Alienation In Lord Of The Flies

Throughout the entirety of the novel, the children are unconditionally associated with destruction and death, an association that only grows stronger as the novel continues. Even their very presences are associated with as much—the crash that leaves them stranded on the island was so severe that the damage left in its wake can only be referred to as a “scar,” which “jutted through the lagoon” and “left a gash visible in the trees,” something distinctly separate from the natural beauties on the island, from “the falls and cliffs,” the slopes, the gullies, and the flowers... (Golding 29) It 's alienated from every natural, beautiful thing on the island, treating it like some reprehensible disfigurement of it; and given that the scar is treated …show more content…
While that on its own could be excused as a coincidence, the longer they spend on the island, the more instances like that develop, such as how the children quite literally have to kill to survive—sacrificing lives to keep their own—and sustain themselves, as the fruits and plants on the island had a tendency to make them ill, forcing them to resort to eating animals... and it 's this that leads to the children 's moral descent, elaborate enough that it needs its own section to fully explore …show more content…
But the island is far from the only thing that the children destroy in the novel—when they wreak such destruction on their environment to that degree, it follows that they could very likely destroy themselves and any security they manage to form, which is exactly what happens. Even as early as the third chapter, the children show signs of an unnatural detachment from society—for one, Jack “had to think for a moment before he could remember what rescue was,” upon Ralph mentioning that their highest priority should be getting rescued, as if the island was more familiar than the life he had for at least ten years prior despite how they had spent barely any time on the island by that point (Golding 53). Just how quickly some of the boys adapt to this life—and begin to love it, even, including the killing despite them being no older than fourteen—is unnerving at best, as if this way of living was their natural state, just repressed; but even so, overcoming that repression in such a short amount of time is disconcerting all the more, given how strong and innate their natures are to manifest so soon. While being able to adapt and being able to do what one must to survive is one thing, the children soon begin to develop in such a way that they take a twisted sort of gratification from killing and holding the lives of others in their