The Deaths of Simon and Piggy in The Lord of the Flies by Golding

The Deaths of Simon and Piggy in The Lord of the Flies by Golding

Simon's death was not a complete accident. You could find excuses for

his death and explain it as an accident but there are key people who

began the process. The littluns who started the 'beast' or 'snake

thing' craze are the main cause; none of them would listen to reason,

now that they 'knew' that there was a beast on the island although the

biguns tried to convince them otherwise:

"…There isn't a beast!"

Jack didn't help matters by saying:

"…But if there was a snake we'd hunt and kill it. We're going to hunt

pigs to get meat for everybody. And we'll look for the snake too…"

This confirmed for the children that even Jack, the largest of the

biguns, was starting to worry about a beast. This slowly creates a

feeling of general fear amongst all of the children. Jack works them

into a frenzy so strong that even Piggy joins in with Jacks dance:

"Piggy and Ralph … found themselves eager to take a place in this

demented but partly secure society".

The fear of the beast, created by both Jack and the littluns ensured

they armed themselves before they even saw the beast or Simon coming

out of the jungle:

"The hunters took their spears, the cooks took spits, and the rest

clubs of firewood." They started working themselves into a group

frenzy, dancing round the fire and chanting:

"Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!"

They were now in such a frenzy they made no effort to check whether

the 'beast' was human or not before they rushed in to the kill. They

all used clubs and sticks to kill Simon and no one can do that without

being ...

... middle of paper ...

...o others. This will of

course eventually lead to torturing the other children who disagree

with either him or Jack.

The death of Piggy seems very deliberate. It was planned in advance.

The rock was in place, with a lever under it. They showed little

remorse for their actions shown by the fact that the next day they

went hunting for Ralph.

I think that Simon's death would probably be considered an accident as

there is so much evidence to suggest that in their fear and frenzy

they simply made a mistake. Piggy's death, on the other hand, was

clearly murder. Between Roger and Jack, Roger would, in all

probability gain the larger 'jail' sentence as he rolled the rock that

actually killed Piggy. However Jack had ordered the rock to be set up

in the first place and would have to share the blame for Piggy's

murder.