Simon Symbolism In Lord Of The Flies

The encounter with the Lord of the Flies supports Simon’s thoughts that the beast that the boys are hunting for is not an actual animal. The Lord of the Flies tries to persuade Simon to let go of his rational thoughts and be taken over by his primal instincts in order to have fun like the other boys. However, when Simon’s silence declares that he refuses to let go of logic and rationality, the Lord of the Flies realizes that Simon knows what the beast really is—the innermost part of the boys. Simon seems to make this connection that the Lord of the Flies is representational to the inner beast within the boys almost instantly. “His gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable recognition”(Golding 139). Simon instantly The Lord of the Flies quickly makes the connection, too. “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?” (Golding, 1 ). The Lord of the Flies is symbolic to all the evil that is in humans. As Simon realizes that he was right about the beast, he tries to go back to the other boys to warn them about his discovery, but the Lord of the Flies gets angry. “This is ridiculous. You know perfectly well you’ll only meet me down there—so don’t try to

Jack and his chosen group of hunters all follow Jack and fail to follow Ralph’s command to keep civilization under control. Simon and his natural behaviors contrast with Jack as he sees the positive interests and goodness in civilization. Simon’s actions reveal his shy, yet kind, and non confrontational attitude which makes the importance of his character hard to notice. Simon is the mediator on the island, as he will never decline a request from the little children for food, an order from Ralph to help build shelters, and tries to keep the peace between the hunters and the civilized boys. Simon can be seen as the most compassionate character on the island as displayed in this quote: “Simon sitting between the twins and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy, who grabbed it. The twins giggled and Simon lowered his face in shame” (Golding 74). Jack, on the other hand, is most malicious towards Piggy as he eventually becomes consumed by evil and and will attempt to destroy all points of civilization and innocence left on the island. Innocence is bestowed upon nearly all the boys trying to keep civilization alive on the island and is despised by Jack and his highly influenced choir boys turned hunters.

Simon is meant to be a Christ-figure in the Lord of the Flies because he is killed like Jesus, and is representing communion, he looks like an angel being sent to heaven, and cares about everyone like Jesus. Simon is kind, caring, and acts and is similar to Jesus in many ways. He is meant to try to bring peace and help everyone on this island. This island needed a protector because of all the chaos that happened and he was meant to be

Simon is the one boy who never participates in destructive behaviors and always contributes to the well being of the boys. He continues to work even after everyone stops, gives Piggy food when no one else will, and speaks his mind about the beast. He is also the only one to realize that the true beast is inside the boys. Simon’s moral compass, much like the superego, allows him to see the evil of mankind. Simon is whole-heartedly good. The superego attempts to lead a person to the morally right pathway, much like Simon aims to show Ralph how he can do what’s best for the tribe. The primitive nature of the others overpowers Simon’s internal good nature. Even after his death, Simon’s moral nature lives on through the boys similar to how the superego can continue to shine after a person follows the desires of the id.

Simon shows his individuality and cravings for tranquility and cognizance also through his participation with others. One instance when he truly displays this is when he was picking fruit from the “littluns”. The “littluns” and “lugged them towards the trees” and “Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach” (Golding,56). He feeds them alone and “when he had satisfied them”he “turned away from them and went where the just perceptible path led him” (Golding,56). This shows how through his clarity with nature and himself, he helps others and continues to portray that he prefers to think, act, and help others by himself. He also shows his individualism when he reacted to the death of the pig. With the chaos going around him, Simon isolates himself and “lowered his head, carefully keeping his eyes shut, then sheltered them with his hands” next to the pile of guts Jack and Roger left after penetrating the pig’s head with a stick (Golding,138). He ignores everything around him and tries his best to hide away from the monstrous actions the other boys are committing. This also supports the idea that he favors time alone in his own thoughts in peace rather than facing his fear. In

This reminds Jack and Ralph that there is a chance that the beast is real and there may be reason for all the fear.  It also reveals that Simon's character is very much in touch with reality. He is not trying to push the fact that a beast could be on the island away from him.  He is trying to deal with his fear and show the others that they can and should deal with theirs.

