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Innocence In Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

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William Golding’s most famous novel, Lord of the Flies, opens with a group of schoolboys stranded on an island, excited to be without adult supervision. By the end, the ones left are closer to savages than children, their innocence ruined. Golding wrote the novel after his experience in the Navy during World War II. The story takes place at the end of the war, causing the plane to crash and a group of young boys to be stranded. The novel is about the boys’ fight to survive and their loss of innocence. At the same time, grown men are out fighting the war, doing the same, and worse, to people as the boys did to each other. It questions whether innocence is ruined from surroundings or individuals themselves: “Golding sets a group of children, who should supposedly be …show more content…

He leads them in hunts and had them chant, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152). At the time the boys are doing the dance and chant, Simon is running towards the group. He is attacked and killed by the others at Jack’s command. Simon’s death is not only an important turning point but also a symbol for the complete loss of innocence: “...for it is the first time that the boys have deliberately killed one of their own” (Lord of the Flies Novels for Students). The main reason for Simon’s death, besides Jack’s instruction, is the boys’ common belief of “the beast”. Even though Simon had once pointed out “the beast” might only be their imaginations by saying, “...maybe it’s only us” (Golding 89), Jack convinces them otherwise. He tells them “the beast” must to be killed. By now, the boys have completely lost their morals, and they believe Jack when he says Simon was “the beast”. Character development clearly shows the theme of loss of innocence. Jack was like any other boy. After being left without adults, or any civilization, he becomes morally corrupt and leads other boys down the same

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This gets him nowhere among the boys, and he stays a follower. Since the boys are split up, Simon is the only one to believe there is no beast, and he dies attempting to preach there is no beast. Jack’s ruthless hunters attacked him when he was “crying out something about a dead man on a hill” (Golding 152). This shows Simon is a smart guy, but his lackadaisical attitude leads him to his demise, which ends up being his most significant failure, costing him his

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Once they kill Simon it explains deeply about how they kill him and how cruel and brutal it was. They kill him by biting and clawing and acting like savages. Simon says that it's themselves that is the beast and it shows in the part of the story how they act savage and

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Schoolboys lose their innocence Lust and greed are more gullible than innocence by Mason Cooley. In the book Lord of Flies , schoolboys from England crashed on an island , near the Pacific. Their innocence starts to slowly drift away as the longer they stay at the island. The boys tried to keep their connection to the adult world , but the boys were losing hope. The schoolboys lost their innocence by killing a mama pig , killing another school boy named Simon and hunting down another school boy named Ralph, to the point of almost killing him.

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Loss on the Island Everyone grows up, some sooner than others. But what happens when people are forced to grow up? In Lord of the Flies by William Golding a group of boys have to survive on a desert island after a plane crash. Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon attempt to lead the younger boys but they will hate to grow up in order to do so. The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about innocence, and how it is lost when you are forced to grow up.

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With the boys worshiping him, he felt the that he dominated the other boys. The last reason the boys became savage was due to self-defense. When they were killing Simon they thought he was the beast which was self-defense. The boys also wounded themselves up like when they were dancing.

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William Golding's timeless classic "Lord of the Flies" is a thought-provoking and harrowing exploration of the dark depths of human nature. Published in 1954, this novel continues to captivate readers with its stark portrayal of the inherent conflict between civilization and savagery, and the fragile nature of societal structures. Golding's expert storytelling and poignant symbolism make "Lord of the Flies" an enduring masterpiece that resonates across generations. The novel opens with a group of British boys, stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash during wartime. Initially hopeful of rescue, the boys establish a semblance of order under the leadership of Ralph, the charismatic and democratic protagonist.

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1054 Words | 5 Pages

Jack's influence is beginning to rub off on the other boys, causing them to believe that one of the other boys is 'the beast.' Simon crawls out of the jungle and, "all at once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws" (Golding 169). The fear of the beast that sits within the boys originates from the fear that Jack has instilled into them. This causes them to murder young Simon, believing that he is the beast.

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Simon is the first character in the novel to see the beast not as an external force but as a component of human nature. Simon does not yet fully understand his own idea, but it becomes clearer to him in Chapter 8, when he has a vision in the glade and confronts the Lord of the Flies. Then everyone thought the beastie was real but us the audience knew the beastie was not real and so did simon. Simon was going to tell everyone but “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me.

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This shows that the boys are only afraid of themselves, because they are their own worst enemy. He is the first to figure out that the beast is not an actual beast, and how it is only the boys becoming savage, and starting to be afraid of one another. As Simon began to explain this to the doubtful boys, he was the only one who died knowing the

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Jack’s manipulation even is used to justify the death of Simon later. Simon is brutally murdered but Jack claims that the beast is just taking a different form rather than acknowledging the group’s wrong. The book suggests that Jack knows of the murder of Simon“This head is for the beast. It's a gift. ”(146)

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Lastly, the loss of innocence due to evil can be seen in what has become of the formerly innocent in the long-term. This can be shown with how perception of the world around the formerly innocent changes. In The Lord Of The Flies the change in perception for the then innocent can be seen when Piggy’s glasses are broken at the hands of Jack. Representing clarity and hope within in novel, when they are broken, the boys’ perception of each other and their environment changes with Ralph growing increasingly frustrated at Jack and his hunters who “QUOTE”, and with Jack and his hunters growing increasingly less sensitive to murder. By the end of the book, it is seen that Jack will stop at nothing to kill Ralph and that Jack and Ralph have split as enemies.

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At the end of the day, when everything is on the line, man tends to revert back to what is comfortable for them; The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a story of the true evil of man, as described through schoolboys stranded on an island in a microcosm of the real world. William Golding was a schoolteacher, suffering alcoholic, war veteran and wonderful writer, and became great through the terrible experiences he witnessed and came to certain conclusions about human nature. His novel tells the story of a group of young boys from Great Britain escaping from nuclear war by getting on a plane to a safer place. With an understanding of the inherent darkness in all men and first-hand experience with savagery and violence in the Second World

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One of the final sentences in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (202), explains so much of the novel. This one sentence explains exactly why the boys will never be the same after they return to society, it ties into the themes of savagery and civilization and order, and it perfectly summarizes the events that occurred on the island. It mentions the death of Piggy and Simon, the descent into savagery, and the destruction of the island. The first thing that Ralph wept for was the end of innocence.

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746 Words | 3 Pages

A world war takes place as a group of boys get stranded on an island. As the boys try to escape the war, it follows them onto the island in the form of a never ending conflict with how to survive. As the boys become engaged in this war they lose their innocence. In the Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, loss of innocence plays a big role in the outcome of the book. Loss of innocence is ultimately what leads to the war which takes place on the once “good island” (Golding 34).

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This action causes the boys to go into a savage frenzy , screaming, yelling, and mass chaos, all because Jack told them to do their dance. Their dance turned into ritual killing where all the boys, including Jack, ruthlessly stabbed and beat Simon repeatedly to death. Jack had caused the mass chaos and if he had never done that, Simon would still be alive and not a corpse at the bottom of the ocean. Jack and his tribe committed murder and only Ralph recognized it for what it was: “that was murder…. I wasn’t

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