Initiation therefore helps the boys establish their identities and also creates social hierarchy.
The conflict between Jack and Ralph serves also as a type of initiation: a battle between two individuals. Initiations represent a transition from one state of mind or being to another. Simon's vision is one of the most powerful initiations in Lord of the Flies. The vision, which lends the novel its name, has a supernatural component that is common among most traditional initiation rites. Simon's vision becomes a collective initiation rite and means as much to the group as a whole than to Simon personally. The vision creates a sense of wisdom too: the knowledge that the beast is internal and not an external reality.
Third, journey is a key element of the theme of alienation. The entire island experience is essentially a journey for the boys, who are from England and suddenly find themselves in a foreign environment. Yet smaller journeys also take place during the course of the novel. For example, the boys organize frequent hunting expeditions. Their journey up the mountain isolates the boys further from one another, increasing their sense of alienation. Each time they embark on a hunting expedition, the boys hone their survival skills. Their survival skills ensure that they will live long enough to be rescued, which would entail an ultimate journey toward home.
Reconciliation, the fifth and final stage in the process of alienation, is only possible via outside assistance in Lord of the Flies. Had the boys been left to themselves for much longer, they most likely would have killed each other. They never reconciled themselves to their fate, and were unable to find a common ground for social survival. Their reconciliation with society may not have been possible at all if they were not rescued. Reuniting with society did, however, happen through their own efforts at survival: the fire they built caused the soldier to scout for its cause.
Works Cited
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies.
Piggy even blamed Simon. Piggy said, "It was an accident…that what it was, an accident. Coming in the dark -- he hadn't no business crawling like that out of the dark. He was batty. He asked for it… We was on the outside. We never done nothing, we never seen nothing" (220-221). Piggy dies during a fight between Ralph and Jack, which had been brewing the whole time they are
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