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Symbolism in Lord of the Flies by Golden Williams
Symbolism in Lord of the Flies by Golden Williams
Symbolism in Lord of the Flies by Golden Williams
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Golding’s diction in Lord of the Flies has exhibited Simon’s character with an abstract understanding of human nature and spirituality. Throughout the terrible events on the island Simon has always been able to remain his innate self. As all the boys begin to change, savagery and civilization have assimilated together in an attempt to destroy Simon’s spiritual truth. All the character’s in the book are within everyone. In my opinion, after reading about Golding’s horrible past Simon’s character was the most important to him. Simon establishes hope in Golding and his innate goodness and spirituality sets a standard for who he aspired to be. Simon and Golding tell the reader that if we are able to face the evil around us we are able to overcome the beast within us. After Simon is killed, it is as if they are killing all their chances of reamining civiled human beings. …show more content…
The boys have resulted not only in the death of an animal but a human. In my opinion, Simon’s death was horrific and gruesome, yet, beautiful and gentle. The boys brutally rip Simon’s flesh with their teeth and hands like they are animals. In spite of this, when Golding writes, “Simon’s dead body moved out towards the open sea” (170) Golding’s powerful diction in this scene allowed me to get a sense of peace. Although there is no movement in his body there is movement in the air, water, and sun. The boy's brutal actions have killed Simon but, his spiritual truth will never be destroyed. God lifts him up from the water and takes him away from the terrible
In Golding’s book Lord of the Flies Simon is a very significant character, who strangely isn’t made very familiar with the reader until the end of chapter three. At this point in the book the group of school boys who have crash-landed on this uninhabited island, have found a course of action. Unfortunately, not all the boys are working hard to accomplish what needs to get done. Jack is set on catching a pig, Ralph on getting rescued, and the rest of the boys are enjoying their time without adult supervision. While Ralph and Jack are busy arguing over what needs to get done Simon sneaks away for some peace and quiet. At this point in the novel Golding then follows Simon’s walk alone into the forest. Through this Golding effectively establishes
The ability to create characters of depth plagues many a contemporary writer. Many of those writers should look to William Golding for expertise on this issue. Golding diverges from the path of contemporary authors and sets an example of how character development should be accomplished in his novel, Lord of the Flies. Golding's Ralph exemplifies this author's superior style of character development in this novel.
Fear is a present topic in Lord of the Flies and the acrostic, False-Evidence-Appearing-Real, directly relates to chapter 9. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of young boys were stranded on an island. At first they incorporated the civilization that they grew up with into their lives, but as time progressed they began to accept a savage lifestyle that came with consequences. In chapter 9, while the biguns and littluns gathered in a group, chanting and dancing, Simon came down the mountain after finding out the beast was actually a dead man in a parachute. Because it was dark and Simon was unrecognizable, the boys feared him to be the beast and killed him. If the boys had not been so afraid of the beast then they would not have been prompted to kill Simon. In chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs diction, repetition, and animal imagery to convey the theme that fear can cause savagery to develop in anyone.
“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill…You knew didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close. Close. Close,” in comparison to “And he said, ‘That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man’…All these evil things come from within, and defile the man” (Golding 143, Mark 7:20- 7:23, KJV). Both statements about inner evils, both spoken by one in the same person. The former was stated by Simon in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies as he spoke to the Lord of the Flies, and the latter is transcribed in the scripture of the Holy Bible, a book devoted to the life and stories of Jesus. These coinciding excerpts are not by coincidence in any way. Simon is the symbolic Christ figure in Lord of the Flies in more ways in one. Often
William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The Flies’ tells the story of a group of English boys isolated on a desert island, left to attempt to retain civilisation. In the novel, Golding shows one of the boys, Jack, to change significantly. At the beginning of the book, Jack’s character desires power and although he does not immediately get it, he retains the values of civilized behaviour. However, as the story proceeds, his character becomes more savage, leaving behind the values of society. Jack uses fear of the beast to control the other boys and he changes to become the book’s representation of savagery, violence and domination. He is first taken over with an obsession to hunt, which leads to a change in his physical appearance This change of character is significant as he leads the other boys into savagery, representing Golding’s views of there being a bad and unforgiving nature to every human.
In Lord of the Flies, William Golding expresses the idea that humans are naturally immoral, and that people are moral only because of the pressures of civilization. He does this by writing about a group of boys, and their story of survival on an island. The civilized society they form quickly deteriorates into a savage tribe, showing that away from civilization and adults, the boys quickly deteriorate into the state man was millions of years ago. This tendency is shown most in Jack, who has an animalistic love of power, and Roger, who loves to kill for pleasure. Even the most civilized boys, Ralph and Piggy, show that they have a savage side too as they watch Simon get murdered without trying to save him. Simon, the only one who seems to have a truly good spirit, is killed, symbolizing how rare truly good people are, and how quickly those personalities become corrupted.
Although there are many interpretations of Golding’s Lord of the Flies, one of the most important is one that involves an examination of Freudian ideas. The main characters personify Sigmund Freud’s theory of the divisions of the human mind; thus, Jack, Ralph, Piggy and Simon are metaphors for the id, ego, and the super-ego of Freudian psychology, respectively. The inclusion of psychological concepts in this literary work distinguish it as a commentary on human nature, beyond labels of “adventure” or “coming of age” novel. Many readers are left in shock upon reading Golding’s masterpiece because of the children’s loss of innocence, but most fail to consider
The novel “Lord of the Flies” was written by William Golding to demonstrate the problems of society and the sinful nature of man.
At Simon’s murder the boys, “Leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit and tore.”
Lord of the Flies provides one with a clear understanding of Golding's view of human nature. Whether this view is right or wrong is a point to be debated. This image Golding paints for the reader, that of humans being inherently bad, is a perspective not all people share. Lord of the Flies is but an abstract tool of Golding's to construct the idea of the inherent evil of human nature in the minds of his readers. To construct this idea of the inherent evil, Golding employs the symbolism of Simon, Ralph, the hunt and the island.
A group of kids got stuck on an island after their plane got shot down and they all have many different personalities. Being stuck on an island usually brings out the worst of people.But, there were two characters in novel, “The Lord of The Flies” that had good morals. These two characters were Ralph and Simon. Ralph and Simon weren’t intimidated by not having any adults around, instead, they tried to bring out the best of themselves and not take part in any horseplay the rest of the boys did.
Throughout The Lord of the Flies, the author shows how different Simon is from the rest of the savages on the island. He is much more innocent and pure than the others and has a religious demeanor. Light, very commonly a symbol of holiness and purity, is used quite often during Simon’s “funeral”. In the last four paragraphs of chapter nine, “A view to a death”, Golding makes clear the use of light imagery to suggest the apotheosis of Simon.
The point that Golding was trying to make was that evil is inside all of us. He used this novel to express to the readers his thoughts on the matter, which was that to defeat the evil inside yourself, you have to admit that it is there. Simon managed to face the beast inside him. But unfortunately, since the other boys still believed that the beast was a living, breathing creature, it resulted in the death of Simon.
Throughout William Golding's, Lord of the Flies, many of the characters go through changes in their personality traits. From beginning to end, Simon goes through the smallest amount of change than anyone in the novel. Despite the fact that Simon did not really fit in with the other boys, he tried his hardest to make a difference in his and the other's lives.
Through the use of Simon, Golding is able to depict a Christ-like figure through pages 55-57 by showing how Simon helps the littluns and through the three stages he experiences as he travels through the jungle.