Envision this: you’re a young schoolboy on an island with other boys your age, no parents, and a beast. What could this beast possibly be though? In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, young schoolboys have run away from their homes to fend-off rules and wind up coming in contact with a beast. This beast evolves throughout the story and appears to symbolize a multitude of things. As it is known, a beast is frequently associated with fear.
Killing Simon shows they gave in to temptation, each of them had a bit of evil inside them. People are sinners from birth to death. This evil was already inside the boys, but it required a push from the Lord of the Flies to burst out. It is easy to blame Satan alone, but the truth is each of the boys are to blame. The boys are the
“What I mean is…maybe it’s only us.” (Golding, 77). Although the boys laugh at Simon’s idea, his belief conforms Golding’s idea that inner evil exists. The boys develop into the beast when they kill Simon. Simon was desperate to explain the unidentified creature on the mountain but the boys weren’t in the mood for listening to him. With his brutal murder by the other boys, chaos takes over civilized order on the island.
People are capable of something so harsh and tormenting that they could be considered monsters. Quite a few readers of the “Lord of the Flies” share controversy over the question “what does the beast represent?” Although it changes throughout the plot, the “beast” has three basic meanings. The creature symbolizes the fears of the boys on the island, the war that caused them to be stranded, and the savageness of the humans causing the
When Simon goes to warn the boys about the beast, he is killed by them all. The true savagery and civilization are in the boys, all of them. The beast says that it is within the boys, and it warns Simon if he went to the other boys it will be there. It was not lying as it was there, and it killed him. The savage and civilized boys are the beats themselves they have all been scared, they did what a beast would do, which is attack and
In the novel the Lord of the Flies, William Golding captures the real image of human cruelty in their violent behaviors. The most prominent piece of cruelty is when the boys viciously attack Simon mistaking him as the beast; killing him with no mercy. After going to look for the beast on the island Simon returns back to the beach crawling on his hands and knees deliriously into a group of Jack’s clan. When the boys start attacking simon aka their godly figure they start chanting “‘Kill the Beast! Cut His throat!
The ineffective crucifixion and attempt at martyrdom are evidence of his great failure. Simon's act of cutting the parachutist free leads to the corpse resembling the beast in flight. The body then travels deep into the ocean while simultaneously driving the idea of the “beast” deeper into the mind of the boys. Simon also brings out the most primitive side of the boys while they commit murder for the first time. The boys will kill a human on the island again, and will continue to show how Simon was unsuccessful at being a Christ figure on the
His characterization has a immense impact on the story’s overall meaning and purpose, demonstrating many interesting themes that warrant further scrutiny. Simon’s characterization as a wise, Christ-like figure impacts the story’s themes and meanings in three ways. Simon is a kind, just boy with an ability to see good in anything, but no one else seems to have the insight that he has. This leads to the first theme that Simon demonstrates: the magnitude of the good, light side will always pale in comparison to the darker, viler one. While the other boys are frolicking about and eating fruit, dreaming about killing the pig they came across, Simon slinks into the forest and “[glances] swiftly round to confirm that he [is] utterly alone” (56).
When Simon was killed in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, his role, a righteous and pure boy untainted by barbarity, perished along with his body. He embodied the innocence and naivety of the modern civilization and symbolized the children before they mutated into savages, influenced by the lack of regulation and jurisdiction. In spite of this, one can argue that his passing was not a primary shifting mark in the novel due to the power dynamic between all the boys remaining the same, considering that Piggy continued to be neglected as Jack went on to attaining authority on the island. While it may seem like nothing changed, Simon’s murder allowed Jack to display his superiority and bring out the violent and uncontrollable nature within all the boys. As a result, since Jack’s philosophy of savageness and cruelty was fueled by Simon’s death, the event was a major turning point in the novel.
None of his friends meant to kill Simon, yet they got caught up into a frenzy of emotions which drove them in order to do it. This supports the philosophy that mankind is evil. This scene leaves mankind with a vile portrayal consequently presenting them as barbaric and