Innocence Of Ralph In Lord Of The Flies Essay

As a normal twelve year old child, one normally does not have to build a signal fire, encourage his friends that there is hope for life, or witness the darkness of man’s heart. This is exactly what Ralph had to do though in Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Throughout the novel Ralph unsurprisingly quickly matures with his leadership role, his determination in giving the boys hope, and his ability to see the truth. By the end of the novel Ralph’s innocence has been replaced with his newfound maturity. Firstly, at the start of the novel, Ralph is immature but when he gains a leadership role he becomes more mature. When they first arrive on the island he ignores the severity of the boy’s situation. Ralph is ecstatic about no adults being around but believes that his dad will be there soon anyways: “He’s [Ralph’s father] a commander in the Navy…he’ll come rescue us (7)”. Ralph is naïve though, and doesn’t think about the war going on that could make his dad very busy. Within a few hours, Ralph’s childish actions lessen as he finds himself in
Nobody else wants to say Simon’s death was a murder except for him: The boys come up with excuses as they try to hide the reality of the situation, even Piggy that it was Simon’s fault. “Coming in the dark- he hadn’t no business crawling like that out of the dark. He was batty. He asked for it (140)”. Ralph can hardly handle the thought of the boys murdering Simon and is scared to be around the people he used to lead. This event still shows maturity though because he doesn’t try to hide the truth like the others do when speaking of Simon’s death. Ralph also shows maturity when it becomes apparent that he knows who the beast really is: “…Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart… (182)”. Ralph knows how dark a person’s heart can actually be, he also knows that the innocence he once held is