Golding establishes Simon’s presence as a religious and spiritual figure early on in the novel not only by his continuous journeys to places of meditation.but also in how the other characters perceive him to be.Simon is physically frail (as shown in his fainting spells) deeply spiritual, compassionate, non-violent, and in harmony with the natural world (like many religious figures tend to be). Being one of the older boys, he garners respect from the littluns and helps them with activities like picking fruits. One quote that really stood out is how Ralph described Simon when he first got a good look at him. His eyes especially stood out to Ralph. stating that they “were so bright they had deceived him into thinking him delightfully gay and wicked” (Golding 55). Just like Piggy’s glasses which is symbolic for intellectuality and Jack’s …show more content…
Simon's tendencies to go off alone make the other boys think he's a tad odd, but, for the reader, Simon's credibility as a visionary is established when he prophesies to Ralph "You'll get back to where you came from." Simon reaches an understanding of mankind's innate evil nature and unthinking urge to dominate as "mankind's essential illness." When Simon tries to visualize what the beast might look like, "there arose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick" — Golding's vision of humanity as flawed by inherent depravity. Golding gives this knowledge to an outsider like Simon to reflect the place visionaries and mystics/yogis typically hold in society: on the fringes, little understood by the majority, and often feared or disregarded. Like other mystics, Simon asks questions the other boys cannot answer. His questions