Rise of the Apostles In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Golding expresses the use of a religious allegory and that man needs a structured and pre made society with laws and a steady authoritative figure in order to function as a group, he is guessed to have usen a religious aspect towards the novel. For example Simon a young timid boy that is thought to be a christ figure, wanders into the jungle within the island for a while, something to compare such an act is when jesus traveled into the wilderness for forty days, tempted by the devil. Simon did this act but on a such minor scale; when Simon's death came about he had to carry the cross before he was killed for telling the boys the truth, punished harshly and tortured Jesus Christ was a threat to the jews’ influence upon their empire. "Simon saw a humped thing suddenly sit up on the top and look down at him"(146) he …show more content…
The clouds were sitting on the land; they squeezed, produced moment by moment this tormenting heat. There were no shadows under the trees but everywhere a pearly stillness, so that what was real seemed illusive and without definition. At last Simon gave up and looked back; saw the white teeth and dim eyes, the blood – and his gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable recognition.” Simon describes the clouds sitting on the land and the great bulging towers, it seems he is trying to describe heaven unintentionally and Simon also refers to “tormenting heat” and Lord of the Flies means Beelzbub which is a demon or satan. Simon is a christ figure but in my opinion I think he should be looked at as a disciple such as peter; Simon starts to have a conversation with the dead carces, rather than being disgusted by the action it shows his kindness and gratitude towards gods creation he expresses his sympathy, “Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt or kill! … You knew, didn't you? I'm part of
In The Lord Of The Flies, the readers refer Simon is a sacrificial character. Simon reminds us all of Jesus or Christ-like. His personality is Christ-like, he cares for others, and if someone is hurt he will comfort them. Simon is always helping out by reaching the fruit from a high tree for the littluns. He is a skinny, active little boy, with very straight blond hair, almost white. His eyes are so bright blue that Ralph had been convinced that he would be odd or insane. When Simon died, Golding describes his death, saying, “Softly surrounded by a fringe of shape beneath bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simons dead body moved out toward the open sea.”(154)
The appearance of Simon in the novel The Lord of the Flies is of great significance and is substantial for the development of the story because he made lots of points in the story. First of all, it is important to state that he sent simple, yet deep messages throughout the novel, with morals behind them. Religiously speaking, Simon can be identified as the Christ-figure in the story. Simon also had a very specific role in the novel in being the character in contact with nature. Simon's significance in the story is obvious, and one way to deduce this is by identifying his messages.
LOTF essay Imagine living in a world full of fear and competition. It’s scary how far people would go to survive and to get what they want. In the book Lord of the flies by William Golding, he makes the point that everybody has an inner evil no matter how civilized and pure they seem to be. When it comes to survival, there will be a conflict between who stays civilized and who lets savagery take over them.
As authors create their stories, they use a variety of symbols to give depth to their writing. The use of religious symbols are one of the methods Golding uses uses to attain this. In Lord of the Flies, Golding repeatedly uses biblical allusions of the island, the beast, and Simon to correspond with the boy’s actions of temptation in sin, and the hope for rescue from the island.
The character of Simon, from the novel ‘Lord of the Flies’, is often viewed as an allegory of Jesus Christ, which is highly important, as Simon plays a significant role through the novel. Simon and Christ do not only share natural, unconditional kindness, there are many parallels to be drawn with Simon’s and Jesus’ lives. Many would argue that the following arguments discussed are more than just a coincidence, and that Golding intended and/or based Simon on Christ.
