Simon LOTF Grade 8/9 Essay!

Why is Simon an important character?

Throughout the novel ‘Lord of the Flies’ Simon is characterised to personify the virtue and morality within humanity and to deeply juxtapose the ‘darkness in man’s heart’ as well as the violence and savagery within the rest of the boys on the island. Golding constructs him in such a way to embed and present his own ideas about mankind’s innate sinfulness, making him an important character throughout the novel.

One of Simons key attributes is his similarity to Christ and the fact that he is constructed as a biblical allegory. One way Golding presents this is in quotes such as ‘more sunlight fell’ ‘honey coloured sunlight’ and ‘candle buds.’ Here Simon is often within a close proximity to light giving him an associated lexical field of light and spirituality therefore he has religious connotations and is associated with Christ as well as representing the essential goodness within man’s heart. In depth the fact the adjective ‘golden’ is used, furthers this point as its often associated with goodness. Furthermore Simon ‘found for them [littluns] fruit they could not reach’ this is a direct parallel to fables of Jesus (like feeding the 500) in the bibles, along with his kindness Golding furthers their similarities, presenting him as an ethereal and biblical character. This allows Simon to be an important character as it juxtaposes him from the other boys on the island, and he is the only habitually good character within the novel who does not give in to the evilness within man that even Ralph and Piggy slip into. Therefore, through this contrast Golding is able to voice his own message of how violent and corrupt mankind has become and to highlight his anguish at the world and the terrors that lie within it, that he experienced first hand during world war 2. By showing the readers an example of a quasi-religious, morally good character and allowing the reader to share this view and disgust after Simon’s eventual death. 

Furthermore, Golding uses Simon’s knowledge and sensibility to further his contrast and points about the heinous and savage nature of man, making Simon an important character. Simon is the first boy to realise that the beast isn’t real and actually is a dead parachutist the physical manifestation of the primitive…