...In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Ralph experiences the loss of innocence on the island. In his experiences, we see that evil is inherent in man- something only Simon has understood on the island. The boys first enjoyed the freedom from adults, but soon all civil ideas on the island collapsed, leading to chaos and the death of Simon and Piggy; a metaphor to the background of the war in the adult world. This implies that every man has some capacity for evil within himself, even small children, leading to a loss of innocence. Furthermore, Ralph’s Loss of Innocence occurs during the death of Simon and Piggy, and during the destruction of the conch. At the beginning of the novel, the remains of what would be civilization still...
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...self-consciousness" (Golding, 64) Loss of innocence is a strong topic in Lord of the Flies, the three topics that will be talked about in this essay includes, the boys acting without fear of punishment, they had to grow up and civilization helped them remain innocent and once they became savages they lost all remaining innocence. The loss of innocence is clearly shown in the boys because they are forced to grow up. They can’t play around any more but now they have to hunt and care for themselves. “We’ll make sure when we go hunting” (Golding, 35) This is when they realize they can't play around anymore or act like young boys but they have to grow up and start hunting and find resources so that they don’t die or get sick. Another time they lost...
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...In the "Lord of the Flies" the readers sees the school boys lose control of the situation due to youthful inexperience. William Golding interprets this to give it a deeper meaning, describing the breakdown as a reveal of human nature and its desire to break through society's regulations. Virtue rapidly descends and the naivety of the dangers clears away, the fight for survival is not of the physically demanding aspect but of the mind. Golding illustrates loss of innocence in character development, in the lack of democracy, and symbolism as a result of the struggle between civilization versus savagery. Initial impressions of the main characters tell the readers of the immaturity of the mass, excluding Piggy.1 The severe lack of panic that is replaced with joyful curiosity foreshadows mass turn of events that will soon turn the perceived island paradise into a dystopian land. The first character that leads the rest into a domino effect of savagery is Jack. He starts of hunting and insists the urgency of meat in contrast of the fire. Priority is given to surviving on the...
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...One wrong decision can change you in an instant, we live in a world where faulty judgement can affect the lives of others around you. It is important that everyday we try and evaluate decisions that benefit us, as well others. Innocence is something we are born with and can be defined as freedom from sin, moral wrong, lack of purity or corruption. However, things that we possess can also be lost and or taken away including our innocence. A novel that demonstrates a vast loss of innocence is in Lord of the Flies written by William Goulding. Innocence in the novel is present in many of the characters but slowly begins to deteriorate over time due to the lack of maturity and discipline from their lives, which is replaced with violence and savagery....
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...“I'm interested in how innocence fares when it collides with hard reality.” In the book, Lord of the Flies, a group of children were being flown out of England to escape their dangerous home environment, when their plane crashed on an island with no civilization. Without parental guidance, the children tried to create their own rules and their own government. Being so difficult for young children to follow their set rules, this led to chaos among the boys, causing a ripple effect of unfortunate events, leading to the loss of innocence. The boys lost their innocence the moment they killed a mama pig, which eventually led the boys to killing a young boy, and finally, hit hard reality when starting to hunt their leader, Ralph. The boys killing...
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...When people are put in life or death situations their views and morals are put into the back of their brain, and they start to only think about living. The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a good example of this situation. When our main priority is physical survival we lose our innocence, empathy, and our conscience. When our main priority is physical survival we lose our innocence. For instance, before the island the boys had never killed anything, but they realize they must hunt the pigs to stay alive. Jack comes back from a hunt and says proudly, “ I cut the pigs throat” (69). This shows that we lose our innocence when our main priority is living. Others may argue that not everyone will lose their innocence when a person is forced into survival mode. However, since food is necessary for survival, it would be very difficult to not kill any animals in the process. For example, after Piggy is killed by the rock, Jack, “[v]iciously, with full intention... hurled his spear at Ralph” (181). This shows that he is no...
