Simon And Piggy Deaths In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

After Piggy's death the boys on the island could not be more divided. The boys had split into two groups, Jack and his tribe and Ralph who is now alone due to Piggy's death. “Dark, darker my light, and darker my desire,” (Stanza 3), as said by Roethke. The boys are only falling into deeper chaos on the island, and are continuing to become more savage. Jack’s desires, in particular, are becoming darker because he proceeds to throw spears and hunt down Ralph after he had witnessed Piggy's death. This is a great representation of how the boys are becoming more barbaric with the actions that they are taking. At first the boys desires were to get rescued. However, now Jack is coming to the realization that they will probably not be rescued and he wants to hunt down and kill Ralph. Jack starts reinstating to the boys on the island that he is their leader.

To add on, the boy’s only depend on violence as their answer to survival, which causes them to turn into ruthless savages. These boy’s have no clue as to when they’ll be rescued or if anyone knows they’ve gone missing, so survival skills are crucially vital while being stranded. There’s so many options to choose from in order to survive, but their only process of thought is to use the skills of violence in order to survive. In the novel it states, “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood,” (Golding 96). On the island, pigs are one of their main sources of food and most of the boys spent their day hunting them down and killing them. It started to become ridiculous when violence was their only thought. This is evident when the text states,

Ralph represents order and discipline, while Jack represents an unhealthy drive for power and savagery. In the beginning of the novel, Ralph is voted the leader of the group and attempts to make life on the island disciplined and civilized, like their life in England. However, throughout the novel Jack rivals Ralph’s leadership role, attempting to overthrow him. As the boys’ savage impulses increase, more of them begin to side with Jack instead of going with Ralph. As Ralph loses his hold over the boys, almost all of them begin to act violently and barbaric. An example of this is when the children of the island murder Simon for no justifiable reason. Even Piggy and Ralph partake in the murder, showing that the violent human impulse is in

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.

Unlike most the other boys Simon retains civil. Simon displays his maturity through the sacrifices he makes Golding writes, “Someone's got to go across the island and tell Piggy we'll be back after dark." Bill spoke, unbelieving. "Through the forest by himself? Now?" "We can't spare more than one." Simon pushed his way to Ralph's elbow." "I'll go if you like. I don't mind, honestly” (Golding 117). Furthermore, Simon’s death displays the groups true maturity Golding writes, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!” (Golding 152). This scene depicts the group killing Simon out of fear, this displays the island reveals their low maturity because they ignore reason and act in fear. Clearly the Goldings novel displays the island reveals maturity through

The excessive hunting showed how the boys just killed for no apparent reason; this is not a normal thing for an innocent boy to do. It seemed as if all jack wanted to do is hunt instead of caring about protection and shelter. Humans were killed because the boys began to unravel the true nature of humans. Simon died when Jack said "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill His Blood!" Simon is eventually stabbed with a spear and that causes his death. The boys devour what they believe is the beast (Simon) and even if it was the beast, eating a beast doesn’t sound like what ‘innocent boys’ would do. Piggy’s death of course was most certainly not an accident. Rodger clearly knew what he was doing and he was throwing rocks just aiming to cause harm to someone, the rock hit Piggy and he fell off Castle Rock and died.

Initially, when the boys landed on the island, they were still displaying telling signs of culture and sophistication. Ralph even stops and jerks up his stockings, “with an automatic gesture that made the jungle seem for a moment like the Home Counties” (Golding 7). Jack informs the group that they have “ got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages”(42). This statement sums up the very beginning of the boys’ extended stay; they are eager to create rules and establish guidelines. Ralph, Jack and the others are imagining a neat, orderly society, with all of its little citizens behaving and following the rules. Enthusiastic compliance is expected. Very soon, however, a sort of causal negligence and lack of effort develops. The boys would rather have fun and play than help build shelters or fill coconuts. Ralph bemoans the carelessness of the others to Jack; “All day I’ve been working with Simon. No one else. They’re off bathing, or eating, or playing” (Golding 50). The final basic evolution of the boys is far worse than lax, however; they become violent and unrestrained, acting first and thinking later, if at all. They develop a game in which one of their own pretends to be a pig, and they gather around and ‘hunt’ him. Even Ralph, the most rational, got carried away “by a sudden thick excitement, grabbed Eric’s spear and jabbed at

The mysteries of the island also had a huge impact on the actions of the boys. Because The tropical island, and England are two totally different environments there was not much know to the boys about the unfamiliar surrounding possessed by the island. The vines that hung from the trees caused the "littluns" to have nightmares because they reminded them of snakes, or "beasties". What was unknown to the boys caused great fear. This fear of the unknown caused differences amongst the boys which lead to their destruction. Since Simon knew that there was no such things as "beasties" He tried to dispel the mysteries of the mountain top, he is brutally murdered, due to the fear rooted in the mysteries of the island.

The real problem during the boy's experience is they succumb in human nature. After some time on the island and civilization is slowly starting to rot Golding states, “Surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea" (Golding 154). To clarify, the boys as they were babies their parent always taught them to never murder anybody as a rule. As the boys start to realize that there are no rules on the island and are given freedom their human nature breaks and murders a little boy. Furthermore, after Simon's death, Jack wasn't done with lurking for more blood to spill, Golding says, “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee: the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.

us how Piggy is sectioned from the est of the group due to his social

After a series of events, such as the previously-mentioned shelter conflict and the creation of the beast, as well as the pig-killing dance at Jack’s camp, the deaths of Simon and Piggy, and the breaking of the conch shell (the only remaining symbol of order on the island), by the end of the story, all order is lost and the boys have turned into complete savages. They ruthlessly tried to kill or escape from each other until, thankfully, an adult marine arrived on the island who brought back peace and order. His appearance causes all the boys to regretfully cry, mourning their horrid experience on

Simon and Piggy are brutally murdered by the power-hungry savage, Jack Merridew. The island is never the same after their departures. Ralph reflects on how much the island has crumbled when hiding from Jack and his tribe of savages, "The breaking of the conch and the deaths of Piggy and Simon lay over the island like a vapor. These painted savages would go further and further" (Golding, 184). Both Piggy and Simon have such an important role in keeping the balance on the island. Piggy’s character is symbolic for knowledge and reason; Simon’s for faith and religion. Both of these righteous attributes are lost when the boys leave. Ralph loses all his leverage over the naive littluns when Simon and Piggy pass away. They join Jack’s silly tribe which leaves Ralph outnumbered and ideologically alone. Because of their departure, the basic principles of civilized life are forgotten and beastly savages take over the island. Shakespeare and Golding both emphasize the influence that characters have on the plot of the story. As soon as a significant character is taken away or changed in some way, the environment is reshaped either for better or for worse. The deaths of King Duncan, Simon, and Piggy in Macbeth and Lord of the Flies create consequences that gravely affect other characters, such as Macbeth and Ralph.

group, did not allow Piggy to eat as he did not hunt with them. We

Simon’s conscience keeps Piggy in line even when dealing with savage Jack. Towards the end of the novel, the other boys savagely murder Simon; when the boys kill Simon they also kill their conscience, they kill the rules and implications set upon them in order to keep society civilized and from this point until the boys get rescued their savage nature completely takes over and nothing holds them back any longer.