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In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, there is a part where Simon sneaks off to the jungle to sit in a peaceful clearing. There, Jack mounted a sow’s head on a stick as an offering to the beast. Simon then goes into a seizure and hallucinates that the flies that were on the pig head were attacking him. In this short section it is clear to see that Golding is an exceptional writer with vivid visual description, symbols, and diction. The first thing I noticed in this section was the vivid imagery. He describes the mounted pig’s head with intense detail that really makes the reader cringe. The reader is feeling Simon’s horrification when, “Even the butterflies deserted the open space where the obscene thing grinned and dripped.” (Golding 138) That detail was important to emphasize how the warm, sunny space in the trees went from peaceful to cold and unwelcoming. Also the way Golding describes the pig head as if it were alive creates a sinister feel and ties in the next part of Simon’s hallucinations where he actually …show more content…
One part I noticed was when Simon is looking at the pig head and a bunch of flies start to gather on it then they begin to buzz loudly and then start to attack Simon. “They were black and iridescent green and without number; and in front of Simon, the Lord of the Flies hung on his stick and grinned.” (138) Here is where you see the name, “Lord of the Flies”, being used for the first time. In this scene I interpreted the flies attacking Simon as a symbol of evil in masses attacking an individual. I think the pig head, or “Lord of the Flies”, symbolizes evil because of the gruesome way that it was chopped off and hung on a stick. Its scary, ugly, gross appearance of it also adds to the representation that it is the evil in society, or in a biblical sense, the devil. Also since the flies came from the pig head, or “Lord of the Flies”, they could represent followers of evil or demons coming from the
In the novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the concept of good fighting evil is clearly shown to be a big picture. In many cases, Jesus Christ represents good and bliss in the universe, while the devil represents evil. In this novel the reader sees the when good fights evil, the evil is a good turned evil. For example, before the devil became evil, he was an angel. He was good turned evil and is now fighting good. Simon represents the good and bliss, he is the Christ figure on the island while evil and savagery is shown in the other boys on the island. Both Simon and Christ share common qualities, actions, and deaths. Simon shows this throughout the novel, from the beginning until the time of his death.
him constantly and the other boys make fun of him. Jack and his followers spend
“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill…You knew didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close. Close. Close,” in comparison to “And he said, ‘That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man’…All these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Golding 143, Mark 7:20- 7:23, KJV). Both statements about inner evils, both spoken by one in the same person. The former was stated by Simon in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies as he spoke to the Lord of the Flies, and the latter is transcribed in the scripture of the Holy Bible, a book devoted to the life and stories of Jesus. These coinciding excerpts are not by coincidence in any way. Simon is the symbolic Christ figure in Lord of the Flies in more ways in one. Often
Amongst the boys which have be stranded on the coral island, There is one certain character, a character that is different from the rest of the boys, a character which is wise and understanding but most of all importance a character with a symbol. This character is Simon. He is one of the most symbolic characters from the beginning to end.
The contrast between Simon and the Beast even contains some Biblical parallels. Simon can be seen as Jesus where the Beast can be seen as the Devil. The meeting between Simon and the Lord of the Flies later in the novel can be seen to parallel the forty days when Jesus fasted in the wilderness and was tempted by Satan. Though there are several gaps in this parallel, the main theme Golding is trying to convey is clear.
Golding makes very good use of characters in Lord of the Flies, he shows both good and evil through each of the characters. One of the characters that represents goodness is Simon. He is very good and pure, and has the most positive outlook. Simon is very different from the other boys, he seems to always be helping the Littluns and many other vulnerable boys such as Piggy. "Simon sitting between the twins and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy, who grabbed it." (Golding, pg.74) This quote interprets an example of a time when Simon helped Piggy by giving him food, it shows Simon's wholeheartedness. Another example would be when Simon helps the Littluns pick fruit from high to reach places. All in all Golding tries to portray Simon as a Christ like figure.
Through the use of figurative language devices, and narration techniques, Golding foreshadows and sets a ritualistic tone for Simon’s death, and to emphasize the boys’ eagerness to kill the “beast.” The role of fear triggers the lost of individualism, instinctual actions, and the overall innate evil of mankind.
