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Simon as Silent Prophet of Lord Of The Flies
The role of the prophet changes with the society in which he lives. In Modern America, a prophet is a visionary, telling his people what they can become; in Biblical times, a prophet was the voice of God, telling his people what they had to become to fulfill their covenant with God. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, though, the prophet told his people nothing; he realized what they had already become, and he dared not tell them because he knew they would turn against him. Simon lived in knowledge and fear because his society denied the role of the prophet, and he did not fight it because he wanted so much to be part of that society.
The basic premise of Lord of the Flies is that humans naturally live in savagery and ignorance, without any idea of how to live together. It is the story of boys stranded on an island who must develop a government to survive. Every detail of the story holds symbolism. For example, each character represents an aspect of society : those who represent human nature survive, and those who are self-actualized--the scientists, the religious, the leaders--all die. The most terrifying death is that of Simon, who symbolizes the eyes of a blindfolded and stumbling people. He alone saw that the jungle, which represented freedom and the lack of civilization, was not to be feared but to be understood; he alone knew that the mythical Beast of the island, feared by all the boys, was in fact their own inherent savagery. (The title, Lord of the Flies, is in fact a translation of "Beelzebub," a name of the devil in the Judeo-Christian tradition).
In a vision, the Beast told Simon: "Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hu...
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... his fear, his compatriots' savagery justifies that weakness. If his flaw was his desire to be accepted, then he was no different from any of the other boys. Simon was just as human as all the children on the island, abandoned to "the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart" (202). If the truth died with Simon, it died because human nature hates prophets, because humans naturally live in savagery and ignorance.
Works Cited
Epstein, E.L. "Note on Lord of the Flies." Lord of the Flies. U.S.A.: Puntnum Publishing Group, 1954.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. U.S.A.: Puntnum Publishing Group, 1954.
Golding, William. "Lord of the Flies as Fable." Readings on Lord of the Flies. Ed. Bruno Leone. Sand Diego: Green Haven Press, 1997.
Riley, Carolyn, ed. Vol. 1 of Contemporary Literary Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1973.
The Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding. Simon is one of the major characters in this novel. Simon’s character lives by what is morally right as opposed to the rest of the island. Simon represents essential human goodness. There are many biblical parallels in the Lord of the Flies that result in Simon being compared to Christ.
Simon as Christ in Lord of the Flies. The role of the prophet changes with the society in which he lives. In modern society, a prophet is a visionary, telling people what they can become; in Biblical times, a prophet was the voice of God, telling his people what they had to become to fulfill their covenant with God. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the prophet is a peaceful lad, Simon.
Is everybody born purely good inside? Or are we all filled with certain amounts of good and evil? In Lord of the Flies by William Golding a plane full of school boys lands on a deserted island, killing all the adults. With no adult supervision or civilization the boys descend back into the madness and savagery that is human nature. In Lord of the Flies by william Golding his character Simon uses spiritual power by finding out what the beast really is, showing how he failed to warn the others, how his use of the power affected the book as a whole, and how spiritual power is in the real world.
n William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, British schoolboys are stranded on an island after a plane crash in an attempt to escape the war, but they end up waging a war far worse than the one they were trying to avoid. One boy, Simon, is different from all the rest and has the ability to see beyond what the other boys can. He has the capacity to recognize the good and the bad in everything much before the other boys. In spite of the surrounding chaos and dysfunction, Simon is constantly calm and comforting to others. This sense of tranquility is demonstrated in Simon’s encounters with nature, and the forest in particular. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Simon epitomizes the natural, instinctive human goodness brought by connection to the world, and he is an example of nature's calming influence on the behavior of humans.
William’s father, John Shakespeare married Mary Arden in the year 1557. “John and Mary Shakespeare’s first two children, Joan and Margaret, died as babies. Such early death was not unusual because there was no protection against childhood illnesses . It is remarkable that their next child, William, survived” (Greenhill and Wignall 5). It is estimated that William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564. William was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. Stratford-upon-Avon is a famous tourist attraction today. Hundreds of thousands of people visit Stratford every year to view William’s birthplace, death place, and grave. “William was born when the plague was raging in Stratford. That year nearly fifteen percent of the town’s population died of the killer disease” (Greenhill and Wignall 5). When William was about six he was sent to the King’s New School. The King’s New School was a grammar school. “The school day in the 1500s was long and hard” (Greenhill and Wignall 5). School began as early as six in the morning and ended at five in the afternoon. There were eight hours of teaching in a day and the school day began and ended with prayers. “Schoolwork at the g...
William Shakespeare, born April 26th, 1564 was an English poet, playwright, and actor, mostly referred as the greatest writer in the English ¬¬language. Shakespeare is believed to have constructed thirty-eight plays, one hundred and fifty-four sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses. ."Did Shakespeare Write His Plays?") Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare’s father was an alderman, therefore Shakespeare did not attend any special schools or colleges. Shakespeare went to public schools. There are official documentation such as church and court records providing that Shakespeare was “real”. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28th, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province. Their first child, a girl named Susanna, born May 26th, 1583. Two year later, on February 2th, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born. Hamnet later then died of unknown causes at age eleven.
