Fleeting Innocence
Ernest Hemingway once said, “All things truly wicked start from innocence.” The most horrible situations in today’s society often stem from something seen as innocent. In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, a group of young British boys are stranded on an island after their plane crashes. At first, when the boys are innocent, they get along with each other. Quickly, the stay on the island becomes less about fun and more about survival. Being stranded on the island causes the boys to lose their innocence and turn into savages, despite their upper-class British upbringings. Children are corrupt and impure rather than innocent because they are brutal, murderous, and exuberant about violence. Golding depicts the boys as violent to portray their lack of innocence. In the beginning, Jack is hesitant to “kill [a] pig”, but later on, he wants to “cut [its] throat [and] spill [its] blood” (69). This major change in Jack is the precursor to the gradual changes in all of the boys as time goes on. While the transition from civilized to …show more content…
Jack is the first one to become violent and barbaric, but others quickly follow suit. While it starts out as nothing more than a game, the boys’ violence transitions from harmless to harmful. Signs of savagery are seen when the boys murder one and show no signs of remorse. Through the cruel deaths of Piggy and Simon, the sick pleasure the children take in the violence is seen, further illustrating that they have lost all of their innocence by the time they are rescued. The boys prove Ernest Hemingway to be correct in saying that the worst things often start out as entirely innocent. While they start out as children: innocent and polite, the boys quickly turn into brutal
Ernest Hemingway once said, “All things truly wicked start from innocence.” The most horrible situations in today’s society often stem from something seen as innocent. In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, a group of young British boys are stranded on an island after their plane crashes. At first, when the boys are innocent, they get along with each other. Quickly, the stay on the island becomes less about fun and more about survival. Being stranded on the island causes the boys to lose their innocence and turn into savages, despite their upper-class British upbringings. Children are corrupt and impure rather than innocent because they are brutal, murderous, and exuberant about violence. Golding depicts the boys as violent to portray their lack of innocence. In the beginning, Jack is hesitant to “kill [a] pig”, but later on, he wants to “cut [its] throat [and] spill [its] blood” (69). This major change in Jack is the precursor to the gradual changes in all of the boys as time goes on. While the transition from civilized to …show more content…
Jack is the first one to become violent and barbaric, but others quickly follow suit. While it starts out as nothing more than a game, the boys’ violence transitions from harmless to harmful. Signs of savagery are seen when the boys murder one and show no signs of remorse. Through the cruel deaths of Piggy and Simon, the sick pleasure the children take in the violence is seen, further illustrating that they have lost all of their innocence by the time they are rescued. The boys prove Ernest Hemingway to be correct in saying that the worst things often start out as entirely innocent. While they start out as children: innocent and polite, the boys quickly turn into brutal