Simon in William Golding's Lord of the Flies Essay

A recurring theme among leaders in many societies today is that “absolute power corrupts absolutely” (John Acton, a 1700’s English Catholic historian, politician, and writer). In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, this idea of leadership, power, and corruption is put in the spotlight. Jack, one of the boys on the island, forces his way into the leadership position without actually earning it. It is clear that Jack has become corrupt as he turns into a person who is intimidating, egotistical, and selfish. Ralph, on the other hand, is a quality leader under most conditions as he appeals to the boys’ sophisticated side and has a

wrote this after publishing Lord of the Flies. It is our world, in the form of a story. The two leaders in the story are Ralph and Jack. Ralph starts off a comfortable leader of the boys, but by the end of the book, Ralph and his companion Piggy are alone facing Jack and the rest of the boys. As the novel progresses and the society on the island starts to change, so does Ralph. He begins thinking he has all the answers, but comes to realize that without Piggy he would have never gotten this far. By the end of the book, Ralph and Jack are complete opposites. Jack is about savagery and fun while Ralph is holding on to society, rules, and civilization. Appearing to be a weak leader due to defection of his followers, Ralph is actually dedicated and insightful, only loosing his followers because he could not compete with one category that attracts nearly everyone in the world: fun.

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.

It may have taken millions of years for humans to evolve enough to create the sprawling civilizations known today, but it only takes a few months for a group of civil, educated boys to regress back into savagery. In his novel Lord of the Flies, author William Golding depicts a group of young British boys getting stranded on a deserted island sans adults. The boys must look out for themselves, forming a basic governing system and trying to survive. But the challenge soon proves too much to handle, and order deteriorates. William Golding conveys the universal theme of civilization vs. savagery in his novel Lord of the Flies using the literary elements of plot, setting, and characterization.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a classic novel and portrays just how the society surrounding us can corrupt our once pure nature No one is born a killer, no one is born with an intense compulsion to kill, the island that the boys are stranded on has a very unusual, corrupting society; A society that erodes the boys innocence through the power struggle between Jack and Ralph, readers see the transfer from innocent to savagely through the hunting and Piggy’s death.

In Lord of the Flies, Simon shows to be an important role in the story as he uncovers the mystery of the beastie. He is seen to be shy and to himself but soon shows his full brain capability and what he can offer to the group but it goes unnoticed. His personality is unique and shows much potential, as does mine. Both me and Simon are independent, sensitive, and introverted as this presents an idealistic nature.

Simon is shown by Golding as a martyr who died for the truth. He gave

In the novel Lord of The Flies, William Golding portrayed Simon as a Christ-figure. Simon and Jesus led parallel lives. Simon’s appearance seemed to resemble that of Jesus Christ’s. Simon picked fruit from the tree to feed the littluns. He also practiced deep meditation away from the other children. Simon received messages from the Lord of The Flies while meditating. Simon also tried to illuminate the children about the myth of “the beast” and dies a horrific death at the hands of the people he loved. He received an almost angelic burial. His death marks the completion of the destruction of the island’s civilization. All of these events allude to Jesus’s life events, according to the scriptures in the Bible.

The appearance of Simon in the novel The Lord of the Flies is of great significance and is substantial for the development of the story because he made lots of points in the story. First of all, it is important to state that he sent simple, yet deep messages throughout the novel, with morals behind them. Religiously speaking, Simon can be identified as the Christ-figure in the story. Simon also had a very specific role in the novel in being the character in contact with nature. Simon's significance in the story is obvious, and one way to deduce this is by identifying his messages.

Civilization can be destroyed as easily as it is created.  Without the walls of society, humans are capable of committing actions that they would have never thought possible.  Lord of the Flies focuses on a group of boys who are alone on an island without authority. The novel reveals what can become of humanity without the presence of authority.  In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the protagonist Ralph symbolizes leadership, civilization,  as well as the loss of innocence.  Ralph is the closest resemblance to authority that the boys have on the island.  His appearance plays an important role in him signifying authority, “You could see now that he might make a boxer, as far as width and heaviness of shoulders went, but there was a

The role of the prophet changes with the society in which he lives. In modern society, a prophet is a visionary, telling people what they can become; in Biblical times, a prophet was the voice of God, telling his people what they had to become to fulfill their covenant with God.  In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the prophet is a peaceful lad, Simon.  He alone saw that the jungle, which represented freedom and the lack of civilization, was not to be feared but to be understood; he alone knew that the mythical Beast of the island, feared by all the boys, was, in fact, their own inherent savagery. Through these truths Simon represents a Christ figure paralleling Christ's

Simon from Lord of the Flies is not normal like the other characters. He is counter-thematic and different from all the other boys on the island. One of the themes of the story is savagery, and he contradicts it by being saintlike and good-natured. He is also not afraid of the “beastie” who crawls into the dreams of everyone else. He is sane and smart, and maintains this persona even after his grim encounter with the Lord of the Flies.

If the reader is in a completely new situation, how might they handle it? Different situations produce different reactions depending on the person. A person’s situation, depending on the severity, can affect and even change that person’s behavior; this is exemplified in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, recreated in Kid Nation, and partially argued against by critics of the Stanford Prison Experiment.

Simon from William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a classic example of Foster’s Christ figure. The name Simon in itself is Biblical. Simon is the name of one of Jesus’ apostles before Jesus decided his name should be Peter. Simon’s visit to the pig head on a stick the night before he died is also similar to the night before Jesus was crucified. The pig head can be seen, in this case, as the devil. Simon does spend time alone in the wilderness as Christ does. In fact he spends the whole novel on the island with the other boys which could be seen as the wilderness. However, Simon does not have the number of disciples as Christ does, nor is he 33 years old, or a carpenter. Simon is only a child and is one when he dies. In making Simon Christ

In the words of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.” In other words, humans harbor an ever present looming evil nature within themselves. Evil is the force in nature that governs and gives rise to wickedness and sin, or the wicked or immoral part of someone. This concept of inner evil rising to the surface permeates William Golding’s dystopian novel Lord of the Flies, that evil exists in every human, proven through the characterization of the marooned boys. There is foreshadowing of the dangers of the boys’ inner immorality from one of the boys, Simon. As the novel progresses, evil starts asserts itself as the boys cast off their innocence and humanity, and turning against each other. Even the