Loss of Innocence in Lord of the Flies Essay Sample

What happens when children do not have immediate consequences for their actions? In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of boys no older than twelve are deserted on an island by a plane crash caused by the ongoing war occurring in the “civilized” world. When the line between right and wrong becomes blurred for the boys their innocence is lost. 

Within the novel, the boy's innocence is progressively lost. Ralph can be seen as the first to grow up when he is elected chief. With this role, he matured quickly trying to assemble a civilized society for the boys to uphold until they are rescued. Along with Ralph as chief, the older boys (the biguns) had to learn from each other and on their own to survive. “Like kids!' he said scornfully. 'Acting like a crowd of kids!” (pg 38). Piggy’s statement is ironic because they are a group of kids but due to the circumstances, they are forced to mature. At the beginning of the novel, the boys respect the conch and its authority as it represents the adult world and doing as told but, boys like Jack realized that theoretically, he could do as he wished on the island. Jack pushed limits and went against Ralph’s rules. Out of compulsion, Jack did what he wanted to do without determining the needs of others, this motivated other boys to give in to the selfish desires of hunting and swimming all day and to join his tribe. “Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight, Simon found for [the littluns] the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands.” (3.138) While Jack is becoming more savage and hunting pigs, Simon helps the littluns eat and build shelters. Even though Simon and Jack have opposite reactions to being on the island. Simon is mature, never giving into savagery, and has to help the younger kids while his old choir leader and friend Jack is turning savage and encouraging the idea that there’s a beast on the island. The need to hunt is a key part of Jack’s loss of innocence, his need to kill affects his relationships and the well-being of the boys on the island to the point where it could diminish their chances of being rescued. Instead of lighting signal fires, the hunters were killing pigs. At first, the idea of being rescued is the main focus for all the boys but at this point, Jack’s tribe is more concerned with their own desires because no one is there to tell them otherwise. 

All of the boys show no lack of guile or corruption after Simon’s death. With Jack representing the id in humans it’s not surprising that he could give into human desires to kill and be most powerful but, what’s forgotten is how he’s no older than twelve and struggled to kill a pig at the beginning of the novel. While some aspire to kill the sought beast Simon realizes it was only a dead parachutist in the trees. All the boys including Ralph are caught up in chanting and dancing around a fire; they kill Simon when he arrives calling him a monster and beast. Despite the fact Piggy and Ralph didn’t hurt him they were there, did nothing to stop it, and were caught up in the exhilaration of killing; it haunts Ralph. “That was Simon...That was murder…I’m frightened, of us. I want to go home. Oh God, I want to go home.” (chapter 10). Ralph is aware of the change on the island that occurs prior to and after Simon's death. He realizes that his innocence is lost and is ashamed that he and the other boys could do something of that degree. The rest of the boys that did kill Simon with their spears seemed unphased, so much so that there’s another death on the island. When trying to retrieve Piggy’s stolen glasses and convince the boys to leave the savagery behind and focus on being rescued, Roger rolls a boulder on Piggy. Piggy represented the adult world, his wisdom to use the conch to alert the boys and help build shelters is what made Ralph become a successful leader initially. Once again the rest of the boys aren’t phased, Jack tells Ralph that’ll he’ll get exactly what Piggy got and because Ralph is on his own with SamnEric being tied up he was on the run. After being hunted down by the savage tribe he reaches the beach meet a Naval Officer. Without there being an accidental fire all of the boys wouldn’t have been rescued and could have killed Ralph. Almost immediately the boys are returned to just children and the savagery is gone. Ralph gets emotional at the fact that he would have had to become feral in order to survive. “ 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.” The events that occurred prior to being rescued impact how the boys view the world, to the adults and civilization meant that humans wouldn’t give in to their instinctual and evil desires but, now he knows that the outside world isn’t different and these instincts can follow them hence the boy’s losing their innocence. 

The Consequences of No Consequences by Frank Sonnenberg shares how lack of authority results in wrongdoings being repeated, next offenses being bigger and improper behavior becoming the norm; this wasn’t an exception for the boys when resulting in savagery. With Ralph making it out of a war between man and the primal forces and desires, he realizes there’s another in the adult world. This realization due to the events on the island results in loss of innocence.