How Does Golding Use Vivid Imagery In Lord Of The Flies

Melyndee Butterfield
Mrs. McGloughlin
English, Period 1A
5 December 2016
The Killing of the Innocent: Mankind’s State of Hopelessness
In the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the author, by way of vivid imagery and a tense mood, places the timing of the death of one significant character, Simon, at a pivotal point in the novel in order to display his opinion on the natural state of man. Closer to the end of the novel, Golding creates a dramatic atmosphere through the use of weather, just before Simon passes. Using vivid imagery, the sky is described as having “great bulging towers [of clouds] that sprouted away over the island . . . The clouds were sitting on the land; they squeezed [out] tormenting heat” (151). At this point,

tension is building with the weather, almost like a feeling of something about to burst. Interestingly enough, the plot at this moment mirrors the tension of the weather perfectly.

Simon, the wisest, calmest, and maturest of all the boys, is off by himself “talking” to a pig, perhaps going crazy. All others are sitting around the fire relaxing, ignoring the fact that one of the the wisest men of all has himself begun to lose sanity, possibly symbolic of the condition of people on the island. Of course, readers know, by the description of the bulging clouds, that the sky will soon break and, symbolically, something terrible within the plot will soon happen. Indeed, the entire novel has built to this point, as readers have observed the downward spiral of morality amidst the moral characters and increased savagery. Simon has observed this, and perhaps because he tends to take in everything inwardly, his depression over the gradual decline in the children on the island has caused him to become somewhat senile. Simon continues his “conversation” with the pig whom he calls “the lord of the flies” (“Beelzebub” in Hebrew, meaning “the devil”), and it is as if he is being tempted by the devil, or corrupt immorality that has taken over the other children on the island. However, he is able to be triumphant over the temptations, and staggers back down to the island to inform the other children that the beast on the island is

harmless. Sadly, the children, still utterly consumed with fear, see an object staggering down the mountain and begin to attack it, with “no words, . . . but the tearing of teeth and claws” (167). This “object” is in fact Simon, who almost immediately dies from the attacks. At this very exact moment, “the clouds [open] and let down the rain like a waterfall” (169). The weather speaks for itself. It is here that all metaphorical hell breaks loose, and despite Simon’s verbal pleas for rescue, the truly savage children brutalize and kill one of their own. The timing could not be more fitting, especially if one considers that the novel itself can be interpreted as a mirror to the life of Christ. Christ, completely innocent, is murdered by his own people, the Jews, the ones he came to save--just as weather becomes completely blackened. Simon, the one who sets the complete moral example for the children on the island, is killed, opening up the floodgates to utter moral calamity on the island upon his death. Essentially, all hell has broken loose, and the thread of hope that once was disappears with the darkest storm ever--literally and metaphorically--as the children are left without a spiritual and moral role-model. Simon’s death displays the ultimate conclusion William Golding, in The Lord of the Flies, wishes to make: that mankind--even at an innocent age--when set in the most natural setting, will ultimately give in to depravity.