Lord Of The Flies Character Analysis Essay

Simon is the Christ-like figure of the story and best represents purity and goodness. All through the book Golding reiterates the idea of a beastie, and turns out the beast is inside everyone. This illustrates the evil of human nature, but the death of Christ saves everyone from the beast inside. ‘“You’ll get back to where you came from…. You’ll get back all right. I think so, anyway’” (111). This one little quote speaks volumes, it almost seems like Simon knew he wasn’t going to make it back home to England. He could’ve said something like, “We will make it back home,” or at least something along those lines, but he didn’t! This is just one example of the parallelism between Jesus and Simon, because like Jesus, so in a way Simon knew that he was going to die. During Simon’s final moments, he was trying to tell the other boys that there is no real beast, but the boys were so focused on killing “the beast” they didn’t realize they were killing Simon. The deaths of Jesus and Simon were unjust, and even when humanity was filled with darkness and evil they were still that ray of holy

Although all of the other boys on the island are turning into savages, Simon does not follow. The other boys are becoming savages because it is instinct. Simon is not like the other boys, in this sense. Simon is a Christ-like figure, so he isn’t able to become savage. This island is a very harsh environment, so only the savage will be able to survive. The other boys are not always savage, as they have developed the savagery over time. Simon isn’t able to develop this and he isn’t able to survive on the island, just as piggy. Due to this Simon will not be able to survive. The novel is foreshadowing that Simon will not make it, as he has not turned savage “You’ll get back to where you came from” (Golding 111). This quote implies that other boys, such as Ralph, will get back and make it but Simon will not.

Jack and his chosen group of hunters all follow Jack and fail to follow Ralph’s command to keep civilization under control. Simon and his natural behaviors contrast with Jack as he sees the positive interests and goodness in civilization. Simon’s actions reveal his shy, yet kind, and non confrontational attitude which makes the importance of his character hard to notice. Simon is the mediator on the island, as he will never decline a request from the little children for food, an order from Ralph to help build shelters, and tries to keep the peace between the hunters and the civilized boys. Simon can be seen as the most compassionate character on the island as displayed in this quote: “Simon sitting between the twins and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy, who grabbed it. The twins giggled and Simon lowered his face in shame” (Golding 74). Jack, on the other hand, is most malicious towards Piggy as he eventually becomes consumed by evil and and will attempt to destroy all points of civilization and innocence left on the island. Innocence is bestowed upon nearly all the boys trying to keep civilization alive on the island and is despised by Jack and his highly influenced choir boys turned hunters.

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 verses the Lord Of The Flies Couple kids end up on an island, what could possible go wrong? Well as mature as these boys might seem its not all fun and games when these boys do not have contact to the outside world for over a month or two. Each day the boys encounter a new conflict and the conflicts get scarier and more treacherous then the last day. “l’ll go if you like. I don’t mind, honestly’”

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

Evil, the act inflicting pain on others, and the desire to always want to hurt someone physically or emotionally. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the boys are placed in strenuous circumstances that cause them to perform ruthless acts on each other. In Dr.Zimbardo’s Ted Talk he claims that when an individual is placed under the proper circumstances, he or she is competent of pursuing malevolent behavior towards someone. It is clearly demonstrated in the novel when the boys show dispositional factors (bad apples vs good apples), situational factor (bad barrels), and systemic factors (bad barrel makers).

Take for instance, Roger, a character from the novel, Lord of the Flies who is a sadistic person, finding pleasure in hurting others. Do you really believe that even if he was in a group where he finds himself to be part of a dangerous situation and he is needed to save one of the other boys, say Piggy for example, that he would do it? Of course not. He has proven to us that he enjoys inflicting harm on others, especially someone like Piggy. Golding himself states in Lord of the Flies, “A full effort would send the rock thundering down to neck of land. Roger admired.” (Golding 159). What Golding is saying is that Roger wants to harm Piggy so with that in mind, he finds that the rock is the best thing to achieve what he wants. It follows then that the kind of personality that the person has will either get them to help someone out or get them to harm them as well. Someone like Ralph and Piggy, who have more sympathy towards those that get hurt would be more willing to help out than someone like Roger and Jack. Roger and Jack are more of the kind to not help others out unless it benefits them or gives them pleasure in inflicting pain upon someone else in Roger’s case, but this is where we can see every person is different. It is not just that responsibility has been unconsciously passed on to someone else. Nevertheless, it would have been beneficial in Darley’s and Latane’s case to include both external and internal contributions as to why people decided not to aid another

