Innocence is bliss(ish)
When you search the definition of the word innocence you come across the expected definitions that one is not guilty or not responsible. But the third definition is the most interesting: “free from moral wrong; not corrupted.” We often see this quality in young children or naive adults but it is evident that it becomes less and less apparent the older you are. This is not because age takes it but because the things that come with age, experiences do. Elijah in three day road loses his to the war. Before he left his innocence was still in tact while Xavier’s was waning. The war showed him horrible things and horrible people but it was him becoming one of these horrors for the Germans in a land where fear already festered in the hearts of every man that truly took it away. However, does this make Elijah evil? When you search up the definition of evil you see “profoundly immoral and malevolent.” Elijah is not evil, it is clear he has a moral code but that does not stop the lose of innocence. So were does true innocence come from? It comes from ignorance and not knowing about the world around you. To go through life entirely innocent, one must also go through life turning a blind eye to the world and choosing not to see the horrors beyond what they wish was the real world.
Of course three day road is not the only place we see this, lord of the flies’ plot revolves around the lose of innocence it is a central theme throughout. Our first look at it in that is when jack kills the first pig after hesitating the first time and letting it escape. Then one by one the innocence of the rest of the boys goes one way or another. All of them even take part in killing Simon one of their own. By the end they are completely stripped of their innocence. “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.” This quote is extremely powerful and proves the loss of innocence and the theme of the book.
The greatest example in Macbeth is lady Macbeth’s line: “Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t.” This is a famous example in the Scottish play that is referenced quite a bit as it is telling him to hide his evil intentions by showing an innocent side. This comes at the beginning of his lose of innocence after he starts coming into contact with the witches and has started having ambitions of power.
In history innocence was lost at a much younger age as the world crept passed the flimsier walls of old and the call to arms was passed onto much younger people. In medieval times kids started training to be knights at 7 and in Sparta weak babies were left to die and the kids themselves beaten until killing machines. There was no innocence for anyone in Sparta.
Visual to come