Simon although made many discoveries, he could never express his thoughts to the other boys during assemblies. Simon always needed help from Piggy in order to somewhat share his findings. Simon choked in middle of saying something during an assembly, “Again the pressure of the assemble took his voice away. He sought for help and sympathy and chose Piggy”(Golding 128). Simon was always petrifies to talk to the other boys especially Jack. He trusted Ralph and Piggy, but he could never share his thoughts to the group as a whole. Simon was afraid of so many things and in the article Lord of the Flies is Still a Blueprint for Savagery, Learmonth and Tabakoff elaborate on some of the concepts that Simon knew were going to happen and caused him to be unable to speak. They stated, “Group fragmentation, leadership struggles, personal hatred, theft, abuse, frenzied violence, the discarding of empathy and compassion- these are all things that afflicted both Golding’s school boy group and many real survivor groups.” When you are in a situation that

Throughout the story, Simon gave a variety of advice that did not seem important at the moment, but turned out to be substantial as time went by. Simon

1. The animals who gather to hear Major’s speech each mirror a single human trait. What is revealed in Clover? Boxer? Benjamin?

Simon’s second most important feature is his kindness. On page 78, he shows his concern for the wellbeing of everyone else when he braves the hot sun and the bees to pick fruit. He does so to give it to the littluns, and takes the time

Simon is the christ figue of the book, referred to as peace maker, overseer, and truth teller. We constantly see him helping and being reasonable. He is the one that truly understands what and who the beast truly is,not some scary sea monster but the evil that is within everyone. Hes loyal to Ralph as god is to humans. “Softly , surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations , simon's dead body went out toward the open sea.” (LOTF) THe sliver creatures was a halo as angels have as a christ figure dies and depicted is taken back by the earth. Simon never was just a little boy lost on an island he was so much more. Although Piggy was smart he did not understand things the way simon did and probably never could have. Early in the novel we see him tell ralph that he is gonna make it through alright, he didn't say we will make it out alright he said you will, how did he know Ralph would live and he wouldn't be so fortunate. How did he understand the help he gave Ralph with building the huts was important, or that the real beast wasn't an animal. SImon was a truly impressive character that depicted much more than just a kid with epilepsy and a knack for siting in a grove. He himself although written by golding made it make sense to us the meaning of humanity against

Simon was also an allegorical role because of their death. They both get rejected by people they care for while trying to help them. They were both brutally, cruel, and unfairly killed for their actions. They both got killed by mistake or misunderstanding. While Simons lifestyle and objective were good, he also had downsides and

He talks of a slithering object at night that tries to get him while he is asleep. There are many other accounts of a beast, even a pig’s head and a parachutist who did not make it. The Beast represents the fear that the boys have and everyone. The Beast is altered or changed depending on the boy who speaks of it because they are all scared and afraid of what might be out there or what might come to be. However, after Simon is killed and the parachutist is gone, they believe the beast is gone.

Lord of the Flies: William Golding has said that his novel Lord of the Flies was symbolic from the beginning until the end when the boys are rescued. During the course of the novel these symbols are constantly changing, giving us a new interpretation of the island society.

The boys project their irrational fears as a derivative of their immaturity, in an attempt to identify a realized external enemy. Literary critic Lawrence S. Friedman explains, “Too immature to account for the enemy within, the boys project their irrational fears onto the outside world. The first of these projections takes the shape of a snakelike “beastie,” the product of a small boy’s nightmare.” (233) The boys’ irrational fear of the unknown, one of a small boy’s nightmare, only serves to exemplify their immaturity in handling situations like this. It is a stepping stone to events to come, prophesied by Simon. In addition, the character of Simon alludes to the fact that there evil ‘beast’ can really be traced to their internalized innate evilness. Simon argues, “maybe there is a beast… What I mean is… maybe it’s only us.” (Golding 89) While all of the boys attempt to explain the phenomena of the ‘beast,’ Simon is the one who realizes that the boys themselves are the evil ‘beast’ they perceive. There is no external force, the ‘beast’ only serves to be a placeholder for the boys’ true primal nature. However, it is Simon’s death, at the hand of the boys themselves, that only serves to prove that evil truly exists in all of these boys. Friedman suggests, “The ritual murder of Simon is as ironic as it is inevitable. Ironically, he is killed as the beast before he can explain that the beast does not exist. His horrid death refutes is aborted revelation: the beast exists, all right, not where we thought to find it, but within ourselves.” (236) His death is truly the tipping point, a point of no return for the boys. After his killing, Simon’s philosophy of inner evil is realized. It is clear that his own philosophy is what ultimately leads to Simon’s death, as unfortunate as it may be. It is reflected of the group’s fear of the unknown, and their