Humanity and Its Way of Being Lost

Sanity, slowly fading away, with savagery slowly taking its place. Within the book, Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys, ranging from ages of 3 to 13, were escaping from their all-boys school within an airplane. But unfortunately, the boys’ plane is attacked and the boys end upon a deserted island, and all of the adults are dead. The boys take it upon themselves to survive, until they are rescued, but being upon that island for so long, the boys soon lose who they are. Some don’t want to be rescued, and some have just lost it completely. Lives and personalities are lost to the invading savagery of the island. Throughout the book, Golding shows how the boys upon the island slowly lose themselves.

The island’s barbaric influence on the boys first takes place within their appearances. “His sandy hair, considerably longer than it had been when they dropped in, was lighter now; and his bare back was a mass of dark freckles and peeling sunburn” (Golding, 48). Upon being under the blazing sun of the island for weeks, the boys’ hair all grew longer and lighter. Their hair dropped in front of their faces, reaching towards their noses and/ or chins. All of the boys’ skins have became a dark brown, all sunburnt, and peeling. Making them seem as though they were natives of the island. As though, they were born there. Golding shows the savagery of the boys by having them lose their civilized appearances. Their appearances even took a greater turn when they discovered how to make paint.

“He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed red all over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw” (Golding, 63). Within the book, the boys had started to paint themselves, in order to...

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...wn. And it was not a death of justice, but a death that was not meant to be, an innocent, unjustful death. They had truly lost themselves, to the island. Being lost upon an island for so long can cause a human to lose who they are. No matter their age.

Golding had written this book with many ideas in mind. But the one that stood out most, was the humanity in humans, and what happens to it. Within his book, the humanity of almost all the boys is lost. Along with the lives of three. When away from the civilization that one has known for almost all their life, their civilized state is most of the time will die. Upon being frightened and the thrill of things, humanity within a person can be easily lost, and it may not ever come back. But one will never know truly.

Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 1954.

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