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...Hundreds of thousand of children have been forced to become child soldiers. A Long Way Gone and Lord of the Flies both share an essence of innocence that they are forced to let go of. A Long Way Gone portrait Ishmael Beah’s young life in Africa as a child soldier. Ishmael, while away from his village he learns it had been attacked by rebels and cannot return home. When the rebels arrive at the village Ismael has been staying in, he and manages to evade the rebels but must be nomadic. However, when he seems to find peace in a military occupied village, the rebels arrive and Ismael joins the fight to protect himself, becoming a child soldier. After a couple more battles UNICEF comes to take the boys to Freetown in order to be rehabilitated and educated. Esther serves as a role model for...
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...that the innocence once possessed as a child can dissipate. Innocence can be easily viewed as temporal due to its tendency to falter in a myriad amount of people. Loss of innocence is a prevalent archetypal theme in Star Wars, Grapes of Wrath, Lord of the Flies, A Separate Peace, and Swing Kids. Although all novels display this archetypal theme well, the character Tom in Grapes of Wrath suffers the greatest loss of innocence due to the tragic effects of the Great Depression and the crime he participates in. In Star Wars, a young man, Luke Skywalker, who has lost his parents, lives with his aunt and uncle and is brought into a world of violence on his mission to become a Jedi. He encounters the ultimate archetypal devil figure, Darth Vader. Darth represents the darkness humanity possesses. Although Luke’s encounters with supernatural beings and death are frequent in the film Star Wars, this sharply contrasts with the isolation Tom Joad faces in Grapes of Wrath. While Luke’s loss of innocence is accepted as a way of life in Star Wars, including killing clones and destroying an entire planet, Tom’s inability to tolerate injustice, resulting in violence, is a crime in the world of his character. Essentially, Luke’s loss of innocence brings him closer to the people in the world he is surrounded by; his destroying of the Death Star is an act of bravery. Tom kills men who displayed violence and evil, but it is a crime in his world. In this perspective, Tom’s loss of innocence, which...
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...Lord of the Flies is a 1963 British film directed by Peter Brook based on the 1954 novel by William Golding. Both the book and movie of Lord of the Flies represent popular culture in the fact that the book started out being popularized by the working class and would later become a best seller and even move into the category of high culture by becoming required reading in many schools across the world as well as wining the Nobel Prize. The Lord of the Flies and book and movie demonstrate many of the traits that are often reproduced in various form media and often imitated in other works of film, television, and reading. Lord of the Flies was remade into another film in 1990 but the 1963 film is considered to be closer to the book and is the one that is used by this paper. The 1963 Lord of the Flies film is a black and white British film that is presented in the form of a third person narrative in which the audience is a outside party looking in on the cast of the film. The film is about a group of young pre-teen to teenage boys who crash land on an island somewhere is the specific ocean as a result of their plane being shoot down. In the background of the movie there is some type of war but the film never mentioned which war is taking place. With the film being based on a book from the 1950s and the film taking place in the 1960 it can be assumed that the war in question is either World War II or perhaps a future war. In the film the overall theme is that violence and hate...
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...In society today, one barely has any time to take care of one’s children. They are left alone and uncared for which often causes them to either react badly in every day life or to become accustomed to their solitude and learn to fend for themselves. Such realities can also be portrayed in works of fiction such as The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies, two stories that may seem very different in content, but are based on very similar ideas. In these two stories, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there are two main characters by the names of Katniss and Ralph who both go through their life journeys isolated from society and in each story, their situations becomes a disadvantage for them. Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games are novels that portray an abuse of power as a result of leadership roles in society, an absence of identity used as camouflage, and finally, a loss of innocence among the characters as a result of living in a corrupted and chaotic environment. In both stories, there is an abuse of power, which destroys the main characters’ lives. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies, once Jack had decided to run the island the way he sees fit, things started to go downhill for Ralph. When Ralph was chief of the island, the children tried to stay as civilized as they could, and even started establishing rules and tasks for each person to accomplish. When Jack started to take control of the island, however, everything was completely ruined...
