More handpicked essays just for you.
How does social influence individual development
How does social influence individual development
Importance of Symbolism in literature
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: How does social influence individual development
Throughout the novel, Lord of the Flies, Simon has been unable to effectively communicate his message about the reality of beast, that the beast is really the innate evil nature that exists in everybody. Simon tries to articulate his idea, but yields when the others brush him off: “Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us." (Golding, 80). Simon's inability to convey his message to the others stemmed from his own evil nature. Simon receives discouragement when the other boys dismiss his idea. Simon lacked social confidence caused his failed attempt at expressing his message and his introverted behaviour deprived him from having any allies. There were many messages in the world that were similar to Simon's. For example, in the 1950s and 1960s, civil …show more content…
There were many beliefs and stereotypes against Black people and they were discriminated because of it. Despite his efforts, many people, like J. Edgar Hoover. opposed Martin Luther King Jr. Simon and Martin Luther King Jr. both encountered barriers when they tried to express their message and ultimately died. Simon, unlike the other boys on the island, possesses intuition. This allows him to be one of the most wise and knowledgeable characters within the novel. Intuition is defined as an instinctual way of thinking, or thinking based off of one's personal beliefs on the truth, disregarding rationalized thinking and reasoning. Simon's actions throughout the novel has demonstrated how intuition is essential for a complete human experience. While the other boys, even Ralph and Jack, believe in the beast, Simon still doubts its existence, believing that there is no literal beast on
Ralph and simon that the rest of the kids horesplay was a bad idea. In the novel Golding writes, “Shouting that he is the beast, the boys descend upon Simon and start to tear him apart with their bare hands and teeth. Simon tries desperately to explain what has happened and to remind them of who he is, but he trips and plunges over the rocks onto the beach. The boys fall on him and violently kill him” ( ). This just goes to show us that the other boys’ horseplay and beliefs lead to bad things. Ralph did not take part in this act because he knew what was wrong.
While they agree that the beast is not a traditional monster, it is Simon’s philosophical understanding that allows him to fully realize the meaning of the beast. At the assembly, Ralph plans to discuss the beast, hoping to bring the fear to an end. Simon suggests that the boys themselves are the beast. Later, when Simon encounters the “Lord of the Flies” in a hallucination, the reader learns the extent of his understanding. The Lord of the Flies mocks Simon by saying, “Fancy you thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill...You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?”(128). Simon realizes that there is something within humans that can cause them to act savagely. However, at the assembly, in an effort to understand what Simon meant about the beast, the boys suggest that the beast could be a ghost. Piggy firmly rejects this idea because he approaches the beast in the same way he handles most situations: logically and scientifically. As Piggy states, “Life… is scientific, that’s what it is…. I know there isn’t no beast- not with claws and all that, I mean- but I know there isn’t no fear either… unless we get afraid of people” (72). Piggy understands fear can have detrimental effects, but he does not yet understand that fear is within every person, and this is the “beast” that can cause people to act without
Their actions are what makes them different from other characters or people in their stories. For example, both Christ and Simon have two different identities. Christ was a Jewish man and, in Christianity, the son of God. Simon also shared the fact that he has two identities. His first identity was that he was dedicated to Ralph. He made sure to follow Ralph with his decision making and do whatever Ralph wants him to do. He does so because he want to return to the way things were before the crash. He wanted to go home in a civilized manner and not in savagery. He helped build shelters for Ralph and was one of the few core support of Ralph. Simon's second identity was a mature, spiritual self. He would always go to the forest to meditate and become one with the island to further his understanding of it. Just like he was compassionate towards others and their feelings, he was sensitive towards the island. When he visits the forest, it is as if his spiritual alter ego shows up and takes over him. “Then he… walked into the forest with an air of purpose… he wormed his way into the center of the mat… holding his breath he cocked a critical ear at the sounds of the island,” (Golding 55-57). This shows that Simon is different from the other boys. It shows that Simon has a deeper understanding of what is happening on the island that the other boys don’t know
...hat the beast is not real and that all the boys are living in fear of something that does not exist. The boys have no reason to be afraid, however, when he goes to tell them this, they brutally murder him because they think that he is, in fact, the beast, thus preventing Simon from delivering his message. Even though Simon does not get to deliver his message to the boys, he serves a “symbolic function in the novel as the agent who provides the text’s fibular message – that ‘mankind is both heroic and sick’”. Although Simon did not get to release the boys from their overwhelming fear of the beast, he helps the readers grasp the novel’s overarching message by exemplifying both heroic and sick qualities. This apparent switch between two opposing traits functions as his message to the reader and makes Simon an extraordinarily important character. TRANSITION. TRANSITION.
