William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

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"Lord of the Flies" by William Golding is a distopian novel set in war time. It centres around a group of young boys who are stranded on an island after being the only survivors of a plane crash. Amongst the boys are Ralph, Piggy, Jack and Simon who are the main characters of the novel. The novel begins with all the boys in one group but as the novel goes on conflict arises in the group and it splits into two, with one half led by Ralph being concentrated on being rescued while the rest of the boys, led by Jack, become savage and obsessed with hunting. The boys begin to believe there is a beast on the island and when a dead parachutist ends up on the island the boys assume it is the beast. Jack's group of hunters slaughter a pig and put its…show more content…
The head confirms Simon's thoughts on the beast: "Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill." In a mocking tone, Simon's subconscious tells him through the voice of the pig that he is right and there is no tangible beast - the potential for evil within the boys is the only danger on the island and the tone used emphasises how preposterous it is to believe otherwise. The head then threatens Simon: "we shall do you. See?" It uses a euphenism for murder and this highlights that Simon is prophetic as later in the novel all the boys have a hand in Simon's death as emphasised through the collective pronoun "we". The idea that the young boys are evil is shocking to the reader and Simon's prophetic nature is also a…show more content…
The boys can't see who Simon is so they assume he is the beast and attack him: "no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws." The boys become vicious and violent, as emphasised by alliteration "tearing" "teeth", and lexical choice of "claws" which suggests they are animalistic. They literally tear Simon apart. They kill him before he can deliver his message, meaning the boys don't know the truth. After Simon dies the sea claims his body, the description of this is both beautiful and sad: "the water rose further and dressed Simon's coarse hair with brightness." The lexical choice of "bright" and "shiny" make Simon appear angelic and make it even more shocking that the boys could kill someone so pure. The boys viciousness and their change in nature is shocking and sad. Simon's death shocks the reader too as we grow to like his character throughout the novel but then he is

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