounds, even the crying of the gulls that were returning to their roosts among the square rocks, were fainter… The candle-buds opened their wide white flowers glimmering under the light that pricked down from the first stars. Their scent spilled out into the air and took possession of the island” (Golding 57). Words like “glimmering”, “fantastic”, and “bright” help the audience process Simon’s innate feelings toward the island and his newfound freedom. This successfully conveys the significance of the boy's’ naivety. Later in the novel, to describe Simon’s true loss of innocence, Golding says, “However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick” (Golding 103). Golding describes that the only beast lay inside the human soul. He interprets humanity with the capacity for good and evil. Humans are capable of kindness but possess a sickness that draws them to darkness. This effectively illustrates Simon’s thoughts on the island and its residents at the end of the book. The inspiration for Simon’s character is credited in Golding’s personal life. Golding served in the British Navy during World War II. He witnessed horrific events during his time in the Navy including the D-Day, landing at Normandy, the sinking of the German battleship, and the Bismarck. He saw the horrors man inflicts upon man. He displays feeling that he once felt during the war in his novel. Golding’s unique use of words are able relate to the audience through feelings. This, completely presents the loss of innocence through the character of Simon.
Building off of his complicated characters, William Golding also geniously uses the symbol of paint to represent the loss of innocence. When the boys put on paint, they cease to be pure and become wild savages. Jack first puts on the mask of paint as a camouflage for hunting pigs. Golding describes that he feels an almost delirious sense of abandonment, “The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness,” (Golding 64). Golding uses this to depict the separation from society when the mask is worn. All of the boys share Jack’s loss of innocence when they put on the paint and are transformed into untamed barbarians. When they wear the masks, they feel free to give up the morals and civility of their lives before the island. The other boys blindly follow in Jack’s footsteps and wear the paint of savagery. Golding interprets what Sam and Eric think of the masks in saying, “‘But they’ll be painted! You know how it is.’ The others nodded. They understood only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought,” (Golding 172). Golding effectively uses the paint to symbolize the struggle between gullibility and impurity by using words like “savagery”. Utilizing simple or bland words would not have expressed the vast loss of innocence between all of the boys. Golding, after surviving the second world war, saw how even the "good guys" can become barbaric and evil. He was led by his belief, and decided to use a similar setting. Only showing the side of people he thought to be the true side, the ferocious side.
From the beginning of the novel, William Golding uses Jack Merridew to display the boys department from civility.

All of the characters in Lord of the Flies have lost their innocence in some way by the end of the novel. Golding makes Jack the character that loses his innocence first. At the beginning of the novel, Jack sees a piglet in the creepers; however, Jack cannot leave his civil inhibitions and claims he, “was just waiting for a moment to decide where to stab him,” (Golding 31). Golding uses this to suggest that Jack is pure and cannot take a life. Later in the book, after another unsuccessful pig hunt, Jack yearns to kill a pig. Not only for the food, but the power in killing it and spilling its blood. He is starting to slowly depart from civilization’s bonds. After killing his first pig, Jack officially crosses into savagery when he puts on his mask of paint, Golding says,, “...a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated him from shame and self consciousness,” (Golding 64). Golding efficiently illustrates Jack’s separation from his former morals and responsibilities with this. As the other boys follow, Jack urges them to sharpen a stick at both ends and leave the pig’s head as a sacrifice to the Beast. They chant, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152). Golding uses the words “kill”, “cut”, and “spill” to cleverly and gruesomely represent the boy's’ true descent into savagery and brutality. After witnessing all that he did in World War II, Golding commented that, "man produces evil like bees produce honey" (Gyllensten). His experience leaves him believing that man’s basic evil nature is only tamed and held in check because of the rules of civilized society. Thus, Golding uses Jack to express the loss of innocence in his

novel.
Throughout the duration of the novel, William Golding adequately translates his personal experience in the war and his original environment into the loss of innocence. By using his past as a foundation, Golding utilizes archetypes, symbols, and characters to express his perspective on the loss of innocence. The boys in the Lord of the Flies are cut from society and mentally remove themselves from its influence. Consequently, their group goes from a sweet vacation to bitter chaos.