How Does Golding Present The Evil In Lord Of The Flies

In Lord of the Flies by WIlliam Golding, a group of boys are flying away from England because of the war that is going on and eventually get stranded on an island. The boys go through a journey of learning how to survive by themselves in a foreign place with no one else but them. Golding writes his characters very well and they are very thought out, whether it be from the way they look to the way their mannerisms slightly change from the start of the book to the end. One of the big differences in Golding's characters is that all the other boys have some form of evil in them, some more than others. One character had no evil in him, Simon is the only boy who does not fall victim to mob mentality but he does fall victim to the other boys on the island.

The first time we see Simon do something good is in chapter 4, after Jack and a few others went hunting while they were supposed to be watching the fire. Jack and his crew catch and kill a pig. After they cook it they refuse to let Piggy have some because he didn’t help catch it. Simon shows sorrow for Piggy and wants to help him. Golding shows this by saying, “Simon, sitting between the twins and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy.” (74) When Golding tells about Simon's actions, it gives a look into how selfless he is. Another example of Simon showing his selflessness is in chapter 7 when he is comforting Ralph. Ralph was sitting and thinking about how the boys have become so savage and he saw the water as a wall blocking any hope left for them, then Simon says, “ You’ll get back to where you came from.” (111) Simon was trying to reassure Ralph and give him hope and the strength that he needed in order to continue to lead the kids. On the bottom of page 111 Golding says that the boys smiled at each other. Simon was doing all that he could to give hope to the boys, Simon was the light that they all needed before the chaos