Loss of Innocence - Lord of the Flies

Every child, regardless of when, loses their innocence; it is inevitable. In Lord of the Flies, the reader can recognize this law live up to its word, namely in the protagonist Ralph. Upon arriving on the island, Ralph was oblivious to the circumstances he was soon to be subjected to. Ralph’s innocent and childlike mindset has distorted itself into that of a hostile hunter. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the reader witnesses the Loss of Innocence theme and observes Ralph’s descent into impurity. Ralph is first portrayed as just another kid, waiting for his problems to disappear. He had no plan on how to get off the island, and no reason to worry about it; “daddy” would take care of it for him. Ralph was not concerned about what to do about the situation he was in, and told Piggy why. Ralph tells Piggy, “...Daddy taught me. He’s a commander in the Navy. When he gets leave he’ll come and rescue us… They’d tell him at the airport.” (7) Ralph relied upon the airport telling his father where their plane crashed, with little to no knowledge as to where they could have landed. Though the odds were very slim, Ralph counted on his daddy coming to get him from the island in the middle of the Pacific. He was like a helpless little child, grasping his daddy’s hand and waiting to be led. With the increase of time spent on the island, Ralph’s innocence begins to diminish. Ralph is no longer the helpless little child he once was when he first landed; Ralph has evolved from a benign child to a hostile hunter. After going hunting with the boys, Ralph tried to regain the group’s attention as they all focused on Jack’s’ wounded left arm. Ralph reminisced on how he hit the pig with his spear and then began to act as though Roger were the pig, jabbing at him while Roger rushed away. Soon, the group surrounded Robert, all participating in the jabbing: “Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was