Simon Epilepsy In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Paragraph Essay In this scene of Golding’s Lord of the Flies, we see Simon finally giving in to the madness that has rooted itself deep on the island, and deep inside of everyone; the island is merely an outlet for these boys to to let out the evil inside of them. Simon had inner demons like everyone else, but it seems only logical that in real life, Simon was hallucinating the pig head speaking to him. Simon was hungry, dehydrated, exhausted, and just escaped a hunt with the most violent of the group, not wanting to kill the pig. There are certain inconsistencies such as, “He knew one of his times was coming on.” (pg. 143) which can be explained by the popular theory of Simon having epilepsy which is a “neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent episodes of sensory

A young girl shares he hallucinations that sound quite similar to this, “ I have had partial seizures for 11 years now…. These originated in the left temporal lobe. At 16, I thought I was going crazy because I could see another world and hear voices that told me that my reality isn't real.” (Epilepsy Foundation) After a seizure, bleeding of the nose, ears, or even eyes can occur, which would explain his bloody nose and passing out in chapter 9, “...when the vessel broke in Simon’s nose and the blood gushed out they left him alone…” (pg. 145) Another common theory is that Simon had schizophrenia, a “long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation.” This would explain the nosebleed, a common side effect, and why Simon gets very perturbed when Ralph calls him crazy in chapter 7, “When Simon was still silent Ralph said curtly, ‘You’re batty.’ Simon shook his head violently till the coarse black hair flew backwards and forwards across