Shakespeare was said to be born on April 23, 1564, to John Shakespeare, “a glove maker and a trader of farm produce who also worked on the city council”()and Mary Arden, “the daughter of a land owner from a neighboring village,”(). He was baptised in the Trinity Church of Stratford where he eventually was laid to rest. His lifespan was within the time of the Renaissance. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway at the age of 18 and had a daughter Susan and then two years later they had twins together. At 27 he decided to take a trip to London in hopes of discovering his dream as a theatrical playwright.
William Shakespeare is clouded with mystery. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England in 1564. "Although his exact birth date is not know, there is a record of his baptism on April 26, 1954" (Kay 13). "His date of birth would have fallen shortly before that day is traditionally considered to be April 23, 1954" (Campbell and Quinn 755). He was born to John Shakespeare and his wife, Mary Arden and was the oldest of three sons. He also had four sisters. "Little is known of Shakespeare's early life, although it is likely that he received an education at the good local grammar school" (Lawall 2110). Other than that, there really is not much known about Shakespeare's youth. The next concrete piece of evidence about Shakespeare's life is his marriage to Anne Hathaway in November 1582, when he was just eighteen years old. It was a marriage of inconvenience. Anne was eight years older than he was and pregnant at the time so they had no choice but to marry. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born in 1583 and twins Hamnet and Judith were born in 1585. Sha...
William Shakespeare was born in the year 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, which is in the United Kingdom. William was the third born child in the Shakespeare family, son to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, and brother to Gilbert, Richard, Edmund, Joan and Judith. William’s father, John, was a successful merchant, however WIlliam’s birth seemed to impoverish the family, with John’s wealth decreased by a substantial amount. William attended a school for the underprivileged and received a basic education. By 1592, William had begun his career as actor and playwright and had his first few performances published. By 1597, he had 17 more of his plays published as public performances. By this time, Shakespeare was known as one of the richest people in England, as he bought the second largest house in Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1599, Shakespeare and his group built their own theatre near the Thames river. They decided to call the theatre The ‘Globe’. Shakespeare’s first plays performed at ‘The Globe’ were Richard II,Henry VI parts 1,2 and 3. These plays were all Histories and comedies and he did not begin to make tragedies until 1600. Shakespeare’s later plays, before his death were called tragicomedies. These, as from the title, were tragedies involved with some humour.
During the time of Shakespeare the theatre was much different than it is today. There was much stricter rules and guidelines, as well as limitations that were placed on the actors. Throughout Shakespeare’s own life the theatre had changed a lot, which it still continues to do even today. Many of the actors in Shakespeare’s time were restricted to practicing the art of acting on the city’s streets (Rosmanitz). Both the Church and the police limited these practices as they thought it would promote bad behavior and keep the people out of the Church. Before some of the theatres were constructed the actors would perform in the courtyards of inns or sometimes even the homes of noblemen (Britannica). Some influential people such as Queen Elizabeth, truly enjoyed going to the theatre and watching the actors perform, to which she helped promote these practices (Rosmanitz). New reigning popularity of the theatre caused the construction of theatres to be built outside the city’s limits.
In 1582, William at age eighteen married a woman named Anne Hathaway who was twenty-six years old. Anne Hathaway was already three months pregnant before their marriage. Susanna was born seven months after their wedding. In 1585, Shakespeare and Anne had twins named Judith and Hamnet. However, his only son, Hamnet, died at the age of eleven years old. Judith passed away at age 77. Susanna died at age 66.
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.
"William Shakespeare [ at the age 18 ] married Anne Hathaway [ who was 26 ] on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province" (William Shakespeare Biography). Their first child was, a daughter who was named Susanna, born on May 26, 1583. They had twins, Hamnet and Judith, two years later on February 2, 1585. "After the birth of the twins, there are seven years of William Shakespeare's life where no record exist" (William Shakespeare Biography). A tragedy stuck this family when Hamnet died at the age of eleven due to an unknown cause. " In 1597 he was able to purchase a large house, New Place, in his native town" (Encyclopedia International).
Simon is easily the most important character in William Golding’s classic Lord of the Flies, a book where several schoolboys find themselves on an island after a plane evacuating them from war-ridden Britain. The book documents their attempts to create a civilized society to wait for rescue, and how the inherent savage instinct of humans ruined the peace and destroyed rhyme and reason. Simon is a gateway to the intentions of the novel for the readers. His character changes throughout the book, such as when he faints, when he tells Ralph to continue as the leader, and, arguably at the apex of the book, when he hallucinates the Lord of the Flies.
In 1564, William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon (Hazell 32). It seems that Shakespeare’s career began around the year 1592. This was a tough time for playwrights and actors. There was an outbreak of the bubonic plague which caused concerns for those wanting to watch because of being surrounded by those potentially carrying the disease, thus making it hard for the playwrights and actors to find work (“William Shakespeare.” 653-654).