The sandcastle incident is important because it shows the boys progressively becoming less innocent, and more savage. Roger and Maurice kick over some of the littluns sandcastle. After he kicks sand in Percival’s eye, Maurice runs off, slightly guilty about what he did. The more time the boys spend on the island, the more savage they will get.
Roger and Maurice, along with all of the boys, are turning more and more savage as time goes on. “Roger led the way straight through the castles, kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones. Maurice followed, laughing, and added to the destruction.” (Golding 65). The boys have almost no remorse for the small children. Roger only kicks over the sand castles, and then he walks away laughing. Maurice stays back, so he can kick sand into Percival’s eye. Therefore, he feels guilty, a small bit of his old life left. “In his other life, Maurice had received chastisement for filling a younger eye with sand, Now, though there was no parent to let fall a heavy hand, Maurice still felt the unease of wrongdoing” (Golding 59). Roger walked away laughing. He had no regrets towards his actions a few moments…show more content… The sandcastle incident symbolizes that the boys are becoming more savage as time goes on. All of the boys have become savage to some extent, but some are far more savage than others. The boys deliberately destroy a part of someone else’s happiness, on an island with no civilizational structure. With no adults, the boys don’t know any better, then to act as savages, and destroy and injure anyone or anything they please. “Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there was a space round Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law.” (Golding