The Decline Of Innocence, A Story Told In Lord Of The Flies.

In the fictional story Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, Jack and Ralph are two of the eldest boys in the group who soon become leaders on the island. Although they are British and know how to maintain themselves they both simply fail at the end. Though Jack is all about fun and hunting, Ralph is all about order. Also Jack grows stronger but Ralph grows wiser. Finally while Ralph tries to remain calm and kind, Jack on the other hand threatens and bullies.

Jack and Ralph were motivated for their actions in different ways. Ralph was motivated strictly by the hope of being rescued. Even though he called meetings and tried to organize the group of boys to do simple things like build huts or keep the fire going so they could be rescued or survive, the boys would go play or bathe. Ralph said to Jack ‘"And they keep running off, you remember the meeting? How everyone was going to work hard until the shelters were finished?" (51) The only person who would listen or work with Ralph was Simon. Unfortunately, the other boys continued to ignore Ralph's leadership throughout the novel and eventually all turned to Jack for leadership. Jack was motivated by hunting and killing. His obsession for this began when he was frustrated with himself for not killing the pig in the first chapter: ‘"He snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk. Next time there would be no mercy" (29).There would actually be no mercy from Jack from that point on. Eventually all of the boys, except for Ralph and Piggy, turned to Jack's evil ways, even to the point of participating in the killing of Simon. Effectively, Ralph was motivated by the hope

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of young British boys are left stranded on an island after a fatal plane crash in the midst of a World War. With no communication to the outer world and no presence or influence of adults on the island, Ralph, Jack Merridew, and Piggy are forced to take initiative if the group of hopeless boys want to survive. The group of boys experience a drastic change throughout their time on the island, a change that no one would ever expect to occur to a young group of primed British boys. The leader of the stranded choirists on the island, Jack Merridew, shows such a change that he soon persuades other boys to follow his savage actions as the novel progresses. Though the changes to Jack’s mental and physical characteristics advance slowly at first, the final personality of Jack is instantly taken over at the climax of the novel to a dehumanized savage. Jack’s innocence is corrupted by his inability to withstand a society without rules proving man's good essential nature is altered by the evil within society.

Thesis Statement: The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding portrays the theme that regardless of each person’s different background and characteristics, every individual has the ability to commit brutal acts. While this book depicts Ralph and Piggy as the most civilized characters, and Jack and his hunters as young English choir boys, their actions reveal that they all have the capability to act violently.

Children are fragile. Even though children start off innocent, the lack of regulation can shatter that. In Lord of the Flies, the absence of rules and guidance dissolved the boys innocence and started their regression to savagery. The first incident where the boys face a lack of regulation is when the protagonist, Ralph, stands on the terrace and removes his clothes shortly after the crash.

One major conflict in The Lord of the Flies is man vs. society. Ralph is good for the island society because he concluded there need to be rules and order so that the boys stay balanced and are concentrated on getting recaptured. “ The rules! ‘Shouted Ralph’ You’re breaking the rules!” pg. 130 Ralph is fighting for civilization, he is trying to make everything is coordinated, all he wants is for all of them to get rescued. Society need rules in order to be civil, because if everyone was not civil, the world would be turbulent. Ralph is the leader of the “tribe”. When Jack separated from the group and made his own tribe it all became crazy. Jack’s group was chaotic; however, they did know how to hunt and they had the ability to start a fire because of Piggy’s specs. One boy states, “We did everything adults would do, what went wrong” (Golding). When boys from Ralph's tribe decided to leave and start their own clan then everything started becoming chaotic. If they all would have stayed together they would have had trouble getting along but at least it wouldn't be hectic. Ralph did the best he could trying to keep everyone from going insane. Ralph represents humanity, and jack represents savagery.

