Loss Of Innocence In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

As a young person grows up, he or she finds him or herself losing innocence. For some individuals, sometimes it is not growing as a person, sometimes they are put in a situation where they are forced into doing things where they lose their innocence. Other times it is a dramatic event that occurs. William Golding wrote the novel Lord of the Flies and explored this topic of losing one’s innocence. The boys in the novel are put in a situation where they find themselves losing their innocence. They slowly start to lose their innocence in various ways.
The boys kill an animal for meat. This is the start of the boys losing their innocence because they are unintentionally trying to take somethings life away for their own satisfaction. This proves their loss of innocence because, if an innocent person was put in this situation, they would eat the fruit from the trees or the fish from the sea because, they would be too naive or unable to think of violently killing something. Golding describes the first situation of the hunt as, how Jack hesitates to kill the piglet because he himself is still innocent. Later on, his reaction to the hunt dramatically changes; “His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had
They have lost their innocence because they murdered a human being. An innocent person in that situation would react more frightened than act in violence. Golding explains Simon’s death as follows,”The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the stand by the water: At once the crowd surged after it poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.” (pg.153) This quote explains not only his death but how violent, how much of savages they have all become and what they can inflict on another human being. This is why the killing of Simon connects to the boys losing their