What does the ocean symbolize in William Golding's Lord of the Flies?

wrote his
in response to a Victorian story about English boys stranded on an island
entitled, "The Coral Island."  In this novel, however, the boys are without wickedness
and cunning, reaffirming the moral values of Victorian England, whereas in Golding's work, the
boys degenerate into "the heart of darkness."

As they are stranded
on an island, the ocean symbolizes a barrier to , , , and the other boys, isolating them from
the world that they have known.  Its waves erase any marks on the shore; likewise, the waves
seem to erode the vestiges of society that slowly slip from the boys.  They remove their clothes
and bathe in the waters of the ocean, perhaps rebaptizing themselves as their primordial selves
shedding their conditioned behavior for their inherent savage nature.

One
example of the use of the ocean as a symbol is in the passage in whichlooks down at the littl'un
Henry who sits by the seashore playing with the "detritus of...