Examples Of Religion In Lord Of The Flies

The character of Simon in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies has often been viewed as the Christ figure of the novel. If you were to examine the actions of both Simon and Jesus, you would find a number of incidents that parallel each other.

Simon, one of the major characters in the story, is set as an allusion to Jesus. Christ always had an affinity to children, as Simon does in chapter three of Lord of the Flies (Golding 56). He picks fruit for the younger children on the island that they call

Human’s innate behavior after the constraints and expectations of society disappear is the recurring theme centering the characters. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies uses the righteous Simon to highlight Jack and his evil role throughout the novel of savagery and civilization. The foil characters in Lord of the Flies exhibit the contrasting ideals and characteristics, the dissimilar symbolism of both characters, and the circumstances which lead both characters to follow one’s natural tendencies. To emphasize the message of Lord of the Flies, two young innocent boys will gradually begin to show their individualism.

In different stories people may be represented as a figure of Christ. They may do things similar to what Jesus or God would do constantly. In the book, Lord of the Flies, there is a person who is represented as a Christ-figure. The person who fills this role is Simon. Simon is represented in Lord of the Flies as a Christ-figure because his death is similar to Jesus’ and communion, has imagery of being sent to heaven, and he is kind to everyone.

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, one of the major characters in the story, is set as the allusion of Jesus. Christ always had an affinity with children; in Ch. 4, he shows his way with the ‘littluns’ by picking fruit for them. This shows his goodness by nature. Also, like Christ, he saw the atavistic problem of the hunters and tried to bring them back to good. As in the bible, Simon, like Christ, dies

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

Jesus is a holy man. He doesn’t hesitate to help others, even if it makes him unpopular. Simon displays this quality by helping and standing up for Piggy, a boy few respect. Jesus is a carpenter. By helping Ralph build shelters, Simon is also serving as a carpenter. Jesus, in addition, develops a friendship with children like Simon who helps the children collect fruit from trees which they cannot reach. “...Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands.” (56) Both Simon and Jesus possess a gift for prophecy. Both realize that they would be killed for the lives of others. Jesus is tempted by the devil for forty days to disobey God. Likewise, Simon is tempted by the Lord of the Flies. “The Lord of the Flies tells Simon, ‘You’d better run on and play with the others. They think you’re batty.’”(143) Jesus and Simon encounter numerous of the same experiences and display the same virtues.

A lack of religion will lead to a lack of morality. Christlike figures often appear selfless, enlightened, and are taunted by sin. Simon from Lord of the Flies exhibits kindness to the young children by getting them fruit, while most of the older children disregard the children, and leave them to their own activities. He challenges the older boys ways of thinking, as he often prefers to meditate alone in the jungle. He even outright opposes the group mentality, as he says, “I don’t believe in the beast” (105). When Simon is confronted by the lord of the flies (a thinly-veiled reference to satan), it taunts him. The pig’s head symbolizes of the worst aspect of the group, and it tries to tempt and threaten Simon so that he becomes like the rest of the boys: unorganized, unfocused, and on their way to becoming savages. Eventually the other boys ritualistically murder Simon because they mistake him for the beast. Simon was the only one who knew that the beast was not real. He was enlightened and it isolated him from the rest of the boys. The parallels between Simon and Christ make Simon’s death more impactful, to emphasize the inevitability of downfall in groups who

     In the book Lord of the Flies the charecter, Simon, is portrayed as a Christ-figure. He is shown to have all the qualities Christ has: intelligence, determination, and resiliance. Simon also is portrayed like Christ physically, he is skinny and not a strong person. Simon was very calm, kind, and he enjoyed being alone when ever he could.

Did your parents ever tell you about the first time that you disobeyed them? Mine have. I was next to a hot wood stove at my grandparent’s house, and my parents told me not to touch it because it was hot. But, of course, I just had to touch it now that I was told not to. I wasn’t egged on by my sister or my cousins; I touched that stove of my own accord. And of course, it all went down from there. My inward desire to be stubborn and selfish was expressed though disobeying my parents- In the end, I got burned. Similarly, in Sir William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, biblical allusions are used to give additional meaning and depth to the book and to show the ways in which humans transfer their inner evil into outward behavior. Evil doesn’t

In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Simon represents the innate morality of humans, acting as a Christ-like figure, while Roger embodies the all present cruelty and inherent sadism of individuals. Throughout the novel, Simon remains unchanged in terms of morality, as others slowly turn to savagery and hunting, as can be seen when Jack’s group become, “demoniac figures with faces of white and red and green.” Instead Simon finds a quiet spot “in a little cabin screened off from the open space by a few leaves.” By “holding his breath, he [cocks] a critical ear at the sounds of the island,” using his secret cabin to meditate. Coupled with his deep connection to nature, Simon is revealed to be a Christ figure. When left alone with the

How could one use a book or a movie to talk to a non-Christian about God? How does fantastical literature correlate with the lives of Christians? What Christian values are illustrated in the Lord of the Rings? Devin Brown recited part of the author of the Lord of Ring’s letter, J.R.R. Tolkien, to his friend that stated: “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.” This tale is based in Middle-Earth where a hobbit, Frodo Baggins, voyages with his gardener, Sam Gamgee, to a place called Mordor to destroy the master Ring which could eradicate the whole of “Middle-Earth” if found by its master Sauron (Tolkien). The Lord of the Rings displayed Christianity through unusual coincidences, characters showing love unto each other, and by awarding the characters who made the right decisions in difficult situations instead of the of the easy one.

Although Golding doesn’t make any direct biblical parallels, he certainly uses them as penetrating motifs throughout the novel. Lord of the Flies opens in the Garden of Eden. On an island filled with ripe fruits, fresh, flowing water, has a luscious climate, and the boys are free to live as they want. They’re free from sexual longing and deprivation. Like Adam and Eve, the boys are innocent. Golding describes Simon as the “Jesus” figure in the story. Simon happens to be on of Jesus’ twelve disciples. Jesus later renamed Simon to Peter, which means “rock.” Simon and Jesus share the same experience of mourning and mental suffering the night before their death. Simon, with his experience talking with the pig head and Jesus in his time in the Garden of Gethsemane. Unlike Jesus, Simon’s death did not bring salvation to the island. It brought the boys deeper into savagery and guilt. After the boys were building the signal fire, it started to burn everything. That is the beginning of hell. The small boy with

Social values and social order is all around us. It’s everywhere and we see it everyday. Social value and order is a quintessential part of keeping a society intact and free from distress in our modern world. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the author uses a social allegory to represent modern day society.