"They're innocent of their own natures. They don't understand their own natures and therefore, when they get to this island, they can look forward to a bright future, because they don't understand the things that threaten it. This seems to me to be innocence; I suppose you could almost adequate it with ignorance of men's basic attributes, and this is inevitable with anything which is born and begins to grown up. Obviously, it doesn't understand its own nature- (Keating 190).
William Mueller explains a perfect example of the loss of innocence, .
"Hunting does of course provide food, but it also gratifies the lust for blood. In .
his first confrontation with a pig, Jack fails, unable to plunge his knife into living flesh, to bear the sight of flowing blood, and unable to do so because he is not yet far enough away from the taboo of the old life. But under the questioning scrutiny of his companions he feels a bit ashamed of his fastidiousness, and, driving his knife into a tree trunk, he fiercely vows that the next time will be different. And so it is. Returning from the second hunt he proclaims proudly that he has cut a pig's throat- (Mueller 246). .
This quote also explains how the boys have the power to affect the actions of each other and influence the fate of their success on the island.
3.
The third theme is power. Power can be discussed from two different viewpoints. One, the boys have power over each other. Their actions and words influence each other in many ways, often into doing something not of the norm, as in the instance with Jack and the pig, that quickly propels the major change the boys make. The second view of power is that of which each boy strives to obtain. The conch shell is a good example of how after the loss of innocence in the boys, power becomes prime focus. In the beginning the boys agree that only he who is holding the conch is able to speak during a meeting.
