Who Is Simon Evil In Lord Of The Flies

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If Ralph stands at one end of a line, representing civilization, and Jack stands at other end of the line, representing savagery, where does Simon stand? The answer is that, unlike all the other boys, Simon stands on a different plane from every other character in the novel. Why? During World War II, William Golding witnessed the expenditure of human ingenuity in the old ritual of war. As the illusions of his earlier rationalism and humanism fell away, he concluded, “the shape of society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable”(James R. Baker: 23) and he illustrated it in Lord of the Flies. In a way, Simon represents the future ideal personality of Golding.…show more content…
Simon has sensed not only the history and reality of human being, but also the philosophy of human nature, while other boys haven’t. With the knowledge of human evil, Simon seems to have consigned himself to the fate as Christ has done. When the boys are confused about the beast of air, Simon is the real skeptic and he suggests “I think we ought to climb the mountain”. (William Golding: 142) What’s more important is that Simon alone with his inner vision climbs the mountain to explore the evil without any awareness of losing his life or anything. It is his belief in spiritual reality that diminishes his fear of death, and he enters the dark forest without any fear of strange “beast”. Through the dialogue with the lord of the flies, Simon has been aware what is the beast, and has discovered the dead parachutist. Simon has found the truth that the imaginary beast is “harmless and horrible”.( William Golding:162) On a deep level, if we recognize the truth of man’s evil and purges ourselves from it, the beast is harmless; otherwise it is
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