Losing Innocence Overtime in Lord of the Flies Essay Sample

How someone loses their innocence could be losing a loved one, or having something traumatic happen to them. This is shown a lot in “Lord of the Flies'' written by William Golding. In the story a group of small boys crash land on an island and have to survive by themselves. Two of the boys that stand out are Roger and Ralph. In “Lord of the Flies” William Golding shows how people lose their innocence overtime, depending on what events happen. In the beginning of the story Roger proves this by not hurting anyone, but later on in the story he becomes increasingly more violent.Ralph also proves this by seeing his friends die, and turn into savages.

In the beginning, Golding shows how people lose their innocence over time with Roger, at first he wouldn't hurt anyone, however his time on the island makes him become someone who would. First, in the story before Roger threw stones at Henry, “Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at Henry-threw it to miss”(Golding 62). Roger did not hit Henry because he knew  it was morally wrong. Roger is still holding on to how he used to live in society, which he loses over time.  Next, on castle rock when Ralph and Piggy bring the conch to confront Jack,”High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever"(Golding 180). This shows that Roger lost his innocence overtime because he used to aim to miss, now he puts all of his effort into trying to kill Piggy. The previous Roger would never do that because he would know it's wrong, it shows how time on the island shaped him over time.

After Ralph first got on the island he was innocent, however the traumatic situations he encountered in his time on the island changed him. To start, after Ralph has explored the island for the first time,”But this is a good island. We-Jack, Simon, and me-we climbed the mountain. It's a wizard. There's food and drink..."(Golding 34). This shows that when Ralph was first getting used to the island he had high hopes, and he and the other boys could survive together fine. Having to run for his life from Jack and his tribe never crossed his mind, which proves his innocence. Later in the story, while Ralph was getting saved by the Naval Officer, "...Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of a man's heart..."(Golding 202). This proves a loss of innocence overtime because Ralph knew that  he couldn't go back to the same before getting on the island. What Ralph experienced and saw on the island is what lost his innocence, he won't forget anything that happened.

Finaly, by seeing how Ralph and Roger changed from the beginning of the story, William Golding expresses  losing innocence as time passes. At the beginning Roger not wanting to hurt people to evolve into a killer, and Ralph knowing he's lost his innocence and that he can't go back to the way things were reflect Goldings message. In the end the traumatic situations the boys faced on the island is what made them lose innocence, and will forever change them moving into the future.