Simon Lord Of The Flies Character Analysis

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.

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

In many classic novels, authors use biblical allusions to highlight a certain character or situation. By using biblical allusions, authors can help the reader better understand what it is that they want to convey through their literary work. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Golding utilizes symbolism of places and characters to allude to the Bible. Out of the many references, four significant biblical allusions – title of the novel, Simon, beast, and the island itself – emphasize Golding’s theme inherent sin and evil in mankind.

“It is quite possible to reach God. In fact it is very easy, because it is the most natural thing in the world” (Spiritual Quotes to live by.com). Simon personifies this quote because he is on a different spectrum than the rest of the boys in the book Lord of the Flies. Simon is innately good unlike the other boys who need to be ashamed into being good. The author of the book, William Golding shows through Simon’s actions, words, thoughts, and what others think of him to convey how he is important to the moral health of the boy’s society but on the other hand he is an outcast.

Lord of the Flies is often claimed to be an allegory of modern society. While this is true, Golding’s intentions in writing this novel are much deeper. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies provides an enlightening insight into the true nature of human beings; along with why people refrain from acting upon the evil that resides within them. He presents these ideas through symbolism within the novel and it proves effective in many ways. Through symbolism, Golding can unfold the excellent plot of his novel, while subsequently sharing his ideas on the relationship of mankind and society. Golding uses the beast, the conch shell, and Piggy’s glasses to symbolize the human impulse towards ‘savagery’ and the social constructs put in place to prevent it.

Simon is a character who is a major significance in Lord of the Flies. Simon is one of the boys stranded on the island after his plane crashed. Additionally, Simon is a member of the choir. As part of the choir, he is under the leadership of Jack. Simon is described as “...a skinny, vivid little boy, with a glance coming up from under a hut of straight hair that hung down, black and coarse.” (24) He is also prone to fainting. For instance, shortly after the plane crashes, Simon faints in front of all of the other boys. Simon is an important character in the novel.

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

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).

All our personalities compare to a character from Lord of the Flies, and I found myself to be an ENFP or an idealist; someone most comparable to Simon. An ENFP or an idealist personality displays characteristics of being extroverted, intuitive, feeling and perceiving which. Furthermore, passionately concerned with positive improvement, being kind, warm, sympathetic, distracted and motivated were all trait described in the personality test for the ENFP. Due to our selflessness, how introverted and extroverted we are, and how we can think both logically and emotionally, makes Simon and I most similar.

Piggy, Ralph, Jack, and Roger were all crucial characters throughout the novel, Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding. All these characters made questionable decisions that when combined, contributed to Piggy’s necessary demise. Although some character’s decisions had a greater impact than others, they were all responsible in some way. Piggy’s stubborn behavior, Ralph’s lack of leadership, Jack’s power hungry and irresponsible behavior, and Roger’s unstable mental state all contributed towards Piggy’s passing. All this contributed to Piggy’s death and were necessary to the survival of everyone on the island.

William Goldings "Lord of the flies", portrays a group of boys who find themselves stranded on a desert island in a deep battle between civilisation and primitive savagery. One of the boys portrayed, Simon, a boy who is kind and physically fragile expresses a deeper knowledge of the problems on the island that the other boys are unaware of. There are many differing viewpoints on his role in the novel. One of these is that he is a biblical parallel; Simon portrays a saintly figure, and shows many of the qualities demonstrated by Jesus Christ. He demonstrates a strong connection with nature throughout, and also is shown to be a character of strong goodwill and kindness.

In a world that demands individuals to conduct themselves according to the values and morals imposed by the society, it is often difficult to find those that exhibit an innate sense of compassion. Simon is a character that proves to be ‘one with nature’ and shows an immediate liking to his new environment. Therefore, when the others resorted to savagery, he still had not lost his gentleness and compassion. His encounter with the Lord of the Flies exposes the truth about the beast and as a result, causes his consciousness to evolve. This reveals his true nature as a kindhearted and an honest person. As promised, the Lord of the Flies did have fun with him, ultimately causing his death in attempts of spreading the truth amongst the other boys. The ‘Lord of the Flies’ states: “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!”

In The Lord of the Flies, Golding portrays Simon as a biblical christ archetype. Although Simon exemplifies these characteristics, he fails to exceed the christ figure’s expectations. Simon’s failure is evident in his violent but ineffective “crucifixion” and his mundane “resurrection.” As a christ figure, an individual is epitomized as one who exhibits divine qualities, such as displaying love, kindness, and forgiveness. A christ figure archetype also tends to be martyrs, in which they sacrifice themselves for a societal advancement or a cause larger than themselves.

Simon's attributes demonstrate the good of humanity. Simon strives to continually be moral and help those around him. He continually looked out for the younger kids-the ones who were vulnerable. He wanted to help the little ones and keep them safe, "Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight, 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" (33). He made sure that all of them were fed and put himself in danger so that he could pick what they could not. He was constantly putting himself last so that he could help others and do what is right. He stood up for the defenseless, "He went crouching and feeling over the rocks but Simon, who got there first, found them for him" (41). He stands up for Piggy when others push him down and try to take away his glasses. Simon's moral choices contrast to Jack's immoral actions.

Simon is one of the most complex characters in Lord of the Flies. But who is he? What is his character? The traits that make Simon himself are his insightfulness, kindness, and shyness. He is proven to be insightful when he suggests the Beast is in the boys, he is kind when he gives fruit to the littluns, and he is shown to be shy when he declines to speak on numerous occasions. All of these actions show his character.