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Literary analysis of lord of the flies
Characterisation of lord of the flies
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In The Lord of the Flies (1954), Simon’s caring and protective personality represents the author, William Golding’s, idea that humans can be selfless and caring even when in extreme circumstances. After being left alone on an island, most of the boys decide to only care and protect themselves. Although most of the boys have decided this, not all of the boys have stooped to this level. In particular one boy named Simon decides to look out for the young ones. After working all day to build shelters for everyone, Simon takes a break by helping the “littluns” get food: “Simon found for them [the littluns] the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, out stretched hands” (Golding 56). …show more content…
Specifically, the phrase “he passed them back” demonstrates how he gives back, cares about the wellbeing of others, and is compassionate. Golding uses the words “endless” to describe the amount of “out stretched hands”and to highlight that although there are “endless” amounts of boys, or hands, Simon does not stop until they were all satisfied. Another time Simon is very caring, kind, and compassionate was when he gives away his food to others in need. The boys are having their first meal of meat since they have arrived on the island and Jack, leader of the hunters, has refused to give Piggy any meat. Jack refuses because Piggy did not help kill the pig. Golding writes, “Simon, sitting between the twins and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy, who grabbed it… Simon lowered his face in shame”
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.
In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Simon represents the innate morality of humans, acting as a Christ-like figure, while Roger embodies the all present cruelty and inherent sadism of individuals. Throughout the novel, Simon remains unchanged in terms of morality, as others slowly turn to savagery and hunting, as can be seen when Jack’s group become, “demoniac figures with faces of white and red and green.” Instead Simon finds a quiet spot “in a little cabin screened off from the open space by a few leaves.” By “holding his breath, he [cocks] a critical ear at the sounds of the island,” using his secret cabin to meditate. Coupled with his deep connection to nature, Simon is revealed to be a Christ figure. When left alone with the younger boys, “Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, [and] passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands.” Simon does not do these things for fear of guilt or punishment or otherwise, but instead he has a primal human goodness. “Simon’s always about,” helping Ralph build shelters o...
“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
Golding makes very good use of characters in Lord of the Flies, he shows both good and evil through each of the characters. One of the characters that represents goodness is Simon. He is very good and pure, and has the most positive outlook. Simon is very different from the other boys, he seems to always be helping the Littluns and many other vulnerable boys such as Piggy. "Simon sitting between the twins and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy, who grabbed it." (Golding, pg.74) This quote interprets an example of a time when Simon helped Piggy by giving him food, it shows Simon's wholeheartedness. Another example would be when Simon helps the Littluns pick fruit from high to reach places. All in all Golding tries to portray Simon as a Christ like figure.
Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been stranded alone together on an island with no adults. During the novel the diverse group of boys struggle to create structure within a society that they constructed by themselves. Golding uses many unique literary devices including characterization, imagery, symbolism and many more. The three main characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are each representative of the three main literary devices, ethos, logos, and pathos. Beyond the characterization the novel stands out because of Golding’s dramatic use of objective symbolism, throughout the novel he uses symbols like the conch, fire, and Piggy’s glasses to represent how power has evolved and to show how civilized or uncivilized the boys are acting. It is almost inarguable that the entire novel is one big allegory in itself, the way that Golding portrays the development of savagery among the boys is a clear representation of how society was changing during the time the novel was published. Golding is writing during
In Lord of the Flies, a small group of British schoolboys-are stranded on a tropical island. In an attempt to recreate the culture they left behind, they elect Ralph to lead, with the intellectual Piggy as counselor. But Jack also wants to be the leader and lures the boys to the savage survivalism of his tribe. The novel gives us a glimpse of the savagery that underlies even the most civilized human-beings. Lord of the flies, written by William Golding, has four very important dynamic characters. Jack Merridew is a-critical dynamic character-in the novel as a result of-him going-through the most changes, which drives the novel’s central conflict. His authoritative figure, violence, and instinctual behavior are three qualities that make Jack
