Simon Lord Of The Flies Chapter 9 Essay

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a poignant reminder of the dark side of the human condition. The ideas that underpin this message are most obvious in chapter nine, when Simon, a representation of benevolence in human nature, is killed. Through foreshadowing this event, natural imagery, and repetition, he reveals that primitive behavior takes hold when social order collapses.

Simon is a figurehead of all that is good in human nature. Friendly, reserved, impartial, and intelligent, his presence is welcomed even when he stands apart. When the boys brutally murder him and he floats away, that social structure and calm washes into the sea with him. Soon after, chaos ravages the island. To make this transition powerful, Golding builds suspense

Jack is everything Simon is not. He is a ruthless and bloodthirsty leader who prefers primitive methods to more civilized and rational ones. While hunting, he and his pack invent a “chant” for hunting pigs. Golding uses this chant to characterize Jack and his followers as tribe-like savages. As the social order initially established ruptures and crumbles, the chant’s significance grows. During the scene in which Simon dies, the boys repeat, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill His Blood!’...’Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!’” The repetition of the chant reinforces ideas of primitivism and tribal behavior in the mind of the reader. Because Simon’s death represents the loss of social structure, the fade-in of primitivism at this point is rather apt. Golding goes on. “At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.” Unlike the chant, Golding does not repeat a single phrase, instead he repeats a pattern of speech to impart his point about primitivism to the reader. Terms such as screamed, struck, bit, and tore relay the ideas that bolster the theme. They show the boys’ plunge into savagery and newfound

In chapter nine, writer William Golding uses foreshadowing, natural imagery, and repetition to make his point that the fracturing of social structure will invariably lead to the descent into primitivism. Chapter nine in particular draws some controversial conclusions about human nature. The themes that humans will fall into their primitive ways if left without structure, that people can be both inherently good and bad, and that they are lost if they do not support each other are overarching themes which come to fruition in chapter nine. Through Simon’s death, Golding makes an important point about the world. Simon represents an innate benevolence hidden somewhere in human nature. He, like some in the world, is inclined more to good than evil. Had the boys listened to him throughout the story, their fates may not have taken such a dark turn. By listening to everybody equally, no matter the popular opinion, Golding argues that the world could be a more wholesome place not so disposed to basic, primitive