Lord of the Flies
how does Ralph lose his innocence
LOTF
I am doing an essay and this is one of my points. I also need a good quote to show his loss of innocence
LOTF
I am doing an essay and this is one of my points. I also need a good quote to show his loss of innocence
At the end of Lord of the Flies, Ralph weeps "for the end of innocence," a lament that retroactively makes explicit one of the novel's major concerns, namely, the loss of innocence. When the boys are first deserted on the island, they behave like children, alternating between enjoying their freedom and expressing profound homesickness and fear. By the end of the novel, however, they mirror the warlike behavior of the adults of the Home Counties: they attack, torture, and even murder one another without hesitation or regret. The loss of the boys' innocence on the island runs parallel to, and informs their descent into savagery, and it recalls the Bible's narrative of the Fall of Man from paradise. Ralph goes from a carefree boy in an adventure to a burdened disillusioned leader of boys who do not wished to be saved. Ralph loses his innocence, understanding the wearisomeness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one's waking life was spent watching one's feet.