On page 154 of Lord of the Flies, as the body of the supposed ‘beast’ is revealed to be Simon, the collapse of the boys’ innocence and civilization is conveyed through William Golding’s carefully selected words. Right after an especially violent scene, in which the boys become the most violent they have been throughout the whole novel, Golding makes a drastic transition to a scene that is described beautifully and calmly. This moment of peace and tranquility, despite the immensely devastating incident of Simon’s death, makes for heavy contrast with the rest of the chapter, as well as the rest of the novel. Details in the form of words that are typically associated with a positive connotation, such as “pearls”, “clearness”, “smoothed”,