Loss Of Innocence In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Children are shielded from reality, until they are “of age”, and raised in a safe environment full of order and rules. William Golding infringes on that idea by writing Lord of the Flies, where an isolated group of boys exist on an island, attempting to create their own society from nothing. In the end, this attempt at civilization is destroyed by bloodshed and the loss of innocence. Through symbols, Golding conveys the loss of innocence using two characters: Roger and Percival. He additionally shows the descent into savagery from innocence, through the mask of body paint. Throughout the novel, masks of clay paint are worn by hunters and used as a way to forget the restraints of their old lives. When the hunters wear the paint they seem to have new

His name and address seem to be the only rule he can recall and he recites them at an assembly: “‘Percival Wemys Madison, of the Vicarage, Harcourt St. Anthony’” (Golding 86). Reciting his name and address seem to hit a soft spot and he breaks out crying causing all the other littluns to start crying. Percival’s crying signifies how he’s realized that his “slogan” is useless on this island because the protection of parents and a normal civilization is gone. When Percival does meet someone who could use his information he seems to have completely forgotten it. The remaining boys on the island get rescued at the end of the book by a naval officer and when Percival goes to say his name and address “there was no more to come. Percival Wemys Madison sought in his head for an incantation that had faded clean away” (Golding 201). This shows that even Percival had changed due to the island and lost a part of him. At the end of the novel where Ralph weeps “for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart” (Golding 202), he is weeping for Percival. Percival is a symbol of innocence and Golding uses him as a way to intensify the loss of