Thursday, February 19, 2009

How is the death of Simon appropriate to the intentions of the author? In other words, why could Simon no longer survive on the island? Graded for completion.

23 comments:

  1. i think im gonna wait till someone else posts

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  2. Simon is the only completely pure and good character in the entire book, and the island and what it represents is the epitome of evil. Neither can exist at the same time--either good triumphs over evil, or evil triumphs over good. And as the author is trying to show how easily evil can triumph over good by showing how savage the boys are becoming, the only good character on the island--Simon--has to die. Evil will never triumph over Simon by wearing away at his morals or sense of decency. Death is the only way that evil can defeat Simon, but the other boys on the island can be overcome in less drastic ways.

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  3. Simon was the representation of the remains of sanity and purity in their situation. As the deranged nature of the boys became more and more prevalent in their thoughts and actions, it became increasingly evident that rationality was a threat to the self centered and careless lives of the other boys. His purity can be seen even in death when Golding describes his body drifting out to sea with diction such as "the line of his cheek silvered and the turn of his shoulder became marble" and "a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations". Simon also harbored within himself the Lord of the Flies, the pure evil juxtaposed with Simon's good nature. To the other boys Simon was the beast. He wandered around the island at night, the island that they screamed during their dreams. He was too adjusted to the island; he saw its flaws, just as he saw the flaws of the other boys. This knowledge made him a danger to them. He knew that behind any mask of civilization they are all a pack of screaming savages. This savagery was what killed him. As all the boys were dancing in their circle, enjoying the glory and exuberance of the kill and the resulting bonfire a lone figure of humility intruded in the heat of the moment and was slain. There was no place for Simon in the ring of animal inhabitants of this island.

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  4. I believe Simon's death is based on the religion. Just as Jesus Christ was crucified, Simon was brutally killed by the savages (aka Jack and his tribe). Simon represented the good and pure side of humans and the island. Just like how Jesus is the Savior and how he was pure and heavenly. Simon knew almost instinctively that there wasn't an actual beast. He was the only one that remained under control of himself, until his heat stroke. He knew about the "Beast" and it's evil. Thus separating himself from those who were afflicted by the savagery. So when he came out of the forest to inform the others about the so-called beast, the others mistook him as the Beast. Jesus Christ was also mistaken in a similar way. He was criticized, persecuted, and rejected by many, just because he was thought to be a liar and a hypocrite. While he came to save people from their sin, not many people listened to him. Just as no one listened to Simon when he was killed. No one listened to Simon or Jesus. There lies an enormous mistake. They were mistaken to be the thing that they were going to save everyone from.

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  5. i think that monsters.under.the.acrylic.skies makes a good point about how simon is different from all of the other boys and that there is no place for him in the ring of boys surrounding him in the dance that was his death.

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  6. Golding’s general intentions were to show how boys lose civility and become savages. Simon represented purity and still clung on to his civility. The other boys around him have lost this civility. Early on, Golding establishes Simon as the symbol of good in the novel. When Simon is mistakenly murdered for the beast, it confirms that all the good is gone from the island, the boys are just living in a hallucination. Simon was fighting a battle with the beast in all the boys and he loses. The evil (the boys) vastly outnumber the good (Simon) and only one can prevail in this case the boys.

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  7. Simon could no longer survive on the island because "evil had overcome good." In other words, Simon had no more energy to try and stop the bad things from happening on the island. Once he saw the Lord of the Flies, he realized the boys society was all a lie (the beast wasn't actually a beast but a dead man, the fact that Ralph was the original leader made NO difference, ect.)
    Golding is trying to basically tell the reader that the time for pure and good is over and evil has completely taken over. Prepare for chaos.

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  8. I think Simon was killed because he knew so much. He knew all the secrets of the island and when he knew all of this, it made him go insane and lose his mind, as exhibited in the previous chapters. Also, the bys we're losing contact with their previous life and the morals and values that they were once taught, but Simon was the only one that clung to these morals and values. This is why HE HAD TO DIE! He was the only one with the right state of mind, he was the only thing good and pure on the island. The evil (the boys) had this time triumphed over the good (Simon).

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  9. By the way, for those who say that the post box where the site asks for a code doesnt work...try this:
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    Then, when it says wrong code or whatever, hit "Post Comment" again and it should come up with an actual code that will let you post!
    :D

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  10. In this book, all of the boys including Ralph experience some loss of civility due to the island. All except Simon, Simon realizes that the island is just an island and he uses it to his advantage. This lack of savagery is how Golding shows Simon to be pure. As many of the people before me have said, either good triumphs over evil, or its the other way around. Unfortunately the evil (the savage form of the boys) greatly outnumbered the good(Simon). I think also, that Simon's death brought back some humanity to a few of the boys(Ralph,Piggy,Sam, and Eric)maybe just enough humanity for the boys to stay sane for the time being.

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  11. I share many of the same thoughts as previous posts so repeating them would just be redundant but I would like to add that Simon’s death is incredibly ironic. The only person who truly knows the beast is not real is mistaken for it and subsequently killed. The children think they are killing the beast, but by killing the innocent, they are becoming the beast.

