The loss of Innocence Throughout life, the decisions people make can often cause the loss of innocence and lead to the loss of civilization. The book Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, allegorical fiction, loss of innocence, explains how the group of boys struggled on the island day after day. Every day the boys were on the island, they lost a part of themselves, they were separated from the real world and became a part of the island to stay alive and survive the best the group could. The boys made lots of mistakes and good decisions on the island, they adapted to their new life and tried to copy what their adults did in the past knowing no better, that ends up leading them down a path where they end up losing themselves as a person and they change because …show more content…
Have a meeting with us. They’ll come when they hear us” (Golding, 12). When the Naval Officer saves the boys off the island, Ralph realizes that although he is saved from death on the island, he has to go back to the real world of civilization and will never be the same again. At the beginning of the book, Ralph is a friendly, confident, and athletic boy. He wanted to maintain the boys on the island with instructions and civilization, however, throughout the book the boys fall into savagery, and overall lose their innocence. All the boys, but mainly Ralph, were traumatized and overwhelmed with how many of the boys changed with the situation they were in and started to look at the world in a completely different way because Ralph was technically held responsible for all the others. I believe Ralph's loss of innocence was the death of Simon, in chapter 9. After Ralph regained himself he knew he had killed Simon and felt sincerely terrible, “that was the murder” (Golding,
Ralph and simon that the rest of the kids horesplay was a bad idea. In the novel Golding writes, “Shouting that he is the beast, the boys descend upon Simon and start to tear him apart with their bare hands and teeth. Simon tries desperately to explain what has happened and to remind them of who he is, but he trips and plunges over the rocks onto the beach. The boys fall on him and violently kill him” ( ). This just goes to show us that the other boys’ horseplay and beliefs lead to bad things. Ralph did not take part in this act because he knew what was wrong.
It’s one of the most famous stories to ever exist, the story of how two people changed what defines us as humans. It’s the story of Adam, Eve, a serpent, and the unbecoming of mankind, the Fall of Man. This iconic account has been the premise for many works over the centuries. Today, Lord of the Flies by William Golding is considered one of the most influential novels of our time, not only for its adventurous story of stranded boys on a lost island, but also because of its allegorical tale of the true fault in man’s soul. William Golding leans heavily upon the Biblical account of the Fall of Man to highlight man’s depravity in his novel, Lord of the Flies.
As much as everyone would like to believe that all people are inherently good, the illusion of innocence that is often presumed throughout childhood makes the revelation of human nature especially hard to bear. Arthur Koestler said, “Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion”, and this one is certainly a very hard reality to cope with. In the novel Lord of the Flies, the author William Golding tells the story of a group of British schoolboys who crash land on an uninhabited island in the midst of a world war, and how they regress from civilization to savagery. By conveying Ralph’s reactions to the deaths of Simon and Piggy, providing detailed, symbolic imagery of the cliffs and the lagoon, and showing Ralph’s despair at his new understanding
Imagine flying on a plane and crash landing on an unknown island with a select group of people. How would humans deal as a result of this horrific situation? Is cruelty and violence the only solution when it comes down to it? In Lord of the Flies, William Golding explores the relationship between children in a similar conflict and shows how savagery takes over civilization. Lord of the Flies proves to show that the natural human instincts of cruelty and savagery will take over instead of logic and reasoning. William shows how Jack, the perpetrator in the book, uses cruelty and fear for social and political gain to ultimately take over, while on the other hand shows how Ralph falters and loses power without using cruelty and fear. In Lord of
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.
There are many lessons of human nature to be learned from the novel Lord of the Flies; the book explores many aspects of human nature and society as a whole. We know this is evident because the book stirs a variety of human emotions for the reader. The implications of Lord of the Flies go far beyond these few small children being abandoned on a dessert island, it discovers the defects of the mind and our human nature in order to explain our actions in society. Human fear stems from the unknown, which leads to terror and often irrational behavior; just as the children on the island experienced fear, the island became an evil place as if 'a beast ' had been unleashed. We later learn that the fear of the unknown causes humans to release their own devils from within. In effect, their world isn't so different from the one we live in now.
In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the representation of childhood as times of tribulation and terror along with the community accepted portrayal of innocence shapes the theme of civilization vs savagery.
Stranded on an island, waking up to the fiery remains of what seemed to be an aircraft. You explore the island, coming across a boy around your age. You start exploring with him and stumble upon a conch. You blow into it, he said. The book “Lord of the Flies” is about a group of British schoolboys who face a harrowing test of survival.
The loss of innocence Lord of the Files is a cautionary tale about how humans would really behave without rules or laws, evident by the dangers of seeking absolute power, the beast we all have in us, and the carelessness the kids have with one another. Lord of the Files is a cautionary tale about how humans would really behave without rules or laws, and how a group of people may develop a mob mentality. The story explores the dangers of unchecked power. This means Ralph and Jack battle for power over a group of boys stranded after a plane crash. absolute power is corrupt, and that humans are overly ambitious in wanting to take power from the person who has most of it.
Jason Kramer Mr. McCarthy and Miss Foresman Honors English 10 7 February 2024 Lord of the Flies: The Necessity of Social Contracts on Societal Order. Invisible boundaries structure society and keep the community in order. When these invisible restraints are lifted, society is bound to collapse, as demonstrated in Lord of the Flies. William Golding, a World War 2 veteran, has seen at first hand the inherent savagery within humans in times of war where order is dissolved. Due to Golding’s past experiences, he knows personally the result of the social contract being lifted, and the horrid outcomes that come of it.
When surrounding society is stripped away and true humanity creeps in, savagery appears; turning children into beasts and lighthearted fun into torture and murder. This course of events is presented in William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies. Throughout the book, Golding displays an idea that society and humans have an evil nature. While many examples in both society and literature today contradict this point, there are more instances in which human nature is portrayed as evil. Golding portrays human evil as nature throughout Lord of the Flies.
In Lord of the Flies, the story is very focused on how the boys changed on the island. The most effective change is the process, when they lose their innocence. In the story, they lose their innocence through many affective events and gradual changes that show their instinct and darkness within human nature. Initially, they are joyful and peaceful, but the fear and the power of society get strong, and their innocence is changed by savagery and violence. At the outset of the story, the boys revel in their newfound freedom from their isolation.
Humans have created an overall understanding with one another to be civil and have implemented the knowledge of certain things being good and other things being bad. We all adopt the mentality of being what is established as normal and are somewhat inculcated into acting similar to everyone else. Thus, humans all impugn the harsh reality that we are still animals and our instincts are nowhere near gone, just taught to be subdued.