Loss Of Innocence In Lord Of The Flies Essay

The Lord of the flies by William Golding explains the idea of the children losing their innocence and turning to a darker side. In this novel, a group of British boys are stranded on an island when a plane crashes. This represents that the idea of youth is dropped and is time to face the real world. Ralph and Jack are the two people who are interested in being a leader. They both have a different idea of what a leader does. Ralph likes to establish rules to protect the good of the group. While Jack is more interested in gaining power over the boys. Jack’s hunger for power starts turning to savagery which could cause consequences. The boys’ loss of innocence is a turn in reality where humankind is always not good.
    One of the ways Golding describes the loss of innocence is when the choir murders Simon. Before Simon is murdered, the choir finishes a feast, and starts dancing. A boy name Roger, becomes the pig, and the choir starts developing a chant, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” The beast they have been scared of, is now their target. However, when Roger plays the pig, everyone becomes possessed and tries killing him. When Simon returns, the boys turn to Simon as being the beast. They get so caught up in trying to murder the beast; they don’t

realize it’s their friend they’re trying to kill.
           Another way loss of innocence is a theme in the book is when Roger kills Piggy.

Piggy notices that his specs are gone, and Ralph is certain that Jack’s group stole them. Ralph and Piggy find Samneric. They seem frightened and tell Ralph and Piggy to leave or Roger is going to hunt them. Roger finds them and sharpens a stick at both ends. “...where Piggy had fallen. Piggy was everywhere, was on this neck, was become terrible in darkness and death.” Piggy dies when Roger throws a rock at him, causing Piggy to fall forty feet to his death. This shows how much the hunters have matured and changed. They’re no longer the innocent and inexperienced boys they were when they first landed on the

island.
    Golding uses the theme loss of innocence the most in the scene where Jack and his crew kills a pig. In the beginning of the book, Jack hesitates when trying to kill a pig. He states that the next time he comes across the pig, he will show no mercy and kill it. After Jack creates his own group without Ralph, they go hunting. They find a sow and murder it. After chasing the animal down, they slowly kill it.“The hunters followed, wedded to her in lust...Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife.” This symbolically represents that they raped the pig. The innocence from the beginning of the book is lost, and has now turned into savagery.
    Lord of the Flies describes how much a person can change when there are no laws and no adults. Without supervision, the boys can not determine right from wrong which leads to many deaths.