Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a book about a group of boys stuck on a deserted island who try to organize their own society which results in a series of events and disasters. This book portrays many different personalities and characters that are important parts of the book. One of the protagonists, Simon, has a plethora of fine qualities such as kindness, intuition, thoughtfulness, and virtue. These qualities shape Simon into a Christ-like figure. Simon is shown to be an image of Christ through his tender-hearted nature, prophetic-like qualities, and understanding of the beast within the boys. First of all, Simon 's tender-hearted nature is one of the characteristics that links him to Jesus Christ. He shows this attribute in the book through compassion and appreciation to everything. At one point in the book, Simon is exploring in the jungle when some littluns who were following him motion toward some fruit in some trees that they couldn 't quite reach. "Simon found for them the fruit that they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands." (56) Some boys in the book found the littuns annoying and not as important. However, Simon was compassionate towards them. He took his time to help them get the fruit that they couldn 't reach because he cared for them. When the first pig of many is hunted, killed, cooked, and eaten, the boys rejoice because of the large amounts of meat and
Golding establishes Simon’s presence as a religious and spiritual figure early on in the novel not only by his continuous journeys to places of meditation.but also in how the other characters perceive him to be. Simon is physically frail (as shown in his fainting spells) deeply spiritual, compassionate, non-violent, and in harmony with the natural world (like many religious figures tend to be). Being one of the older boys, he garners respect from the littluns and helps them with activities like picking fruits. One quote that really stood out is how Ralph described Simon when he first got a good look at him. His eyes especially stood out to Ralph.
Simon sees the island for what it is which is as a truly beautiful and gorgeous island. He is neither plagued by the hunt for meat nor is he annoyed by the silence that surrounds his habitat. Rather he would rather hear the “bright fantastic birds, the bee-sounds, even the crying of the gulls that were returning to their roosts among the square rocks.” He is not like the other choir members who are more prone to
In the allegory Lord of the Flies, author William Golding employs a pure and innocent young boy, Simon, as an allusion and symbol of Jesus Christ to substantially convey the message that innocence, mortality, and truth are devoured at the hands of humankind’s innate savagery and evil. Freed from the constraints of society and civilization, the boys relish in their freedom in the isolated tropical island and eventually descend into instinctual madness and sin, the lines between democracy and anarchy blurring. Determined to save his friends,
Good, represented through Simon, only makes up a tiny fraction of the boys, showing how few boys truly care about being good as contrasted to the amount of boys who only want to be
Simon is a shy, sensitive boy in the group who represents a kind of Christ. Simon was kind to the younger children and does his best to help towards making a thriving community. Simon throughout the story has always been timid and shy. He does know right from wrong but is too shy to stand up for himself. Simon is called "batty" and laughed at by the boys throughout the novel.
Simon was always an outsider and their is lots of evidence that hints Simon is a Christ like figure. He helped those in need, and was killed by his own community. He even grew his hair out longer than the other boys. The author writes, “Here the littluns who had run after him caught up with him… Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands.”(pg.56).
Abandoning one’s Christianity leads to a loss of morals, as seen in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies through the allusions to Jesus, imagery of regression, and personification of the sea. Golding uses the characterization of Simon to allude to the life of Jesus Christ by contrasting his disposition with that of the other boys, highlighting their distance from their faith and its destructive effect. One example of such disparity is when "Simon knelt on all fours and
“Here the littluns who had run after he caught up with him. They talked,cried out unintelligibly, lugged him toward the trees. Then,Simon found them the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless outstretched hands. When he had satisfied them, he paused and looked round.” Simon is helping out the littluns because he knows that everyone matters in survival,and puts everyone's differences
Simon behaves kindly toward the younger children, and he is the first to realize the problem posed by the beast. Simons physical appearance infers that he is hiding his intelligent side, this is show because Simon's hair covers his face which can show that he is hiding his brain. is considered odd by the other boys. The boys kill Simon This is shown on the line "Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea" After the savage boys killed Simon, the next day nobody wanted to talk about it or admit to doing it this is shown on the line "Ralph spoke up, Simon, piggy said nothing but nodded solemnly".
He crawls inside this space and peers out at the clearing. He watches the birds and butterflies as evening approaches. Then he sits back in the small space and stays there by himself as night falls, just thinking. Then the book goes on in great description about the surroundings and what Simon sees. By the great detail, we can see the unique part of Simon.
Simon also tried to keep the peace between all of the boys by assuring them that everything is ok, and that there is nothing to be afraid of. “I just think you’ll get back all right.” (111). Simon was vigilant, and calming to the others. This shows true leadership, and that civilization is still present so long as he’s around.
Quite simply, he uses his brain a lot more compared to most of the boys on the island. Despite his heightened intelligence, Simon is thoughtful, kind, and compassionate. Just like the disciple, Simon (Peter) in the Bible, Simon selflessly serves the boys around him and gives them comfort and advice. These soft
Lord of the Flies is a story where its representation of childhood and adolescence shape the meaning of the work as a whole. The boys struggle with giving into their evil instincts. Most of them give in. Golding uses this novel to show that children are not naturally good. They are evil and without the constraints of society that savagery shines through.
During Simon’s encounter with the Lord of the Flies, Golding reveals the central issue concerning human nature. Simon reaches the realization that they fear the beast because it exists within each of them. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon that the beast is inside each boy and cannot be killed. The boys go from behaving like civilized young men to brutal savages. “What I mean is…maybe it’s only us.”
In opposite to that Simon is a visionary. He has a huge fantasy and thinks in a irrational way. One can see this difference by their views of the