Lord of the Flies reflection
Simon Character Analysis In the novel, Lord of the Flies, many of the characters provide insight to humanity and civilization. One of the main characters, Simon, is a shy boy that does not fit in with the rest of the group. Golding shows this when he writes, “Simon was happy to be accepted” (104) when he talks to Ralph and how Simon is often referred to as “batty” (111). Though Simon is often thought of as crazy, he is actually quite sane and almost saint-like in the way he acts. As many of the boys slowly transform from a state of childhood innocence to a savage animal-like condition, Simon is one of the few who manage to withstand the overpowering pull of bestiality that lies within all human hearts. He refrains from hunting and killing, the only choir boy to do so. Instead he builds huts with Ralph, Ralph says, “‘All day I’ve been working with Simon. No one else’” (50), to Jack after he came back from hunting. Simon does not hunt or kill, and he also does not eat. When Simon goes to his special covert in the forest, he stops to pick fruit for the littluns but he does not get fruit for himself. A similar situation arises when Jack makes his first kill. “Simon, sitting between the twins and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy, who grabbed it” (74) and it is never said whether Simon ate or not. The boys have been on the island for a long time now as shown by the boys’ hair growth. Golding writes. “His (Jack) hair was considerably longer now” (48) and “The hair (Ralph’s) was creeping into his eyes again” (82). If the boys have been on the island long enough for their hair to have grown that much they must have been there for an ample amount of time, and no normal person could go for so long without eating. However saints have fasted for long periods of time, and survived doing so. Simon’s actions of not eating and his disgust of killing living organisms are proof that Simon is not an ordinary person, and is a holy