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...Lord of the Flies Review “When a plane crashes on a remote island, a small group of schoolboys are the sole survivors. From the prophetic Simon and Virtuous Ralph to the lovable Piggy and brutish Jack, each of the boys attempt to establish control as the reality and - and brutal savagery - of their situation sets in” (Goodreads.com 1). Lord of the Flies, by William Golding is a novel about a group of kids stranded on an island, and having to survive. This goal; like any other, has obstacles. Children, along with even adults are known to be very judgmental, and the result of that is bullying, which happens to a little boy crudely nicknamed Piggy more than anyone else. Waiting until they are rescued, lady luck really doesn't seem to be on their side. This book should be recommended because it connects to a real medical problem - asthma - and has the theme, there is always some kind of darkness in man’s heart, often causing extreme harm to other people....
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...Caleb Alexander Mrs. Walls AP Literature May 8, 2015 Lord of the Flies Boys Fighting Man’s War I. Introduction Greed, jealousy, and murder three of man’s original sins. Since the time of Cain and Able, humans have had an inner hunger for power and savagery. Over time this nature has been hidden, but not totally erased from Man’s nature. In today’s world politics are filled with corruption in every corner of the globe, yet they hide their nature of greed for power. William Golding served in the Navy during World War 2 where he witnessed human tragedy like no other. Inspired by what he saw, Golding wrote his most popular novel in 1954 titled Lord of the Flies. The novel is set on a remote island where a group of young boys had survived an airplane...
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...Death can cause different responses in people. When someone you know dies, many thoughts go around your mind. Some people become murderous in revenge, others become sad and depressed and shut out the world. The Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group of boys that are in a plane crash and became stranded on an island. The boys are forced to adapt to their environment and struggle to survive and in the process, several of the boys are lost. Simon’s death is the most important event in the Lord of the Flies because it leads to character development in Ralph and Jack, it also emphasizes the depravity of man. Simon’s death is the most important event because it is a significant event in the plot that adds to themes and helps character's develop. Simon’s death is the arrival of evil on the island within the boys, this is where they begin to realize they are becoming mad. After Simon was killed on the stormy night down on the beach the...
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...The Savagery of Human Nature in William Golding's 'Lord of the flies' Civilization today has become almost completely reliant on technology. Almost the entire planet is connected by phone lines, roads, air travel, or the internet. People converse with others thousands of miles away through modern connections, watch live broadcasts of news in foreign lands or talk on wireless phones by use of satellites. We are governed by laws designed to protect us. We live in heated homes with fresh water and electricity. We commute to work by car or mass transit. We live by rules, values, and ideals that keep the peace. Our world is organized, convenient and technologically advanced. What would happen if suddenly our civilization disappeared leaving us with only the things we were wearing, the ideals we were raised with, the things we could find is nature and our instincts? This is exactly what happened to the boys in Lord of the Files by William Golding. Ralph, Piggy, Jack and the other stranded students find themselves on a deserted island. Golding’s motives for choosing the island setting for the novel, Lord of the Files was to have the characters isolated, where the laws of their governments could not reach them. The boys on the island represented a microcosm of world society. Golding chose children because they have not yet been fully conditioned by society to understand right from wrong and thus are guided by their instinct and what is inherent with them. Golding uses a great deal...
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...Ralph went for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of true, wise friend called piggy" In the dystopian novel, "Lord of the Flies" written by William Goulding, a group of young British boys are struggling to survive on an untouched and deserted island after their plane is attacked during the nuclear war of World War 1, causing the plane to crash. Without adults in control, they try to govern themselves to maintain order and stability but ultimately fail resulting into violence and brutality. Throughout the novel, a presence of a dark force becomes more evident as the story progresses, exemplifying the inner darkness within the children. With these young boys, Goulding proposes a shocking revelation...
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