William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a haunting parody of man’s descent to his primal state of savagery, from which it took thousands of years to emerge from. Golding utilizes his central characters - Ralph, Piggy, Simon, and Jack - as representations of concepts that compose the machine of society. Golding admittedly states “I included a Christ figure in my fable. This is the little boy named Simon... a lover of mankind.” (000000) Simon indeed is the epitome of spiritual love. This essay will explore and analyze the characterization of the “solidary, stammering, visionary” (0000) who is ostracized to the point where he is never seen, never heard, but always present as the boy who did not believe in the beast. Simon is portrayed as a
…show more content…
Simon display’s the caring, loving side of humans, the one that is never afraid to lend a helping hand, whether they’re helping the scum of society or the richest people on earth. As stated, he alone Simon stands on an entirely different plane from all the other boys. Simon embodies a kind of innate, spiritual human goodness that is deeply connected with nature, and is as primal as Jack’s destructive nature. For example, the other boys abandon moral behavior as soon as the adult world is no longer a force. They are not innately moral, but rather they need to be reminded by the threat of punishment to act morally. Even ralph and piggy are a result of this social conditioning, as evinced in their participation in Jack’s ritual. To Golding’s belief, the human impulse for destruction is for more deeply rooted than the human impulse toward civilization. Unlike the rest of the boys, Simon acts morally not out of guilt or shame but because he believes in the human capacity towards kindness and morality. When he sees the littluns whining for food, he shows no hesitation to “find 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.” (56). the other boys would never think about the welfare of the group as a whole in their selfishness and fear. Simon is the first to realize the problem posed by
Simon display’s the caring, loving side of humans, the one that is never afraid to lend a helping hand, whether they’re helping the scum of society or the richest people on earth. As stated, he alone Simon stands on an entirely different plane from all the other boys. Simon embodies a kind of innate, spiritual human goodness that is deeply connected with nature, and is as primal as Jack’s destructive nature. For example, the other boys abandon moral behavior as soon as the adult world is no longer a force. They are not innately moral, but rather they need to be reminded by the threat of punishment to act morally. Even ralph and piggy are a result of this social conditioning, as evinced in their participation in Jack’s ritual. To Golding’s belief, the human impulse for destruction is for more deeply rooted than the human impulse toward civilization. Unlike the rest of the boys, Simon acts morally not out of guilt or shame but because he believes in the human capacity towards kindness and morality. When he sees the littluns whining for food, he shows no hesitation to “find 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.” (56). the other boys would never think about the welfare of the group as a whole in their selfishness and fear. Simon is the first to realize the problem posed by