The Significance of Simon's Death in Lord of the Flies

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Explore the Significance of Simon's Death in Lord of the Flies.

The characters in this story are thrown into a world of their own with

no parents, no structure or laws and no protection from their own

primitive instincts. There are many ideas about society and the nature

of man represented in the novel. The theme of inherent human evil

battling with essential human goodness, as represented by Simon. His

brutal murder by the other boys indicates the scarcity of that

goodness amid an overwhelming abundance of evil. The death of Simon is

a turning point in "Lord of the Flies". It represents the completion

of their degeneration from civilization to savagery.

Simon is kind, thoughtful, sensitive, introvert and helpful by nature;

he has a friendly aura about him that is recognised by Ralf as soon as

they meet. Simon is used to represent what is good about the boys.

Simon feels at home with the nature of the island, it seems to accept

him and he is in harmony with his surroundings. Simon exhibits a

number of contradictory characteristics. He is community spirited and

helpful when building the shelters with Ralf, yet on occasions is

solitary and reclusive. He often walks alone at night through the

jungle and does not share the boys underlying fear of the darkness. He

is described as 'Batty', 'queer' and 'crackers' by the other boys but

quite what form this strangeness takes is never really explicit. Ralph

sits at the beach, thinking about his physical deterioration, as his

nails and hair had out-grown and are filthy and shabby. He realizes

that they lacked the basic elements of civilizations, showing how he

has become much more reflective over the fact that their being rescued

seemed as far away as the "miles ...

... middle of paper ...

...ilisation and

responsibility. Golding uses Simon to show that when we are in

trouble, we are likely to turn on the people that we do not

understand. Simon is unlike the others thoughtful, sensitive and

intellectual, he is a rather mysterious character who plays a key role

in the supernatural side of the story along with 'spooky noises from

the jungle' and his weird visions.

After Simon's death, any trace of rules and resemblance of society

that had been taken to the island had gone. This left the path open to

the vicious murder of piggy and the final man hunt for Ralf. Simon's

death is of utmost importance to the novel as a whole. It changes the

structure of the system of authority on the island and it removes the

only person who might reveal the fact that the beast is a figment of

their imagination and so therefore ridding the island of the boys

fear.

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