Alanna Felton

William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies is told primarily from the point of view of a pre-teen named Ralph, who finds himself marooned on a deserted island along with a group of British schoolboys. The novel functions as a twisted form of a coming-of-age story, depicting Ralph’s transition from the rosy worldview of a naive adolescent to a much more cynical, bleak outlook on human nature. This disillusionment is best exemplified through the way Ralph’s reaction to the absence of adults shifts as Lord of the Flies progresses.
When, at the start of Lord of the Flies, Ralph discovers that the island which he and his fellow school boys have crashed on is devoid of adults, he is delighted. When Ralph tells the first survivor he meets, a boy named Piggy, that there are no adults on the island, “the delight of a realized ambition came over him” and he happily exclaims “No grownups!” Ralph then proceeds to behave in a carefree, playful manner, swimming in the island’s cove and teasing Piggy about his asthma. Ralph’s initial reaction emphasizes his naivety and immaturity; he shortsightedly celebrates the absence of adults without thinking of what it means for his survival. Ralph views the boys’ situation as a sort of grand adventure, like the plot of his favorite book, The Coral Island. However, while he is happy to be free of supervision, Ralph still relies upon adults to rescue him and the other boys, insisting that “when [my father] gets leave he’ll come and rescue us”. Ralph sees his father as a larger-than-life, heroic figure, who as a result of his age and experience, is wise and practically infallible. Ralph is still behaving like a child, happy to play at being independent but counting upon the fact that soon his adventure will come to an end and all of the real authority will once again revert to the grown-ups. Ralph tells the rest of the children that “This is our island. It’s a good island. Until the grownups come to fetch us, we’ll have fun”. Ralph is sure that he and the other boys are perfectly capable of governing themselves and maintaining order on the island without any adult supervision. At first, he appears to be right as the children create their own form of democratic government and elect Ralph their leader, assign tasks to each individual on the island, build shelters, and maintain a signal fire.
However, as time passes, fractures begin to appear in the boys’ fragile civilization and Ralph’s outlook begins to shift. Abandoning the signal fire and construction of shelters to hunt pigs, the boys sink into a state of moral and psychological degeneration. As his peers’ behavior becomes increasingly erratic and violent, Ralph starts to lose faith in their abilities. His adulation of adults becomes even more intense as he dreams wistfully of being rescued and returning to his old life as a carefree schoolboy. As he reminisces, Ralph creates a kind of idealized picture of his past life, one where “everything was alright, everything was good and friendly”. He has yet to draw a connection between the savagery of the boys on the island and the savage inner nature of mankind as a whole and still believes that adults are noble and pure. Golding best illustrates this belief through a conversation between Ralph, Simon, and Piggy in which the three boys discuss what adults would have done differently if they had been stranded on the island. “Grownups know things” asserts Piggy, “They ain’t afraid”. Ralph agrees, saying that “At home there was always a grownup. Please, sir; please, miss; and then you got an answer.” All three boys chime in with mistakes that they have made which they believe adults would not have succumbed to, “striving unsuccessfully to convey the majesty of adult life”. Ralph naively believes that adults would not be susceptible to any of the egotism, rashness, or violence that the children have fallen prey to. He has been raised to rely upon adults for protection and decision-making, and cannot believe them to be just as fallible as his peers. Ralph wishes desperately for adults to come and rescue the boys from the island, relieving him of his responsibilities so that he can return to regarding the world through the cheerful, unaffected perspective of an adolescent.
Unfortunately, when Ralph and the rest of the boys are miraculously rescued by adults at the end of Lord of the Flies, it is not the jubilant occasion that he had fantasized about. At this point in the book, both Simon and Piggy are dead, killed by the other children in fits of savagery. All of the remaining boys except for Ralph have become wild, violent hunters with no desire to return to the outside world. Ralph is hunted by his former friends, who plan to kill him, and is only at the last minute saved by the appearance of an adult soldier, drawn to the island by the fire which Jack and his followers had set to trap Ralph. However, at this point in time, Ralph has seen two boys murdered and has developed significantly darker beliefs about human nature. He has realized that, as the beast tells Simon, “I’m part of you…Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go”. Ralph now sees the capacity for evil and savagery that lurks in the heart of every man, and it is has forever changed the way he views humanity. Ralph is relieved to see the soldier because his presence means that Ralph’s life is no longer in danger, but he still isn’t overjoyed. He now realizes that adults are every bit as corrupt as adolescents; that even the restraints set in place by society cannot fully serve to rid humans of their innate defects. Ralph is shattered by this revelation, and bursts into tears “[weeping] for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart”. The soldier who rescues Ralph will take him aboard a military ship, and they will sail off in pursuit of enemy vessels; Ralph has escaped one manhunt only to become part of another, though this one is conducted on a larger scale and under more civilized pretexts. Ralph knows this, and will be forever haunted by man’s capacity for evil. His transition from sheltered adolescence to dark, cynical maturity marks his entrance to adulthood, except that, instead of being an occasion for celebration, Ralph’s maturation is marked by the loss of his innocence and his faith in humanity.
By describing the evolution of Ralph’s worldview from that of an innocent child to that of a world-weary young man, Golding puts a dark spin on the classic coming-of-age adventure story that Lord of the Flies parodies. Ralph’s changing response to the absence of adults on the island best reflects his gradual disillusionment with adulthood and his dawning revelation that old, or young, every member of society is cursed with the same inherent savagery.