Lord of the Flies/ Night Essay
“Never shall I forget” (Wiesel Lines 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 11 ). Four simple words that say so much, conjuring up feelings of hopelessness and despair. This statement marked the end of Elie Wiesel’s fragile innocence as he spent his first night in Auschwitz. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding deliberately weaved a tale in which Ralph witnessed corruption, signifying the loss of his innocence. Throughout both passages, Golding and Wiesel included the major idea that, once lost, innocence can never be regained. In both Night and Lord of the Flies Elie and Ralph lose hope and innocence due to the challenges they are presented with. Wiesel states, “Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes” (Lines 10 and 11). Before Elie Wiesel was uprooted from his home and forced into Auschwitz, he was a standard fifteen-year old. He never doubted the fact that there would be food waiting for him when he got home and a nice warm bed with a mattress and blankets to sleep on. His first night in the concentration camp destroyed him, crumbling down the wall of innocence until there was nothing left. Everything he had once known and loved, taken away in the blink of an eye. As Wiesel put it, “Never
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Wiesel repeats “never shall I forget” (Wiesel Lines 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 11) many times in the passage. This repetition enforces the idea that Elie was scarred during the first night of his camp, literally losing all his innocence. Golding also uses repetition in the passage from Lord of the Flies. He talks a lot about Ralph’s negative thoughts, emphasizing and reemphasizing the importance of the events that caused Ralph to lose his innocence. “Ralph wept for the end of innocence” (Golding Line 12). Golding describes Ralph’s mournful emotions several times in the