Although Golding doesn’t make any direct biblical parallels, he certainly uses them as penetrating motifs throughout the novel. Lord of the Flies opens in the Garden of Eden. On an island filled with ripe fruits, fresh, flowing water, has a luscious climate, and the boys are free to live as they want. They’re free from sexual longing and deprivation. Like Adam and Eve, the boys are innocent. Golding describes Simon as the “Jesus” figure in the story. Simon happens to be on of Jesus’ twelve disciples. Jesus later renamed Simon to Peter, which means “rock.” Simon and Jesus share the same experience of mourning and mental suffering the night before their death. Simon, with his experience talking with the pig head and Jesus in his time in the Garden of Gethsemane. Unlike Jesus, Simon’s death did not bring salvation to the island. It brought the boys deeper into savagery and guilt. After the boys were building the signal fire, it started to burn everything. That is the beginning of hell. The small boy with
As seen in the text, the initial difference between the two loves is to whom the love is for in which one is how one should love God and the other being how one should love another. He describes the love for God as one consisting of absolute devotion and trust and a fear of him. In contrast, his description of the love between people is one based on caring and respect based on their needs. Simon May differentiates the two loves by noting the apparent lack of rapture in the latter category of love as well as how the love of one another is sometimes insufficient in achieving the goals of respect, justice, and even-handedness due to lovesickness. However, he also draws parallels between the two loves as he argues that since humans were created
Sometimes you have to ask yourself if humans are truly kind. All of us have sinned before according to the Bible, some of us doing worse sins than others. In the book, Lord of the flies by William Golding, tells the story of stranded boys without adults. Throughout the book, the boys become less civilized and show their true characters. While some of the boys show darker sides, other show kindness and honesty. Simon a character in the book represents how humans can sometimes be good and earnest, not always bad even though the world is quite gloomy. Some of his few kind deeds include defending Piggy against Jack, who claimed Piggy had done nothing, saying “We used his specs. He helped that way,”(Golding 42). He, later on, gives Piggy his meat,
The book “Lord of the flies” is story of a group of boys who were marooned on an island and forced to survive and the effect on their moral stability. In the beginning the reader is introduced to the character Simon. He was a skinny vivid little boy whose hair, black as night and coarse, hung down straight over his face (Oldsey and Weintraub 182-183). Golding’s writing style and background can be seen by how he decided to characterize each and every character in the story. Simon was created as a quite boy that played a substantial and crucial role in the story behind this book. Golding shows Simon’s Christ like characteristics through his bravery, kindness, and good morals.
Ultimately, I’ve come to a conclusion that the “Lord of the flies” represent the Devil in many ways. In chapter 8, when the Lord of the flies speaks to Simon he says this, “I’m warning you. I’m going to get angry. D’you see? You’re not wanted. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island! So don’t try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else.” The Lord of the flies already foreshadows and guarantees death upon Simon. This reminds me of then Jesus and Satan come face to face on a rock, which was the ultimate test. This test was used to see if Jesus, the true Son of God, will fail, and go with Satan, or forget the temptations, and do what’s right. Jesus, like Simon, did not fall into the temptations of Lucifer. Causing them later on in their life to die. Why is it the good people die before the bad? Why is it that those who sin greatly, and choose to worship Satan tend to live longer and more successful? But those who believe in doing right, and know what is truly good tend to
Throughout the realistic novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding has repeatedly used many of his characters as a representation of many abstract ideas that relate to the whole human society, as in how we form civilization, and how easy it is for us to turn away from it. These ideas are expressed through the characters´ descriptions, their conversations, and actions. Simon, one of the main characters in the book who still retains to his civilized way of thinking contrasts to many other boys who have subdued to their nature of savagery, is the representation of natural goodness, spiritual figure in a non-religious way, due to his spiritual vision, his awareness of the beast’s true identity, and the way he interacts toward other boys. Simon,
The book demonstrates that despite our best efforts, we don’t always get to obtain the goals we once set for ourselves. Both The Lord of the Flies and the story of Jesus Christ relate by having temptations and having to resist them through the belief of something larger. William Golding, author of The Lord of The Flies, advocates that fear causes people to struggle with their belief system despite their best efforts causing many hardships along the way. People fall short because of fear and commit horrendous mistakes without even noticing. With fear and instability, terror will arise, and everything good will defile. Golding’s use of symbolism forces main characters throughout the novel to confront one another. These challenges consist of a battle for power, the struggle of not losing hope and lastly the terror of having fear overcome them. The main characters all having different traits making them unique will not coincide with one another creating a huge
I both agree and disagree with Simon. I feel as though the SS man should have treated Simon like more of an individual, instead of having him/asking him to be there only as a symbol, a symbol for all the Jewish people he ever made suffer unspeakable crimes. If this was establish before his request of forgiveness maybe Simon wouldn’t have been silent. I don’t, however, feel that the SS man’s treatment of him as a representative of a religious people is incorrect or immoral. Only the context of which he does this.
The character of Simon in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies has often been viewed as the Christ figure of the novel. If you were to examine the actions of both Simon and Jesus, you would find a number of incidents that parallel each other.
Simon, meanwhile, seems to exist outside the conflict between Ralph and Jack, between civilization and savagery. We see Simon’s kind and generous nature through his actions in this chapter. He helps Ralph build the huts when the other boys would rather play, indicating his helpfulness, discipline, and dedication to the common good. Simon helps the littluns reach a high branch of fruit, indicating his kindness and sympathy—a sharp contrast to many of the older boys, who would rather torment the littluns than help them. When Simon sits alone in the jungle glade marveling at the beauty of nature, we see that he feels a basic connection with the natural world. On the whole, Simon seems to have a basic goodness and kindness that comes from within