The character of Simon in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies has often been viewed as the Christ figure of the novel. If you were to examine the actions of both Simon and Jesus, you would find a number of incidents that parallel each other.
One of the first things that Simon does that depicts a Christ-like action, is found in chapter 3 when he helps the littluns get fruit, “Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach” (Golding 56). During his lifetime, Jesus often aided the hungry, one example being when he turned 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish into enough food for thousands of people. Later in the chapter Simon finds himself in the wilderness. While there, Simon was calm and enjoyed the solitude of
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Many of the prophecies revealed by Jesus were also disregarded and not accepted by everyone. This depicts that both Simon and Jesus were misunderstood by the people around them.
Simon’s encounter with the Lord of the Flies in chapter nine can be seen as a parallel to Jesus’ confrontation with Satan in the desert. Simon and Jesus were both challenged by evil but overcame it. Although, the Lord of the Flies would reveal to Simon that it is the evil within the boys, “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?” (Golding 143). From this, he reaches an epiphany and later leaves to tell the other boys. While returning to tell the boys, Simon is hit in the side by a spear. Jesus was also stabbed in the side before his crucifixion.
The deaths of Simon and Jesus also had many things in common. Both were killed by members of their community, and were persecuted for the sins and evil of others. The events that directly followed the deaths of Simon and Jesus are very much similar also. According to the Bible, when Jesus was being persecuted “there was darkness over the whole land” (Mark 15:33) and once he died the earth shook. When Simon died “the clouds opened and let down the rain like a waterfall” (Golding 153).
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 remains truthful throughout the novel, just like Jesus did throughout his whole life. The other boys discover Simons truth, and they do not like him being truthful and decide to kill him. He sacrifices his life to save others that are stranded on the island. Jesus sacrificed himself for everyone who practices Christianity. Another similarity is Simon in the forest, just like Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days. The 40 days in the wilderness Jesus had confrontation with the devil. Simon in the forest had talked to and interacted with the Lord of the Flies. The devil and the Lord of the Flies are the same figure in two different situations. Jesus was diseased and no one was allowed to touch him; Simon was viewed as the same. An example is, “Simon put out his hand, timidly, to touch Ralph; but Ralph started to run…” (Golding 61). The boys brought Simon a piece of meat to eat and Simon tried to share and the boys got mad and disrespected him (Golding 67). This is like Jesus when he tries to do good for others. Many flies attacked Simon and he just took it like Jesus did on the cross (Golding 125). The flies annoyed and hurt Simon just like the whip with Jesus. The purpose of the similarities between Jesus and Simon, is to show that there are figures like Jesus in some ways, but there will never be another Jesus again. It also shows that one person always has to sacrifice something in each
Simon, one of the major characters in the story, is set as the allusion of Jesus. Christ always had an affinity with children; in Ch. 4, he shows his way with the ‘littluns’ by picking fruit for them. This shows his goodness by nature. Also, like Christ, he saw the atavistic problem of the hunters and tried to bring them back to good. As in the bible, Simon, like Christ, dies
Simon tries to state the truth: there is a beast, but that "it's only us" (page #). When he makes this revelation, he is ridiculed. This is an uncanny parallel to the misunderstanding that Christ had to deal with throughout his life. Later in the story, the savage hunters are chasing a pig. Once they kill the pig, they put its head on a stick and Simon experiences an epiphany in which the Beast tells Simon: "Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn't you? I'm part of all of you " (143). As Simon rushes to the campfire to tell the boys of his discovery, he is hit in the side with a spear, his prophecy rejected and the word he wished to spread ignored.
Simon is one of the protagonists of the story. He's a shy boy that just wants to fit in. At the beginning of the story one of the kids flopped on his face in the sand. That kid would later be known as Simon. He had been known to faint before by his fellow peers. He had built up a reputation of this as he had also fainted at Gib, Addis, and at matins over the precentor.
Simon is not the leading protagonist of the novel but he represents Jesus, who would
The most important characteristic of Simon is his insightfulness. He is a mature and perceptive person, especially for his age. One example of this is when he says, “Maybe...Maybe there is a Beast,” (pg. 125) He explains his thinking on page 206, when he talks to the Lord of the Flies, a representation of evil, and implies that the Lord of the Flies is the Beast. Simon thinks that it is the evil in the boys and humanity in general. This shows he has insight into the nature of humans because it takes an insightful person to recognize that not everything is good, and our evil is our greatest enemy. Throughout the book, this perception drives Simon and keeps him pure.
First, Simon always had his friends back, and would help them no matter what other people thought. At the beginning of the book, Jack and the hunters have caught and killed their first pig. They are sitting around the fire on the mountain, eating the meat, but since Jack does not like Piggy, he does not give him any meat. Simon decides to sacrifice one of his piece’s of meat: “Simon, sitting between the twins and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy (92). Although this is a small action performed by Simon, this demonstrates how he is a Christ like figure, and how he is one of the only people to remain civilized through the whole novel.
Simon’s death as a whole is just one of many examples of which symbolism of savagery within the novel is noted.Simon is savagely killed when his friends rip at him like animals with only their hands and teeth.This is one of the biggest indicators to any reader that this savage
While Simon is sitting in his hidden spot, he comes face to face with evil itself and realizes that he was right all along. Simon decided to visit his isolated place once again. When he got there, he noticed that the air was hotter than usual and he was very thirsty, but something compelled Simon to stay: “That other time the air had seemed to vibrate with heat; but now it threatened… Presently he was thirsty, and then very thirsty. He continued to sit” (Golding 146). This relates to how Jesus sat in the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples. He knew his fate, but instead of running, he stayed even though he knew he was going to be taken and sentenced to death. While Simon waits, a few of the other boys hunt and kill a pig and plant it’s
In the first chapter of Mark's Gospel, Jesus called his first disciples. Jesus passed the Sea of Galilee and saw Simon and his brother, Andrew, fishing. These were two ordinary
I both agree and disagree with Simon. I feel as though the SS man should have treated Simon like more of an individual, instead of having him/asking him to be there only as a symbol, a symbol for all the Jewish people he ever made suffer unspeakable crimes. If this was establish before his request of forgiveness maybe Simon wouldn’t have been silent. I don’t, however, feel that the SS man’s treatment of him as a representative of a religious people is incorrect or immoral. Only the context of which he does this.
In Chapter 16 of The Gospel of Matthew, the dynamics of Simon and Jesus’ relationship quickly change. Peter says, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mt.16.16) and Jesus replies, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah!” (Mt.16.17) but then Peter rebukes him soon after and Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Mt.16.23)
He did all this and more because he cared for the hurting people.” (Matthew 14:14 ) Since Simon is not the son of God and couldn’t make
In film, the scene that best describes the first characteristics of being human which is that we are created in the image and likeness of God, is when Simon says God has a plan for him and that God had made him the way he is, he explains this during reverend russel’s service. Simon believes he is special and god has a job for him he must complete. In the last scene, at near end Simon fulfills God’s intentions by helping others. He steps in and helps everyone escape the sinking bus. he risked his life saving the last kid on the bus out of the goodness of his heart . By doing that, his brave actions are what God would have done.
5:8. The response of Simon Peter to this miracle reveals some of what he may have been thinking when Jesus asked him to let down his nets after he had just finished cleaning them. I called him Simon Peter here, instead of just Simon, because his apostolic nature starting to emerge