The rumors of its existence scare the smaller children, but also become the catalyst for Jack and his group to indulge their savageness, due to their desire to hunt it down and kill it. The boys are driven to madness because of it. This “beastie” is the titular Lord of the Flies, or Beelzebub, who in the New Testament is identified as the Devil – a symbol of evil. When one of the characters, Simon, stumbles across the beastie it is revealed that it is a pig’s head on a stick. The pig was brutally stabbed by Jack and his hunters in a frenzy, as the pig squealed in pain. This act of savagery solidifies the loss of innocence and the embracement of evil. Simon hallucinates the head talking to him. “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 158) The Lord of the Flies suggests that his presence is the reason for the boys’ descent into savagery and madness, beginning with the children’s fear of the beast’s existence, followed by Jack’s brutality when killing the pig as well as his transformation into a savage, finally culminating in the frenzied murder of Simon at the hands of the children who mistake him for the beast. While they are beating Simon to death they are also chanting "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" (Golding 168) and dancing around him, similarly to a tribe of savages. The killing of a fellow human being is the biggest sign that evil has enveloped the hearts of the
One of the most important and most obvious symbols in Lord of the Flies is the object that gives the novel its name, the pig's head. Golding's description of the slaughtered animal's head on a spear is very graphic and even frightening. The pig's head is depicted as "dim-eyed, grinning faintly, blood blackening between the teeth," and the "obscene thing" is covered with a "black blob of flies" that "tickled under his nostrils" (William Golding, Lord of the Flies, New York, Putnam Publishing Group, 1954, p. 137, 138). As a result of this detailed, striking image, the reader becomes aware of the great evil and darkness represented by the Lord of the Flies, and when Simon begins to converse with the seemingly inanimate, devil-like object, the source of that wickedness is revealed. Even though the conversation may be entirely a hallucination, Simon learns that the beast, which has long since frightened the other boys on the island, is not an external force. In fact, the head of the slain pig tells him, "Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill! Ö You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you?" (p. 143). That is to say, the evil, epitomized by the pig's head, that is causing the boys' island society to decline is that which is inherently present within man. At the end of this scene, the immense evil represented by this powerful symbol can once again be seen as Simon faints after looking into the wide mouth of the pig and seeing "blackness within, a blackness that spread" (p. 144).
Golding drives the point that the instinctual evil within man is inescapable. At one point in the book, when the Lord of the Flies is representing all evil, this theory is stated as, "The Lord of the Flies was expanding like a balloon" (Golding 130). Along with this idea is the religious symbolism that is used for ineffectively confronting the evil. At a point in the book, Golding has Simon, symbolic of Jesus Christ, confront the Lord of the Flies. This is a pig's head on a stick that is imagined to talk and represent the evil in all humans. Simon tries to act and spread the knowledge of this evil to others but is killed. This is a direct reference to the death of Christ, alluding to the Holy Bible.
A group of kids got stuck on an island after their plane got shot down and they all have many different personalities. Being stuck on an island usually brings out the worst of people.But, there were two characters in novel, “The Lord of The Flies” that had good morals. These two characters were Ralph and Simon. Ralph and Simon weren’t intimidated by not having any adults around, instead, they tried to bring out the best of themselves and not take part in any horseplay the rest of the boys did.
People are privileged to live in an advanced stage of development known as civilization. In a civilization, one’s life is bound by rules that are meant to tame its savage natures. A humans possesses better qualities because the laws that we must follow instill order and stability within society. This observation, made by William Golding, dictates itself as one of the most important themes of Lord of the Flies. The novel demonstrates the great need for civilization ion in life because without it, people revert back to animalistic natures.
Is everybody born purely good inside? Or are we all filled with certain amounts of good and evil? In Lord of the Flies by William Golding a plane full of school boys lands on a deserted island, killing all the adults. With no adult supervision or civilization the boys descend back into the madness and savagery that is human nature. In Lord of the Flies by william Golding his character Simon uses spiritual power by finding out what the beast really is, showing how he failed to warn the others, how his use of the power affected the book as a whole, and how spiritual power is in the real world.
In conclusion, this whole novel is based on good versus evil. The symbolism in the novel helps to portray that as much as possible, with the conch and Ralph, Piggy, and Simon representing the “good,” and the sow’s head and Jack and his hunters representing the “evil.” One of the main themes of The Lord of the Flies is man’s inhumanity to man. It is also compared to the book of Genesis in the Bible. This novel deals with all the corruption in the world, and no matter whom you are, while reading it, you can always relate it to real life situations.
Much of history’s most renown literature have real-world connections hidden in them, although they may be taxing uncover. William Golding’s classic, Lord of the Flies, is no exception. In this work of art, Golding uses the three main characters, Piggy, Jack, and Ralph, to symbolize various aspects of human nature through their behaviors, actions, and responses.