Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a thought-provoking, intriguing novel about a group of boys stranded on an island. There are many themes in the book. Two major ones include the loss of innocence and innate human evil. These themes shape the different conflicts and relationships of the story. Loss of innocence is best illustrated in chapter twelve, '"'Cry of the Hunters'"' while innate human evil is best described in chapter eight, '"'Gift for the Darkness'"'. .
In the beginning of the story, a group of children from England are stranded on an island. They start out as well-behaved, orderly children with a hope of being rescued. As the novel progresses, their innocence diminishes and they turn into cruel, brutish hunters. The boys eventually have almost no desire to return to civilization. Chapter twelve, '"'Cry of Hunters'"', illustrates the bloodthirsty, inhuman characteristics the boys possess. Jack and his followers, the murderous and torturing painted savages, are quite different from the nave, simple children in the beginning of this sickening fiction. In the start of chapter twelve, Ralph, lying in a covert, sees some of the hunters including a boy name Bill. '"'But really, thought Ralph, this was not Bill. This was a savage whose image refused to blend with that ancient picture of a boy in shorts and shirt.'"' This is a good example of the boys"'" loss of innocence. It describes how the children changed from the beginning to the end of the book. .
Jack was always more interested in hunting and having fun in comparison to building shelters and being orderly, but in the first chapters, his personality was still relatively innocent. Time passed, and the civilization Ralph had worked so hard to achieve began to collapse. Jack influenced the other boys to be more interested in hunting and having fun. Soon, Jack gathered followers and established his own group of boys where he was the leader.