Simon is a bigun and a very quiet person who likes to keep to himself. In chapter three of Lord of the flies, Simon mysteriously walks into the forest as if something's drawing him in. The littluns catch up to Simon in the forest looking for food. Golding scribes,“Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight Simon found for (the littluns) the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless outstretched hands”(Golding 56). Simon sees fruit on a tree but notices the littluns can't reach it because of their short height. This illustrates Simon’s thoughtful actions and concerns for the littluns. He makes sure they're properly nourished. In the Bible Jesus, the disciples, and five thousand other followers were traveling. They were all hungry but their was only a couple pieces of bread and fish. Instead of keeping it to himself, Jesus found a way to share the small amount of food to everyone. This parable and Simon helping the littluns reveals the unselfishness and consideration humanity
Dealing with your inner demons is not an easy thing to do. Most of the time you do not even realize when they are there. In the Lord of the Flies, however, Simon is the first to recognize what the boys are turning into due to their fear of the beast and tries to help them see who the real beast is. His efforts in doing so throughout the story, however, causes the other boys to see him as “batty” and he ends up walking into his own demise and is never able to reveal the truth to the other boys. In the Lord of the Flies, Simon displays traits of insight, courage, and wisdom to try to help the boys understand their inner demons and discover the true beast that was them all along.
Leaders are usually the best people in your group, and usually not a kid. Kids are usually immature and don’t have priorities, which is why they are not fit to be a leader. A leader is someone who cares about other people, makes and enforces rules, and gains other people’s trust, which kids don’t usually do. Leaders typically don’t play around, or tease other people. In the Lord of the Flies, this is what happened to Ralph. He became the chief of a group of boys with no adults, and now has to care for everyone. At first, he isn’t like a leader, he kept fooling around and did anything he wanted to do. He didn’t care about anyone and just wanted to have fun. Later, he started to have priorities and rules and in the end, he became good leader.
Ralph, the first character introduced to the audience, is probably the most likable character in the entire story. Although he does not ponder such deeply like Piggy, is not as spiritual like Simon, or as energetic as Jack, there is something in him that attracts the audience. Ralph serves as the protagonist of the story. He is described as being a playful, innocent child in the beginning, but towards the end he matures significantly. In the first chapter where he takes his clothes off and goes swimming like any child would do, he seems to be Adam in the Garden of Eden, a child left to play with the nature.
People are privileged to live in an advanced stage of development known as civilization. In a civilization, one’s life is bound by rules that are meant to tame its savage natures. A humans possesses better qualities because the laws that we must follow instill order and stability within society. This observation, made by William Golding, dictates itself as one of the most important themes of Lord of the Flies. The novel demonstrates the great need for civilization ion in life because without it, people revert back to animalistic natures.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a peculiar story about boys stranded on an island, and the plot and characters relate to many prevailing events and problems. A specific problem that is currently occurring is the mutual hatred and enmity between North Korea and South Korea. This is a current event, but the North and South’s hostility has been ongoing since 1945, when Korea was split into North and South, Communist and Capitalist. When the 38th parallel(Border between North and South Korea) was created, Kim Il-Sung ruled the North, and Syngman Rhee ruled the South. As of now, a power hungry dictator, Kim Jong-un rules the north, and an optimistic president who wants to see change was recently elected in the South, named Moon Jae-in. In Golding’s book, Ralph is a character who aimed to keep everyone alive and to stay together. Jack on the other hand, wanted to have fun and hunt, and although he also wanted to be rescued, he made no effort to help. In this sense, North Korea is a clear representation of the character Jack and his quest for power, and opposingly, South Korea is a representation of Ralph and his strive for order, democracy, and civilization.
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.
In the novel Lord of the Flies a large group of civilized boys become lost on an island and society slowly starts to fall to pieces the longer they are there. From all of the civilized boys on the island the one with the most potential of becoming an outstanding leader is Simon. Simon is one character who is extremely different from the rest, showing his insight on many things, as well as his wisdom throughout the book. Simon is by far the most symbolic character in the novel Lord of the Flies.