How Does Golding Present Simon In Lord Of The Flies

Golding uses Simon to show that evil manifests itself in unexpected ways in the most kindhearted people. Simon’s kindness shines throughout the book. He helps Ralph finish building the huts even though the rest of the boys stopped helping. He also helps the littluns pick the fruits off the trees. When it comes to speaking, however, Simon has no experience. At a meeting discussing the beast, Simon says to the group, “Maybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only us” (Source C). He barely gets to explain what he means when “the laughter [of the others] beat him cruelly and he shrank away defenseless to his seat” (Source C). Simon is the first one to know that there is a beast. When he comes to the conclusion that the beast is within the boys, he doesn’t really share this with anyone. He finally gets the opportunity to tell everyone something that could save them all. Even so, he lets his selfishness swallow him. He’s only thinking about himself because he’s afraid of being ridiculed. He doesn’t think of the impact his knowledge would have on the others. His self-consciousness is his defect. It hinders him from speaking up for himself and even makes him a little selfish since it causes him to only think of himself in certain situations. When he finds out that the “beast” the boys saw was …show more content…
Everyone is flawed. Even so, everyone has the ability to acknowledge those flaws and try to work in conjunction with society to suppress them. If one denies their evils, chaos will result. Golding depicts this perfectly in Lord of the Flies. Maurice and Roger show how civilization does help stifle evil, but it can only help as much as the individual allows it to. Ralph, Piggy and Jack show that pride and refusal to accept sad truths leaves one vulnerable to the evils within themselves. Simon shows that the best of people let evil penetrate their hearts too. Golding closes the book with a disheartening point: evil is not something that man can