Loss Of Innocence In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Savage Hair
Hair, murder, and a pig head on a stick. They may seem as though they have nothing in common, when in William Golding’s highly acclaimed novel Lord of the Flies, they all represent the loss of innocence and the descent into savagery. In Lord of the Flies a group of young boys are stranded on a deserted island after a failed evacuation. While on the island, the boys face the relentless brutality of human nature, the unforgiving heat, and reality of death and mankind. In Lord of the Flies, Golding delves into very heavy themes, one of the most prominent being the loss of innocence. Golding strengthens the loss of innocence by using many different literary techniques: symbolism in many forms, his noticeable shift in tone, and the

conflict in the story itself.
Goldings use of symbolism in Lord of the Flies ranges from quite obvious to very subtle, and one of the main examples of quite obvious subtlety is simon, who symbolizes innocence as displayed by the quote “‘You are a silly little boy,” said the Lord of the Flies, “just an ignorant, silly little boy.’” (143). The physical manifestation of Simons fear is acknowledging how innocent and scared he is. Because the Beastie represents the fear and evil in everyone's heart, Simons refusal to believe in the Beastie is most likely caused by the lack of evil and realization of the truth in his heart, and when Simon saw the Beastie he lost all sense of innocence. In the end, Simon died one of the most horrible deaths at the hands of madness and savagery, only to be tossed aside in the end, much like adulthood. While Simon is a very blatant symbol, Golding incorporated hair into yet another symbol of innocence, or loss thereof. Throughout the book Golding continuously mentions hair. Starting with “The boy with the fair hair”(7), seeing as Ralph is brand new to the island and is still clean and not yet “savage”. Later on, Ralph is seen with “one hand holding back his hair, the other clenched.” (66). Ralph’s long hair shows that he is becoming savage-like, however, he trying to prevent his downfall by holding back his hair from his eyes, from his vision. Whereas with Piggy it is said“He [Piggy] was the only boy on the island whose hair never seemed to grow. The rest were shockheaded, but Piggy’s hair still lay in wisps over his head as though baldness were his natural state and this imperfect covering would soon go, like the velvet on a young stag’s antlers” (64). Piggy’s hair seems to remain the same length, therefore he is able to retain his civility and humanity, unlike the rest of the boys whose hair grew and unruly, symbolising their descent into savagery and their loss of innocence. While Golding heavily relies of symbolism, he is also able to show their loss of innocence quite well through the tone of the book from start to end.
Throughout the book Golding incorporated an almost tangible shift in tone.

In the beginning he uses lighthearted and easygoing words and motions, often having them swimming around and acting almost carefree, as seen in the line “Ralph danced out into the hot air of the beach and then returned as a fighter-plane, with wings swept back, and machine gunned Piggy.” (11). Here the boys are seen having fun and making jokes, with no real fear or realization of their current situation and how truly deserted the are. The word “danced” has the connotation of happiness and grace, and is used in a happy and fun moment, and “wings swept back” make it seem as though Ralph is a free bird, flying through the air. Both dancers and birds are often seen as having grace and complete innocence. However, all happy and joyous words are carefully excluded from much of the latter half of the book, as the boys are later depicted dancing around pig corpse, taking something graceful and beautiful, and turning it into a satanic and dark moment, especially when they talk of killing her and slitting her throat. “Jack began to clean his bloody hands of the rock. Then he started work on the sow and paunched her, lugging out the hot bags of colored guts, pushing them into a pile on the rock while the others watched him,” (136).The boys are clearly losing their sanity and their humanity. Jack very calmly wipes blood off his hands and pulls out a bag of old pig guts, clearly they given way to savagery and

lost all hope of regaining their innocence. After some not so subtle symbolism and a complete shift in tone, Golding resorted to using the conflict of the book itself to show just how far the boys delved into savagery
In the beginning of Lord of the Flies the boys main conflict is with nature: lack of food, sunburns, and bad fruit, as shown in the line “The undoubted littluns, those aged about six, led quite a distinct, and at the same time intense, life of their own.

They ate most of the day, picking fruit where they could reach it and not particular about ripeness and quality. They were now used to stomachaches and a sort of chronic diarrhoea,”(59). It is clear that the littluns fear nothing and are at a complete relaxed stage in their life. They are unconcerned with anyone or anything else and their only conflict is themselves and nature, seeing as they gorge themselves and become very sick from doing so. Unfortunately, later in the book the man conflict is man vs man, during which time two boys are killed and another is hunted as a sport, which causes the entire island to burn (yet another symbol of their loss of innocence). “Ralph fastened his hands round the chewed spear and his hair fell. Someone was muttering, only a few yards away toward the Castle Rock. He hear a savage say “No!” in a shocked voice; and then there was suppressed laughter. He squatted back on his heels and showed his teeth at the wall of branches. He raised his spear, snarled a little, and waited,” (194). Here Ralph is being hunted by his former tribe mates, and he has completely given up his innocence and gave way to savagery (hence why his hair has fallen, his innocence is gone). It is seen here that there is

no more hope for humanity, all innocence is gone. Only savages are left.
It is prevalent throughout the book that Golding strongly believes everyone has evil in their hearts and that they will eventually give into temptation, going as far as to use strong symbolism, a complete shift in the tone of the entire book, and the conflict throughout said book. Using hair, something that grows overtime that you must cut away to be rid of, and a small child, something often thought of as innocent, to show the slow descent into madness is truly ingenious and is only strengthened as you come to care for Simon, only to have him die a horrible and gruesome death at the hands of madness and savagery only makes us fear humanity more. The shift in tone is subtle and absolutely terrifying as that is how it is in real life. Things don’t always happen immediately, it takes time for the boys to reach their full potential and to see just how far they could push the limits before the limits fought back, making it that much more powerful. And Golding’s use of the conflict is brilliant and very real. From having to worry about the fruit you are eating to killing one of your own shows just how dark and mad the human mind truly is. Overall, Golding executes the loss of innocence exquisitely and makes you realize, everyone is savage at heart.