We as humans generally do not think critically before proceeding, but rather feel like it’s the right thing to do, therefore we go ahead and do it anyways. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, A plane filled with a group of boys from Britain are shot down over an abandoned Island. These boys from the age of six to twelve, rush to the shore of the Island and have no choice but to work as a group for hope that they will be rescued. The boys use their skills but most importantly their instincts in order to stay alive. The main focus on the story is on Ralph, Piggy and Jack. These three characters have one thing in common,

In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there is a theme relating to loss of innocence. To begin, when Jack kills the first pig in Chapter 4, it is showing how his innocence is beginning to diminish. This is shown very clearly when it states, “Jack began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling” (Golding, 1954, p. 91). Killing the first pig shows how the boys are starting to lose the innocence that they used to have. When they first came to the island, Jack could not kill a pig, but as his innocence begins to fade, he is able to kill the pig. In addition to Jack killing the first pig in Chapter 4, another significant part of the novel is when he kills the pig in Chapter 8. This is described in the novel when it says,

C.S Lewis once said “friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” These words perfectly summarize the journey of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. This novel is filled with young boys yearning to escape the grasp of a deserted island. In the process of survival, the group splits into two, with one group turning violent and the other remaining sane.The two main characters of this book, Ralph and Jack, have opposing perspectives causing conflict throughout the novel. By analyzing the values of the two throughout the course of the book, it becomes apparent that the morals of the duo foil.

Chaos can be caused by something as small as innocent children. The battle between Jack and Ralph for the title leader remains constant throughout Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Ralph, the protagonist, is the natural leader of the group of British boys. Jack, the antagonist, is the most savage on the island. There are two main reason why the island’s society collapsed. The lack of the boy’s organizational skills. The disagreement between the boys. The failure to communicate can have tragic results. Organization is one of the most important aspects of everyday life.

¨Group fragmentation, leadership struggles, personal hatred, theft, abuse, frenzied violence, the discarding of empathy and compassion – these are all things that afflicted both Golding's schoolboys and many real survivor groups¨ (jenny tabakoff). The novel The Lord of the Flies shows a group of school boys stranded on a deserted island. The island has no adults to watch over them so they must survive on their own. With there many different personalities and ideas of civilization things get a little out of hand. In the novel, “The Lord of the Flies”,written by William Golding the characters symbolize different sides of humanity: Ralph represents order; Jack illustrates chaos; and Piggie symbolizes intelligence.

The next example of loss of innocence can be seen in Lord of the Flies. When the children on the island first arrive they are scared and worried about when they will be rescued. As time goes on the children, Jack in particular wants to live and rule the island forever without adults. As one reads Lord of the Flies, they can see the different stages of childhood and the decline of society on the island. One example of lost innocence can be seen here: “Simon’s dead body moved out toward the open sea,” (Golding 154).

As there are no rules on the island, kids show their true personality, while some are good and intelligent most of the children’s human nature is bad and focused on power and greed. This is illustrated by Jack in many ways, Jack was so upset he wasn’t chief that he left Ralph to make his on group giving him more power (Ch 8, p 140.). Another way Jack demonstrates his corrupt human nature is by taking Piggy’s glasses (Ch 10, p 185), he could have asked to use them to make a fire but he stole, as he was greedy. He made sure he was the only one that could use them which also gave him power. I think the “Lord of the Flies” displays through young children that our human nature is bad and that it is inevitable to avoid war as that’s our nature, this is also why I think the author chose to make the setting during a

In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a plane carrying a group of British schoolboys is shot down over an uninhabited tropical island in the midst of a raging war. Stranded with no adult supervision, the boys make an unsuccessful attempt to recreate the culture they leave behind. As time passes, the group gradually succumb to savage instincts, and Ralph, a young, charismatic boy’s position as leader declines precipitously while Jack, an aggressive, commanding individual’s rises triumphantly. The conflict between Ralph and Jack represent the forces of savagery and civilization that arise among the boys. Despite Jack’s successes, Ralph possesses the ability to show initiative, responsibility, courage, and selflessness which makes him the

The loss of innocence began once the hunters commenced to use clay to paint their faces and bodies. This was for the purpose of camouflage for hunting wild swine within the confines of the forest yet it had a much more sinister side effect. The paint “was a thing of its own, behind which [the wearer] hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness,” (Golding 75-76) which unlike a mask, uncovered the boys’ horrible savagery. Like tribal paint, it revealed the dying innocence yet blooming barbaric nature of Jack and his hunters which would spread to the remaining boys, except for a few such as Ralph. Ralph also saw the adolescent boys’ revealing nature as well such as the time when Jack and some of his fellow savages stole fire as “demoniac figures with faces of white and red and green” (Golding