Imagine a life that is detached from civilization and free from any socially imposed morals. In the story Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of young boys is faced with this situation, and there is a perpetual conflict between the boys who are trying to maintain order and those whose violent instincts take over. Despite Ralph’s efforts to maintain order on the island and get the boys rescued, the boys, including Ralph himself, resort to violent and primitive behavior, and this is what causes Simon’s death. Whereas the other boys on the island lose their moral principles once savagery takes over, Simon retains his morals and does nice things such as helping the younger boys find food. In Lord of the Flies, Simon represents the speck of intrinsic morality and perceptive reasoning on the island, and unlike the other boys, he demonstrates morality as a way of life rather than a socially-imposed concept that is to be quickly lost in the wake of uncertainty.
Simon was the observant character, the quiet philosopher. He was often alone, sometimes by his own choice, and he liked to wander into the peaceful jungle. He sincerely cared about the other boys, sometimes helping the young ones to fetch fruit, yet "Simon turned away from them and went where the just perceptible path led him. Soon high jungle closed in" (56). He loved solitude and yet felt loneliness; he was alien to the other boys. The boys did not think anyone would be stupid enough to go into the jungle by night: "The assembly grinned at the thought of going out into the darkness. Then Simon stood up and Ralph looked at him in astonishment" (85). Many of the boys even thought he was "batty" because he left the group to spend time alone.
Simon appreciates how peaceful and beautiful the island is , but as he journeys deeper he finds The Lord of the Flies (the boars head) impaled at its center, the main symbol of how the innocence of childhood has been corrupted by fear and savagery. When Ralph is first introduced, he is acting like a child, splashing in the water, and laughing. He tells Piggy that his father, a naval commander, will rescue him. Ralph repeats his belief in their rescue throughout the novel, shifting his hope that his own father will discover them. To the more realistic idea that a passing ship will be attracted by the signal fire on the island. By the end of the novel, he has lost hope in the boys' rescue altogether. Notice how he goes from being optimistic to pessimistic his childhood wishes and fantasies are lost in the savagery and harshness of the jungle.
In the end, even though he failed to inform the other boys of it, Simon through his use of spiritual power was able to recognize the truth. He stood strong against evil even though it consumed the island after his death. People can look to him as an example of how to act in real life. And to be honest, Simon is an important character to Lord of the Flies by William Golding, not just for all this, but because he is what every person should wish to be. In the book the others bully him because they do not quite understand him, but Simon in all reality is a role model for the world. Don’t you think that the world would be a much better place, if we all tried to act a little bit like Simon?
On contrary from all the other boys on the island Simon, a Christ like figure in the novel, did not fear the ‘beastie’ or the unknown. “Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us” Simon explained. (p. 97) The fear of the unknown in the novel contributes to the boys’ terror of the beast, the beast is an imaginary figure which lays in all of the boys’ minds and haunts them. Golding uses the beast as a symbol of the evil that exists in every creature. "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 the way they are?" The sow head announced to Simon to be the “lord of the flies”. The “lord of the flies” is a figure of the devil, and brings out all the evil and fear in people. It wants you to fear it, but if you don’t believe in the “lord of the flies” nothing can happen to you. Therefore Simon didn’t fall into the trap, but the beast killed him, meaning the other boys on the island did. Simon discovered that the beast is in fact just a dead parachute man before he died and ran down to tell the boys about his finding. When Sim...
