Lord Of The Flies Religion Analysis

Simon’s disappearances add to his oracle persona because visionaries are often portrayed as mysterious and elusive. His absences also accentuate his role as a Christ figure because Jesus Christ frequently strayed from the masses to pray by himself. Bestowing food on the other boys, distancing himself from the group, and prophesying the future establish Simon as an archetypical oracle and Christ figure.

Simon has a heightened perception, even more so than Piggy. Simon is unique because he can actually hear the voice of the beast. He realizes that the beast is not something one can kill because it 's inside the boys. Simon is seen as a Christ figure. He gives up his own life in an attempt to tell the rest of the boys about the beast. Jack wants to take control over the whole society. Jack is the leading support of anarchy on the island. Jack is the leader of the savage tribe which hunts the pigs. Opposed to Ralph and Piggy on almost all matters, Jack represents the identification of one 's personality— he supports the notion that one 's desires are most important and should be followed, regardless of reason or morals. Jack is the kind of person that is believed everyone would eventually become if left alone to set one 's own standards and live the way one naturally wanted. In this novel it is believed that the natural state of humans is disordered and that man is inherently evil. When reason is abandoned, only the strong survive. Jack personifies this idea perfectly.

     One of the last parallels between Simon and Jesus is shown after Simon’s death. While his body laid on the beach “the strange

Simon is meant to be a Christ-figure in the Lord of the Flies because he is killed like Jesus, and is representing communion, he looks like an angel being sent to heaven, and cares about everyone like Jesus. Simon is kind, caring, and acts and is similar to Jesus in many ways. He is meant to try to bring peace and help everyone on this island. This island needed a protector because of all the chaos that happened and he was meant to be

Jack, one of the lead characters in the novel, alludes to the biblical figure Judas for his betrayal to the good of the people brought forth by Jesus. Jack is the reason Simon is killed, for he betrayed Ralph’s rules and brought forth the evil within the children’s minds. Jack refuses Ralph’s ideas and regulations in trade for fun and hunting. This shows his betrayal to the good of man and his want to bring evil forth to the island.

Jack represents evil, violence and how people can have a dark side emerge in a period of hardship. As a former choirmaster and "head boy" at his school, he lands on the island having had control and power over others, by overpowering the choir with his bad attitude. He wants to make rules similar to Ralph but his rules are much harsher. Jack’s rules are more black and white.

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.

Jack Merridew is presented as the indifferent, older character of the novel. He is the antagonist and could be seen as a devil figure in the story. Jack is the hunter, the dictator and, throughout the story, is at constant battle with Ralph for his leadership. Jack wants to be in control of the island and the kids but the type of leadership that he offers is brutal and similar to that of a dictatorship and communism. Jack also believes that the group should have fun and stuff oneself with the food they hunt. He is not very concerned with the future of being rescued. On the other hand, Ralph wants order and work and is much more concern with being rescued.

While the kids were struggling to get the fruit off the tree, the book states, “Then, amid the roar of the bees in the afternoon sunlight, Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach, up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands. When he had satisfied them he paused and looked around” (56). This is religious allusion because this is exactly what Jesus did when he fed the 5000. He fulfilled everybody’s hunger without even thinking twice about doing it. William Golding also uses religious allusion when he says, “The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible” (147). This is an illusion to the gospel. The gospel is good news, and this is very good news for the kids! Golding also uses religious allusion when Simon is brutally murdered by explaining, “At once the crowd surged after him, poured down the rock, leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws” (153). This was just before they realized that they were murdering Simon, not the beast. The is religious allusion because this is what happened just before Jesus was put on the cross to die. Simon is killed for no reason, just like Jesus was. Simon was the religious allusion to Jesus in the book, therefore, making him the

Simon is attempting to spread his revelation, but failed to and was instead brutally attacked by his own friends. However, Golding chooses to make Simon try to spread that realization instead of making Simon crying out to stop hitting him. Instead of yelling to stop, Simon tries to spread his message just like Jesus Christ wanted to before his crucifixion. Golding uses this action to draw that specific parallel. Finally, when Simon’s body is taken by the sea, the sea “dressed Simon’s coarse hair with brightness. The line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became sculptured marble. The strange attendant creatures … busied themselves around his head. The body lifted a fraction of an inch from the sand and a bubble of air escaped from the mouth with a wet plop “ (154). Simon’s body seems to undergo a change as if he is becoming god-like or experiencing a rebirth after his death. The creatures, a representation of angels, are gathering Simon’s soul to take him to heaven. This is very similar to how Jesus Christ, the prophet who had a revelation that could not be spread when attacked by his own people, experienced a rebirth and eventually ascended into heaven. This story is reflected when Simon himself experiences a similar life to Jesus and eventually welcomed by the sea, a parallel to God and heaven. All of this seems to say that Simon is a Christ-figure and further supports the fact that we are all sinners waiting to be saved by God and Jesus

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

Simon is intellectual and begins to hint at a possible truth about the “beast.” For example: “As if it wasn’t a good island.” (Golding 53) Simon observes that it is as if the island was bad, and not the good island from when they first arrived. Something was haunting the island, and it began as soon as they arrived. The author uses Simon to indicate the island is good, however, it is a different story when it comes to what arrived on the island. As the novel continues, the reader begins to find out what it was, that was haunting the boys. For example: “ What I mean is… maybe it’s only us.” (Golding 96) This quotation shows how Simon is the first character in the novel to see the “beast” not as an external force, but as a component of flawed human nature. This shows how Simon's words are central to Golding's point that primitive human evil exists. The author makes Simon have a seizure and create the “Lord of the Flies,” providing insight about the “beast.” For example: “Or else, said the Lord of the Flies, we shall do you. See?” (Golding 159) This quotation provides the reader with the idea that the “beast” links itself to the negligence of the rules that society has placed, and how savagery tries to overtake civilization and purity. It is like saying “The evils inside the other boys and I will get

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

The novel “Lord of the Flies” was written by William Golding to demonstrate the problems of society and the sinful nature of man.

Composer of Lord of the Flies, William Golding's relation with biblical references reveal to readers the need for religion.