In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of British schoolchildren are marooned on an isolated island, but the story soon takes a dark turn when the boys realize that there may be a beast on the island with them. The novel illustrates the need for civilization and the innate evil in humans; however, Simon is seemingly an exception to all of the rules that the author has set. He is in no way evil, and the purity of his soul is unparalleled in any other. Simon appears as a biblical, almost Christ-like figure among the savage and flawed population. His characterization has a immense impact on the story’s overall meaning and purpose, demonstrating many interesting themes that warrant further scrutiny.
Further into the book, things start to move downhill for Simon. When Jack and the boys slayed the pig they put the head of it on a stick and left it as gift for the beast. During this time, Simon was observing their savage exercise with the pig and decided to stay back while the other boys ran off. This is
Symbolism in Lord of the Flies William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, written in 1954, is about a group of british boys who crash land on an island and act their own ways in order to survive. The boys start out their time on the island with an organised system and rules, but as time passes the boys lose control and turn into savages. Symbols are seen multiple times in this novel. The Conch symbolizes law and civilization, Piggy’s specs symbolizes technology and intelligence and Simon symbolises peace and kindness.These three symbols are repeatedly mentioned in the novel. Symbolism, such as the conch, Piggy’s glasses and Simon, play an important role in Lord of the Flies.
Loyalty and kindness play a huge role in this novel. In the beginning Pip’s kindness moved Magwitch to a point of changing himself but in the end it was Magwitch that changed Pip’s perspectives on the lower class society. After the small incident where Pip provided Magwitch with food and iron files for his legs, the man was moved by Pip’s actions and, therefore decided to take the blames for stealing the food and files. “A man can’t starve, at least I can’t I took some wittles, up at the village over yonder – where the church stands a’most out of the marshes” (page 45). He then devoted his life repaying Pip by working hard in Australia.
For example, Simon is a character with many Christ figure qualities. Simon proves he is good with children when he assists the younger children by grabbing hard to reach fruit for them. Also, Simon is empathetic toward Ralph and reassures him that he will get off the island. Not only does Simon display Christ-like characteristics, but he also has many interactions that can be seen as biblical allusions. For example, Simon is tempted by the Lord of the Flies in the jungle, just like when Jesus was tempted by Satan when he goes into the desert for forty days.
In the film, the bushman shoots an animal with a tranquilizer dart and waits until the animal slows down to go to sleep; before killing the animal, bushmen would apologize for killing the animal and explained that he must do it so that his family could eat. This action was important because it showed that the bushmen hunted only out of necessity and never for fun or sport. The bushmen also seemed content with their lives despite our judgment on the life of the tribes ,etc. The bushmen seemed to have nothing such as private or personal property and they shared their food with everyone. This situation changed suddenly after they discovered what they called “gift from the gods” which was a empty coke bottle.
Jack, on the other hand, acts more with the ID, the animal part if a human, with his decisions as a leader. Jack favors food over the shelter, which is the total opposite of Ralph, in fact, that is what he promises his people when the split of the two “tribes”. He told all the littluns that he promises feasts of meat every night and a lot of fun. In chapter five of Lord of the Flies gives a great idea of how Ralph is like as a leader. When he calls the littluns with the conch shell and has to remind the littluns about the rules he says, “‘The rules!’ shouted Ralph.
As seen at the beginning of the novel, Johnny is the boy from the wrong side of the track, and while the story unrolls, Johnny starts to become a hero. Johnny's selfless action of saving kids from a fire and not regretting his choice makes him a hero. The second quality that makes Johnny a hero is his empathy towards others and his actions. At the beginning of the novel, Johnny was known as the "lost puppy." He was never one to think the best of himself, he was humble and shy.
These additionally the kid had to bring to him with a letter. As he again was so greatly eager and parched, he couldn't help it, and again ate two grapes. However, first he took the letter out of the wicker container, put it under a stone and situated himself subsequently all together that the letter may not see and sell out him. The judge, nonetheless, again made him give a clarification about the missing grapes. Ok, said the kid, how have you learnt that.
The novel focuses on motifs like alienation, friendship and quest for spiritual tranquility. Billy’s life may be divided into two phases –spiritual disillusion and spiritual harmony. Billy Biswas is altogether a man of different mould and likes to live life realistically He has sharp eyes, a sense of premonition, intuition and love for the primitive life. In The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, Arun Joshi has highlighted, protagonist’s restlessness in this contemporary society from which he has emerged. The ways of the upper class sophisticated society appear to Billy in no way different from those of kennel full of dogs.