Simon is perhaps the most important character in the novel for he is the first and only character to come to the realization that the Beast is inside them all, and is not represented by a physical manifestation. Simon is a follower, not a leader. He believes and trusts what Ralph, his leader, says. That’s why he mentions that the beast could be inside all of them once, and immediately discards that because Ralph doesn’t think so. His confrontation with the Lord of the Flies is the only way he can liberate that information to himself. The encounter begins with “Even if he shut his eyes the sow’s head still remained like an after-image.” This represents the beginning of the fixation Simon is having on the head, thinking of it even after he shuts his eyes. Golding then points out that the pig had half shut eyes and were dim with infinite cynicism of adult life. Those details come back a little later. It’s at this point where Simon asks himself a question and answers it aloud. “ ‘I know that.’ Simon discovered that he had spoken aloud”. “He opened his eyes quickly and there was the head grinning amusedly in the strange daylight, ignoring the flies, the spilled guts, even ignoring the indignity of being spiked on a stick.” That sentence shows the continuing evolution of the fixation Simon has in this encounter. The first thing he sees when he opens his eyes is the head, and he ignores every detail around it. This is when Simon comes to the realization that his original conclusion is credible, the one he let be because of Ralph. He looks away, trying to forget the head even exists, but cannot accomplish that task.. He pulls himself back to the head “Might not the beast come for it?”, simply because he believes the Beast is not a physical manifestation, therefore being impossible for it to come. According to Simon, the head seems to agree with him. At this point, he knows the Beast doesn’t exist physically, but he is hesitant none-the-less. The head says “Run away […] go back to the others. It was a joke really—why should you bother? You were wrong, that’s all. A little headache, something you ate, perhaps. Go back, child.” Simon is making excuses for himself through the pig. Here, the fixation on the head is nearly complete.
Let me start by asking you a question: What is surprisingly untrustworthy, can cause numerous mental health issues, and is hated by scientists everywhere? Your memory! Very few people have stopped to think about memories, and almost no one knows the horrors that come along with memories. Throughout time, the concept of memories has been overlooked and never really questioned until recently. Scientists have discovered that the cause of many mental health issues is our own memories. Also, the high level of confidence that we have in our memories is very misleading. Our memory is so self-destructive and unreliable that scientists have started creating ways to erase memories.
Another of the most important symbols used to present the theme of the novel is the beast. In the imaginations of many of the boys, the beast is a tangible source of evil on the island. However, in reality, it represents the evil naturally present within everyone, which is causing life on the island to deteriorate. Simon begins to realize this even before his encounter with the Lord of the Flies, and during one argument over the existence of a beast, he attempts to share his insight with the others.
In chapter five, the boys begin to discuss the existence of a beast on the island. When asked what he thought about it, Simon replied with “what I mean is... maybe it’s only us” (Golding 89). The idea that the evil was not something to be feared in the jungle, but to be feared within themselves was not received wel...
In chapter five, the beast was made-up and did not exist. Many of the boys were afraid of it. Ralph called a meeting because he saw the boys were having problems with their fear of the beast. It is Jack who states, “If there were a beast I’d have seen it. Be frightened because you’re like that- but there is no beast in the forest (Goldberg, p. 83). Symbolism for the beast changes in the novel from a real beast that they think exists to realizing that the beast exists within them. It is Simon in chapter five who states that perhaps the beast exist within them. He states, “What I mean is … maybe it’s only us (Goldberg, p. 89). Simon felt that the beast does not really exist but evil exists among them.
In the beginning, Simon was described as a 'skinny, vivid little boy…,'; (Golding 24) showing that he was undersized and possibly weaker than the others. He stuck around Ralph for a while, went exploring with him and Jack, and even helped him build the shelters. It was not long before he began to wander off by himself to that little place among the creepers. The other boys thought he was 'queer….funny.'; (55) because he was an outcast and rather strange.