Maturity is the beast in a person’s life that rips away their childhood. Coming of age is ascension into adulthood and the loss of childhood. During this transition, we gain maturity, but lose the carefree way of life most children live. In Lord of the Flies, a group of British schoolboys are stranded on an uninhabited island where they fear for their lives and they become exposed to the horrors of human nature. In Au Revoir Les Enfants, French male students are sent to a boarding school in the country to protect them from the war going on around them. In Lord of the Flies and Au Revoir Les Enfants, that child-like happiness is forever lost. It is taken by the loss of the children’s innocence and by the gripping claws of fear. The common themes, …show more content…
Lord of the Flies presents this loss and it’s significance to coming of age in many ways. In Lord of the Flies, the boys are exposed to the horrors of savagery and the negative effect of isolation. After witnessing these atrocities, the boys who have not succumbed to savagery are forever scarred. The end result is that the boys are forced to age beyond their physical years. At the end of the novel, Ralph thinks, “But the island was scorched like dead wood- Simon was dead- and Jack had… The tears began to flow and sobs shook him” (Goulding 202). When Ralph begins to cry, his guilt, his sorrow, his grief, and his realization all surface. Ralph is stricken; he realizes that he will never be able to be a child again. That he has forever lost his naiveté to the harsh realities of the …show more content…
It causes Jack and his tribe to descend into savagery, to kill Simon, and to hunt Ralph. Fear helped the boys to mature. Being afraid of “the beast” resulted in the boys killing Simon. When they killed Simon, the horror of what they had done sobered some of the boys, while others plummeted further into the pit of madness. In the novel, Ralph excessively repeats that the boys killed Simon. Ralph declines that he participated in the event, but it is clear that the event greatly traumatized him. To support the former statement, Ralph states, “ I’m frightened. Of us” (Goulding 157) This quote presents the idea that Ralph is aware that what they did was wrong. Admitting this reality to himself causes him to mature. Ralph is starting to realize that they are turning into
In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee tells the story of coming-of-age and the loss of innocence through the character Jem. Through recurring events, Jem is faced with the realization of society’s injustice, and is left questioning the world he lives in. During a time of rampant racial discrimination and prejudice in the south, Jem transforms from naivety to maturity.
As Ralph is trying to hide from them overnight, he wonders, “Might it not be possible to walk boldly into the fort… pretend they were still boys, schoolboys who had said, ‘Sir, yes, sir’- and worn caps? Daylight might have answered yes; but darkness and the horrors of death said no” (186). No matter how hard Ralph tries, he cannot discard his new knowledge of Jack and his tribe’s potential for evil and corruption. For a long time Ralph seems to be in denial; like many others, he seems to want to stay true to his belief in the overall goodness of the human heart. Ralph’s expectations for human kindness are finally challenged to the point of irreversibility when Jack attacks him and tries to pursue him on a vicious manhunt. When Ralph collapses on the beach and a naval officer arrives, “With filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, [and] the darkness of man’s heart...” (202). One might think it strange that rather than rejoicing over rescue, Ralph and the rest of the boys cry out in grief. The young schoolboys come to understand the enormity of human greed and evil, and unfortunately it is a lesson that they will not be able to ignore or forget. They witness and play a role in their own loss of innocence, and the time they spend on the island teaches them what
What would happen if a group of children were set free without adult supervision? Set in World War Two, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies depicts a group of British schoolboys that are left stranded on an island after their plane is shot down during the battle. While no adults are left to supervise them, their poor decisions lead to horrifying outcomes as Roger, Piggy, Samneric, Ralph and Jack continue to fight with each other over the most effective way of survival and their inner savage self. Throughout the book, the boys’ loss of innocence can be seen through Roger’s actions towards others, Jack’s changed view towards violence, and the tribe’s overall change in morality.
Ralph’s power at the beginning is secure but as the group succumbs to their savage instincts, Ralph’s influence declines as Jack’s rises. This is due mainly to the cruelty and violence that goes on in the story. This cruelty reveals that Ralph’s commitment to civilization and being rescued is so strong that he will not allow himself to change his morals and become cruel like the others. The cruelty in this novel also shows that Ralph is a very intelligent character. His intelligence can be proven because there was a point in the novel when he hunts a boar for the first time and he experiences the thrill of bloodlust. He also attends one of Jack’s feast where he is swept away by the frenzy and participates in the killing of Simon. This is a very tragic moment for Ralph because this is when he realizes the evil that lives within himself and every human being. It is the cruel acts that happen in this novel that reveals Ralph’s character of being intelligent and being able to think deeply about human experiences. He even weeps when getting saved because of his knowledge about the human capacity for
Loss of Innocence is portrayed very well throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates how the characters think they’re equal but eventually lose their innocence very quickly. To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates how the son of Atticus and the brother of Scout, Jem witnesses the trail of the only black man, Tom Robinson. From then on out, Jem realizes that the world and his town isn’t anything what he thought it was. Jem also knew that people turned out to be nothing what he thought in the beginning. Jem thought everyone was good and innocent just like his father Atticus, but that slowly started to change. Atticus once said, “ You never really understand the person until you consider things from his point of view.” (31) Little did he know the theme, Loss of Innocence would hit in the town in Maycomb, which was supposed to be a wonderful place. Jem realizes that Tom is punished for something that he didn’t even do. It was also brave of Jem to side with a black man, because no one in Maycomb, Alabama sides with a black person or an African American. That...
