Innocence In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Words: 1058
Pages: 5

Children do not know their innocence until they no longer have it. Irving Howe once spoke of this great tragedy stating, “The knowledge that makes us cherish innocence makes innocence unattainable.” It is impossible for someone to pinpoint the exact moment innocence leaves them and is replaced with doubt, fear, corruption, and sin. In the Lord of the Flies, Golding illustrates the transition from innocence to savagery, furthering the message that even the purest of water will become tainted once touched by the polluted world, never able to revert back to its once clean ways, seen in today’s world when children die fighting the battle of men.
It is in human nature to protect children and, to save them from the demons on this earth,...but
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First off, the officer can never really save them, not anymore. While yes, he can take them home and bring them to their moms, they will never be the same. At the point, the reader needs to be questioning if the boys’ souls can be saved, or if they are too far gone. This is a hard place for the reader, especially when “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." (Golding 184). The soldier was probably astonished when he saw the boys all dirty, smelly, and trying to kill each other.
The loss of innocence in Lord of the Flies is gradual, as it is for most people. And, as Ralph did, many wish for their innocence to come back. The problem is, once it is gone, it cannot come back. Whatever the person saw or did to lose it, has forever changed them. They no longer see the world as they once did.
Teenagers and adults often say they wish they could go back to a simpler time- a time when hurting people was not a sport, lying was not an act, and love was not a toy to break; the thing is, the “simpler time” everyone speaks of, was just a time when they were innocent, and the horrible things on earth were unknown to