Piggy In Lord Of The Flies

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“Poor Piggy”: the sentiment can be heard murmured in English classes all across America. The terrorized kid—from William Goldin’s Lord of the Flies—has been mocked for his weight, ridiculed for his lack of strength, and his brain is eventually catapulted from its home by the hands of Roger. In other words, he’s the outcast, but people seem to forget he isn’t the only one; Simon is just as outlandish as his survival companion. The only difference is that Simon gets away with it more than Piggy because he brings something to the table: cheerful service. His eccentricities don’t go unnoticed though; they still consider him “batty” (126). Written to be “[Christ-like]” (Andrews), Simon has an innate goodness that wasn’t molded by society. One of…show more content…
This helps Golding enforce his idea that “Simons” are far and few. When first marooned on the island, no one seems willing to do what is necessary: build a shelter; Ralph—the chief—gets into a quarrel with one of the other boys because of this, saying him and Simon have “been working [all day]” while everyone else was “off bathing…eating…or playing.”(53). Right when the spat reaches a molten point, Simon slips away without Ralph and the boy noticing and ends up exploring the island. Ralph thinks this rather odd (58). This shows that Simon is very different from the other kids. While they get into altercations quite easily—and even expect their combatant to follow suit—Simon doesn’t feel comfortable with it, considering the whole thing petty and rubbish. Just the fact that they don’t understand Simon shows they’ve never encountered someone like him before, implying Simon is very rare. To further emphasis this, while the insults hurled at Piggy are rather specific, Simon is just considered “funny”, which is a vague description. Because his actions are so foreign to them, they don’t have exact words to describe his weirdness. When he goes off in the jungle to commune with nature (60-61), a picture of a monk meditating at a Buddhist temple pops up in my head; perhaps places like these are where those with purer souls take refuge, away from the turmoil of the world. Thus, one of the reasons you…show more content…
Despite hating strife, Simon will stop at nothing to help those in need. This is one of his major flaws because, although his lack of selfishness is an honorable trait, he often inconveniences himself and puts himself in danger. Throughout the novel there’s a supposed beast that seems to plague the island. Simon discovers that it’s just a “dead man on a hill” (175). He knows the true beast is the sadistic side of human nature when he witnesses the hunters massacring a family of pigs (154); it’s here that he begins to have a conversation with the “Lord of the Flies”—the dismembered head of the pig—and discovers the truth: “This is ridiculous. You know perfectly well you’ll only meet me down there…” (164). Right after the kill, a “pulse [begins] to beat on [Simon’s] brain” (158), so the conversation between him and the head is really his inner dialogue. He knows that down the hill are his friends, and inside his friends resides at least a portion of a malevolent spirit. We see his prediction come true when they murder him after he tries to shed light on the truth (177)—although they thought it was the beast. This suggests there is no place for peace in mankind after Simon finds a way to resolve the tension in the group, but he’s still slaughtered. Interestingly enough, it compares nicely to democracy in war where one side will come up with a solution and the other will have nothing to do with it. If we go off
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