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. 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). He then continues on to revel and marvel at the beauty of his surroundings, and he is the only one to appreciate the island’s untouched allure. While the others are daydreaming about
Ernest Hemingway once said, “When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature.” In a good book, one will connect with at least one fictional character. In the book The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, one will be able to relate to with several. A character that the reader will be able to connect with from the start is Simon.
He begins to see all the damage they have done to the island and begins to realize that overtime they will end up scarce resources. Simon is the only one who doesn’t become a complete savage. He doesn’t have any determination to destroy and kill animals, he just wants to survive and do it in a respectful manner. From the beginning of the book Simon seemed different from the rest, he has a distinct view on life and what needs to be done. Simon is the only boy to truly grasp that "the beast" is just all the negative, horrible aspects of
In William Golding novel “Lord of the Flies” Golding juxtaposes Jack’s island and Simon’s to illustrate that when man is faced with a certain environment, he will chose to either make the best of what he has by staying positively calm or look at it in a negative aspect. Golding’s novel transpires when a bunch of kids plane was shot down. The boys all survive and land on an uninhabited island. The boys do not have an adult figure as their authority. The boys are split into two separate camps.
Simon consistently expresses concern for the more helpless boys. This is shown when the Littluns follow him, and he picks choice fruit for them from spots they can't reach. In the book, Simon is characterized as a saint.
Simon has to quit being perfect and become like the rest of the boys. “You’re not wanted. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island.” (p. 131)
This next quote that I picked from the book shows us how Simon knows they are changing from once little boys to savage. “Simon saw the picture of a human at once heroic and sick.” (6.140) A trait of Simon that has helped him out during survival is knowing when enough is enough, and keeping the little humanity he has left in himself to lead the others on the right path.
The boys start to take things out of hand and kill each other thinking that it is the right thing to do. One of the boys named Simon is a character from this novel that tries to stand up and tell everyone not to be afraid, much like FDR. Simon wants to relieve them of their fears of the “beastie”, which happens to be just one of the boys’ fears along with being scared of the dark or the unknown. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies can be analyzed using characters and symbolism in order to defend the theme of fear being a figment of one’s imagination when in times of trouble. There are many symbols in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.
Control is an important recurrence in the novel, as it shows we find comfort in knowing we contain the ability to establish structure and manipulate things at our own will. Without control, we do not have a sense of stability and we become lost; we find ourselves controlling something merely for the structure that power gives us. The conch is the first form of power, as it unites all the boys during assemblies. Ralph is the first to blow the conch, and that is how all of the boys find each other. The comfort brought from the authority of being summoned, as small of an authority as it may seem, had great impact on the boys.
This indicates that the island, the darkness of his life, is now leaving him. This can be connected to Christianity, when Jesus was hung from the cross, which made him rise into heaven. Simon is finally away from the people who persecuted him because he tried to speak out. When “the great wave” was surrounded by “inquisitive bright creatures”, this continues to show that Simon was the brightness of
Simon becomes aware of his internal cruelty when it manifests itself in hallucinatory forms as “The Lord of the Flies”. Simon at first lacks the understanding and cannot comprehend what is happening until the hallucination says “‘Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill!’ said the head. For a moment or two the forest and other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. ‘You knew didn’t you?
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.”
This shows that the boys are only afraid of themselves, because they are their own worst enemy. He is the first to figure out that the beast is not an actual beast, and how it is only the boys becoming savage, and starting to be afraid of one another. As Simon began to explain this to the doubtful boys, he was the only one who died knowing the
Although the other boys laugh off Simon’s suggestion, Simon’s words are central to Golding’s philosophy of anti-transcendentalism, that innate human darkness exists. Simon is the first character in the novel to see “mankind’s essential illness” which in turn, shows the beast not as an external force but as a component of human nature. Simons deep understanding of the beast is further expressed in his hallucination or his “discussion” with the lord of the flies that he has after one of his fainting spells, “There isn't anyone to help you. Only me. And I'm the Beast...
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.”
William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies does not simply describe the life of a group of children stranded on an island, but rather it is a representation of the qualities of human nature. As the novel progresses, the children grow deeper into savagery, performing actions that would be often criticised in society. The absence of law and order devolves even those that attempt to recreate it, like Ralph and Piggy. In this novel, Golding uses children to answer the question whether or not humans are born inanimately good or truly evil. Golding answers this question by symbolising the main characters and their descent into savagery.