Both boys are tempted by the ‘Beast’, but while we see Jack succumb to his inner human desires and cross the line to brutality, Ralph resists temptation, although he finds it difficult.
Ralph and his intellectual but physically unfit assistant, Piggy, have to stand their ground in order to prevent Jack, his “hunters”, and the fear of the mysterious “beast” from collapsing the foundation of society and civilization that the survivors had worked so hard to Even though Ralph does have many characteristics that the survivors respect, he still has the mindset of a twelve-year-old boy. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph seems to not notice that they are in grave danger of being lost from society. He strips off his clothes at the beginning of the chapter, highlighting his inner “animal” and child-like instincts. Like a child, he laughs and mocks Piggy for his name, something a more mature character would not do. Later, when all of the savage-turned boys rip apart Simon because they mistake him for being the beast, Ralph cannot help but join in, revealing his true, immature nature.
There is a moment in the novel where Ralph has the urge to hurt something or someone, it says, “Ralph to was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering” (Golding, 114-115). Ralph needed to show the rest of the boys that he can be like them to, the beast inside him was taking over his emotions and he could not control it. Since Ralph loses his ability to lead the boys lose their respect for him, he becomes the cast-out instead of the leader, he is hunted down.
The Lord of the flies by William Golding explains the idea of the children losing their innocence and turning to a darker side. In this novel, a group of British boys are stranded on an island when a plane crashes. This represents that the idea of youth is dropped and is time to face the real world. Ralph and Jack are the two people who are interested in being a leader. They both have a different idea of what a leader does. Ralph likes to establish rules to protect the good of the group. While Jack is more interested in gaining power over the boys. Jack’s hunger for power starts turning to savagery which could cause consequences. The boys’ loss of innocence is a turn in reality where humankind is always not good.
In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the representation of childhood as times of tribulation and terror along with the community accepted portrayal of innocence shapes the theme of civilization vs savagery.
Ralph and simon that the rest of the kids horesplay was a bad idea. In the novel Golding writes, “Shouting that he is the beast, the boys descend upon Simon and start to tear him apart with their bare hands and teeth. Simon tries desperately to explain what has happened and to remind them of who he is, but he trips and plunges over the rocks onto the beach. The boys fall on him and violently kill him” ( ). This just goes to show us that the other boys’ horseplay and beliefs lead to bad things. Ralph did not take part in this act because he knew what was wrong.
Loss of Innocence in Killing a Mockingbird Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather, the streets turned red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. " (Lee 9). This environment, as Scout Finch accurately describes, is not conducive to young children, loud noises, and games. But, the Finch children and Dill must occupy themselves in order to avoid boredom.
His concern for the individuals in the group is pertinent from the beginning: he conveys to Jack the necessity of shelters “as a sort of [home]”, upon noticing the distress of the younger children (pg. 58). It is seen that Ralph’s problems are not his own; he assumes the role of leader to bring orderly forces of civilization to all. By approaching circumstances with logistics rather than emotion, Ralph does not lose sight of himself in the face of adversity. Despite this, he is later forced to act irrationally in order to preserve his status. When confronted with the evidence of the beast, Ralph is hesitant to hunt it; he is only manipulated into doing so when Jack “[sneers]” and questions him if he is “frightened” (pg. 100). However, Ralph does not respond out of his spite or self-pride as he understands that he must retain his status among the boys. If he does not remain chief, Jack will secure the position, bearing the notion that there will always be individuals working against altruism for their own benefit. Ralph sacrifices his morals by becoming subservient to Jack’s ego, yet does so in order to preserve civility within the group. On the day of the boys’ rescue, Ralph understands that his efforts to preserve peace and order are all for naught. Man’s destructive forces overwhelm him as “[he weeps] for … the darkness of man’s
It’s one of the most famous stories to ever exist, the story of how two people changed what defines us as humans. It’s the story of Adam, Eve, a serpent, and the unbecoming of mankind, the Fall of Man. This iconic account has been the premise for many works over the centuries. Today, Lord of the Flies by William Golding is considered one of the most influential novels of our time, not only for its adventurous story of stranded boys on a lost island, but also because of its allegorical tale of the true fault in man’s soul. William Golding leans heavily upon the Biblical account of the Fall of Man to highlight man’s depravity in his novel, Lord of the Flies.
“I think that’s the real loss of innocence: the first time you glimpse the boundaries that will limit your potential” (Steve Toltz). In the previous quote, Steve Toltz discusses the transition from innocence to corruption. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies illustrates the loss of innocence through various characters: Jack, who struggles with pride and a thirst for power; Roger, who revels in the pain of others and uses fear to control the boys; Simon, who represents the demise of purity when humans are at their most savage; Ralph, who illustrates the struggle people endure when attempting to be civilized near the savage; and Piggy, who suffers because he has the only technology necessary to survive. Golding enforces the theory that true innocence will often pay the price to sustain true evil by arranging the characters' personalities and actions in a way that correlates to the effects of Darwin's evolution theory, "survival of the fittest" (). Jack is a good example of this as he exerts power over the weak and uses his skills in hunting to survive. The thirst to prove his masculinity overrides his innate purity, effectively corrupting him. Jack’s loss of innocence begins a domino effect that begins to influence the others.