The author that wrote this incredibly symbolic book is Willam Golding. Willam was alive during World War II which led to the inspiration of the book. The book Lord of the Flies is based around the theme, society vs savagery and the fight of the boys innerselves. Main characters A short story In the book Lord of the Files , symbolism constructed in Simon’s character as a symbolism to add to the theme of society vs savagery.
Simon is very selfless. He cares so much about others and is aware of his surroundings more than anyone else on the island. Before this quote Simon was walking when he was supposed to be in the bathing pool. He was wandering about the forest when he saw some littluns trying to reach fruit. He picked some for them and made sure they were not dirty. “Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach.” Most of the boys on the island would not have even noticed the children as they think they are useless and good for nothing. Simon’s character was developed to be very pure, light, and innocent. Because he is the only person on the island who would do this for the children, let alone anyone else, this makes him a symbol of society. Golding uses Simon to show how society is alive, well, and working. Simon is society. He is more than a person; he is a symbol.
When Jack breaks off from the society that Ralph had built with all of the island members that is the start of savagery taking over society. Before this quote Jack and his followers had just killed a mother pig who was nursing her children. Because Simon represents society he clearly was not happy but this, whether he knew it or not. It was very obviously an act of savagery. The savage boys had just shown the pigs head on a stick, Lord of the Flies, to Simon. “In Simon’s right temple, a pulse began to beat on the brain.” This sounds like a headache. It sounds like he is in severe pain. He was shown the pigs head. Anyone in their right mind would be disterbed by this but because Simon is a symbol this pain that he is going through shows how society is breaking. There is starting to be tension between the two sides, society and savagery, and savagery is winning. Simon is starting to die, which shows that society is dying. He is the symbol of life, light, and innocence. But when he dies, society dies.
When Simon dies, so does society. It is completely gone. There is nothing to be left of it but the bodies of what used to be society. Simon had been severely dehydrated for the past couple of pages which showed the pain and suffering of the society side of the island. ADD CONTEXT FOR WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE “Simon was inside the mouth. He fell down and loss consciousness.” Simon was looking at the pig’s head on a stick when he died due to dehydration. He got lost in the pig’s mouth, saw black and died. I think this is a very good way for Golding to end Simon as both a character and a symbol. He not only had him die on an island surrounded by saltwater but he had him die looking into the mouth of the thing that started savergery taking over society. Because of the way that Simon died is shows us that as you are living on an island, there are natural threats that kill you and having Simon, the symbol of society, die to a natural and avoidable reason is showing that society was bound to die and savagery and the savage ways were bound to take over.
Based off of how Simon was developed, how he acted and how he died we can conclude that Simon was more than a character, he was a symbol and held the island together until his death. He was the one there to spread his light through the island. Once he died, there was none left. There was just the skeletons of what used to be society. The boys were wound up with evil and couldn’t escape it. They were trapped. If Simon was not developed as the symbol to society and was just a character the way that the whole book is interpreted would change. Rereading the book and seeing how Simon’s symbol foreshadows a lot of what happens in the book creates a whole new outlook on the story.
The book, Lord of the Flies was overall based on World War II. The boys were lost with themselves on the island and trapped within their own minds. Torturing themselves and the others around them. Guided by their internal evil. Once they reach a certain point in both the book and in the war there is no turning back. They are already so far into the fight and so tangled up in the savagery that they can’t get out. The only way the boys get out is when the officer came to rescue them. When first being stranded the only thing keeping them going was hope and after being stranded for so long they gave up and fell into the savagery. When the officer comes and finds them he is the symbol of hope, he bring hope back into the boys and represses the evil. This is like the war; Hitler kills himself and hope is brought back into the lives of the people under his control.