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  12. In the book, Simon portrayed the role of sanity and good. The island was able to control the other children with fear of the " beast", but Simon stayed strong to the fear and this is why he was unable to survive. After waking up from his black out, Simon discovers what all the children have believed as the beast. Releasing the dead man from his seemingly permanent restraints allowed Simon to be relieved of any fear. When Simon was attacked by the children, he desperatly tried to tell them about what he had discovered, that there was no beast- no need for fear. Simon was unable to live on because if he had told the other children there would be no more need for worry. Good and evil are two principles that are not able to compromise. On the island, the boys were going to live with evil or good, and with the murder of Simon the good that one existed faded away into the famished mouth of brutality.

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  13. I agree with most of the comments everyone has already made. I think that the author killed off Simon to clearly express that the island is not a good or happy place. Simon was one of the only pure of heart boys on that island, and the author wanted it to be rid of anything good. He wanted to show that it changed everyone and everything. Simon was the only one that really didn't change all that much. He remained one of the most humane boys there and didn't let the island affect him like the others. The author felt that there wasn't a place for someone like simon on an island of savages.

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  14. simon is the one who's the most understanding of whats going on and he's mature and very sensible.and if the island is getting to him so much that it causes his death then what chance do the others have?

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  15. The loss of Simon on the island denotes the start of the end. Simon was the only one on the island to apprehend that the beast was internal and not external. Ironically, he was killed while attempting to notify the other boys about the "beast" on the mountain. This is the point where the boys can no longer rationalize their actions as a game. Both groups become conscious of the acerbity of what has happened, even though they choose to deal with it in a different, manner. Ralph and Piggy attempt to de-escalate the demeanor by approaching Jack for discussion; Jack and Roger choose to escalate which brought forth the death of Piggy and the hunting of Ralph. Additionally I believe that Simon was chosen to go first because he was the most civil and represented the most superior behavioral class out of all the boys. Therefore Simon dies to show how close the boys are getting to the absolute end because their last chance of civility and survival is dissipating and what now can be considered a rapid pace.

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  16. The death of Simon was appropriate to the intentions of the author because Simon was very different from the others and he was somewhat of an outcast. Also, Simon seemed to be the only one in the group who was comfortable with their surroundings and he seemed to be the only one who really thrived on the island. He was never really affected by the beast and he knew that the beast was not an actual living thing, he was the only one who understood the beast. He was also the only existing form of civilized nature on the island. Since Simon was the only character that was still civilized, and the rest were practically savages, Simon and the others could not both exist at the same time, the same way that good and evil cannot exist at the same time. Either savagery would take over, or civility would find its way back into people's lives. Simon was out-numbered and his life was taken. Also, because he understood the beast, he was seen as a person who knew too much and therefore, he had to be killed.

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  17. Golding's goal in writing the Lord of the Flies was to show that humanity would eventually succumb to savagery if left to its own intentions. Simon was the last person on the island that displayed sense and civility, so his death marked the total transformation of the boys. Now that he is dead, there is no way the boys will ever be able to find their way back from savagery, because Simon was the only one that understood what the beast really was. The boys thought of it as something tangible, yet in reality it was their barbarity displayed in their war dances and decline from democracy. Jack and his tribe are no longer interested in Simon's ideas about the beast--that it is in fact themselves. Simon's death shows that mankind cannot face their darker side, once unleashed.

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  18. The intentions of Golding were simple; the boys were losing their humanity and becoming savages as their time on the island increased. Simon, however, was an exception to this. Simon remained pure and good in heart and therefore did not share the other boys’ immoral ways. Like TomasG said, he was also the only one who truly understood what the beast was. He knew that it was the boys’ barbarity displayed through their eccentric dances and unconventional howls. Now with the boys’ last hope of returning to a civilized society, their decline to a survival-of-the-fittest way of living is ensured. With Simon gone, havoc will wreak among them.

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  19. Simon Could no longer live on the island fore he was a loner, and the boys had reached the nadir of civilization, where anyone not your own had to be destroyed.

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  20. Simon's death signifies the complete loss of civility in the boys. The small "pieces" of civility that had been "attached" to them have no "fallen off". They are now pure savage and have gone wild. Simon represented the good in them. He was pure at heart, mature, and "good". The other children represent the bad side of the island that The Lord of the Flies was talking about. Simon was different then the rest of the boys and did not fit in. When he ran down to tell the boys of his discovery of the true "beast"(who was nothing more than a dead pilot), they fell upon him instantaneously. In their violent and disturbing ritual, they fail to recognize that Simon is in their midst and that they are killing him. The others could not understand that there was no fear unlike Simon.

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  21. Simon's death was symbolic of the fight of "good" versus "evil"Due to the strong symbolism present throughout his hallucination then death. The pig's head represented the sin of gluttony that is a prevalent sign of evil within the catholic church.So, based upon simon's good behvior within the previous chapters of the book, this casts him as a moral figure or "jesus", the symbol of moral obedience.Simon's death shows the death of any moral value whatsoever.

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  22. Simon was the representation of "good". By purging the good from the island, Golding emphasized how low the boys fell into savagery. They cannot justify right from wrong and act on instinctive impulse. I also interpret that Simon's death is parallel to the death of Jesus. Simon was pure and different from the other greedy boys. Even as they brutally attacked him, he tried to warn the boys that the "beast" on the mountain was merely a corpse when he could have attempted to flee.

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