Lord of the Flies is a novel written in 1954 by William Golding. A plane carrying a group of British citizens trying to escape the nuclear war gets shot down and lands on a deserted tropical island. The only survivors are children ranging from the age of six to twelve-year-olds. The younger children are nick named “littluns” and the older children are nick named “biguns”. At first, they celebrate their freedom from the war but then they begin to realize there aren't any adults to supervise them, they don't have food, they don't have shelter, and they are stranded on a deserted tropical island. One of the characters Piggy is classified as smart but is fat chubby and has asthma so he isn't capable of much things. “ “My auntie told me not to

     Simon also never fell for the illusions of the beast and despite the fact that he is one of the smallest biguns he never follows the others and always does what he wants to and says what he wants to. One such occasion where he shows his defiance of the others beliefs is when he says to everyone, "I think we ought to climb the mountain." (page 128) This shows that he knows the beast isn't real and he shows no fear of the unknown. Christ called people to do things they thought impossible just as Simon did here. Many people said that the things Jesus wanted them to do were impossible, and here whne Simon said they should do something they said that since the three strongest boys couldn't do it no one could.

He help the littluns to get fruit, and 'pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands'. He also helps Piggy to get his glasses back when Jack has knocked them off, showing that he does not discriminate against Piggy because he is different but chooses to help him, even if this may cause him to suffer in the future. These may indicate that Simon, though other characters may be thought of as "good" and kind, such as Piggy or Ralph, Simon shows no flaws at all.

Simon gets fruit for the littluns who can’t reach it by themselves, another kind act only meant to help another. “He [Piggy] went crouching and feeling over the rocks but Simon, who got there first, found them for him” (71). When Jack hits Piggy and he loses his glasses, Simon is the one that picks them up for him. Simon knows that Piggy gets picked on and is disliked among most of the members of the tribe, but he helps him out anyways. Simon’s angelic nature is topped off with the fact that he has seizures.

Of all the characters in the novel, Simon is the one who best represents the good of mankind. In all of Simon's actions, he helps others. For example when the littlest boys on the island, “The Littluns”, are hungry, “ Simon found for them the food they could not reach”(56). Additionally, when the other boys on the island accuse piggy of not helping Simon is the boy who comes to his defense: “We used his specs,” said Simon…” He helped that way” (42).

Simon avoids telling his children about the gruesome experience and barbaric ways of survival would prove to be a negative influence to his children and affect their behavior negatively. Simon treats his children with care and hesitance, as he is a bit overprotective over them, for he avoids indulging his children into the bad parts of our society until they fully mature. He preaches his ideals to his children as he expects them to be selfless and caring of others in need. Simon also shares his valuable philosophy to the church and his children of how “we should take matters in our own hands, instead of just sulking, we should be helping others who are more needy, and help tame the beast of greed and savagery within us to become a better person.” Simon’s philosophy reflects his life experience on the island where he learned that the true beast wasn’t a creature, but a metaphorical part of everyone, for the beast was what the savagery the boys had

He is always helping the Littluns when they are struggling and many other boys that are vulnerable 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 74). This quote interprets an example of Simon showing his whole heartedness by giving Piggy food when Jack did not want to feed him because he did not hunt. "The vast majority of people reside prominently in civilized society, and they dismiss their instinct for aggression and dominance" (Wood, Bryan). This quote shows that people like Simon are always more civilized than those who begin to change into savages, Simon is the last piece of civilization on the island. "What I mean is...maybe it's only us" (Golding 89). Simon, himself, proposes to the rest of the boys that perhaps the beast is not only an external force, but an internal force within themselves. Simon is the only character to reveal Golding's point that innate human evil exists.