Loss Of Innocence In William Golding's The Lord Of The Flies

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Mersadie Tallman

9 November 2012

Honors English 10

Merrell Period 5

Loss of Innocence

The first snow fall of winter. It lay there, glistening with an untouched pride. The pure blanket coated with white crystals glitters and illuminates up the starry night sky. The next morning comes and a group of boys catch sight. Soon dozens of boots and goulashes come crunching down white powder, picking it up, heaving it, chomping it, and rolling around in its glory until finally they leave, and the once untainted snow, now lays there, trampled and matted. Dirty slosh that people despise looking at. It gets pushed off to the side, out of sight, and out of mind. Just as snow loses its pure beauty, William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies conveys a clear theme loss of innocence as a result of lack of a familiar order by provoking inner primitive identities, encouraging brutal actions, and diluting what would be perceived as “right” in a functioning society. Golding emphasizes that one’s true identity is not known until their thirst for power is tested. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding illustrates that a man’s savagery is brought out through a grappling for power. In the beginning, Ralph tries to create regulations and tells the boys they will have “rules! […] Lots of rules!” (33). At first the boys try to be somewhat organized and responsible, but there is almost no preventing the fact that this only lasts for so long. Ralph acts the most like an adult of any of the boys as he tries his best to keep the group unified with rules, but in the end he simply does not have the power to enforce them. Also, Ralph is staying sensible, convinced that they “don’t make enough smoke” to be rescued. Jack’s main goal is “rescue? Yes, of course! All the same, I’d like to catch a pig first.” (53). As we can see, Jack’s mind is becoming less focused on being rescued, and more crazily excited every day to hunt and kill. Ralph and Piggy are the only ones trying to promote these laws and rules, but they have no authority over this group of boys to implement them well. Because of this, Jack is able to get away with acting this way being that there are no consequences to his actions. Lastly, at the end, they really evolve into “savages […] painted out of recognition, edging round the ledge toward the neck” (175). Lacking the familiar sense of having someone of a higher stance give rules and authority, the boys revert into what their true identity is, which for Ralph is having a controlled system of law and order, while for Jack is being free and having fun. Golding starts to increase the intensity of the violence of the boys on the island as the story goes on. Often times, the satisfaction the boys want to fill has to do with killing, which all stems to their savagely ways. An example of this impulsive behavior comes when the boys are after Simon, “the Beast”, yelling, “Kill the Beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152) Jack got these boys so excited and wound up that they were going to kill the Beast, as soon as they saw something coming to them; they acted impulsively without really thinking which is immediate gratification, in this case, to kill “The Beast”. Above any other character, the violence within Jack is brought out the most, as he brainwashes and leads on a whole pack of boys that follow him with the idea in mind that they are going to have fun. Throughout the story, he becomes increasingly faded from what reality is. For example, the first killing of the pig, though hesitant at first, Jack becomes thrilled at the thought of killing and “he began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling” (64). He joy that Jack gets from killing the pig gives a glimpse of the evilness that lives inside him. Another example of this savagery is the killing of the sow. The boys commit a violent act of rape to the sow, brutally slaughtering it showing no mercy at all: “Roger found the lodgment for his point
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