Simon Lord Of The Flies Analysis

In the biblical text of Matthew, the messiah Jesus Christ is betrayed by his disciple Judas, and sentenced to crucifixion by the Roman people. Jesus acts as a martyr, for his death lead to the forgiveness of the sin in all people. In Lord of the Flies, Simon is perceived originally as a Christ-type figure, whose spiritual presence is so strong it is seen by the boys as “batty”. Although readers may originally believe Simon is also a martyr, his vulgar “resurrection” and and exacerbation of the boys violence indicates he does not fit the christ-figure archetype. During chapter 8, Simon speaks to the pig head left by Jack and his tribe, and realises the true beast is the evil within man. The pig head mocks Simon stating, “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” The beast reveals he is in the fact the evil possessed by all the boys, not the physical representation on the top of the mountain that they fear. Simon knows the physical beast is actually a dead man, but now

Now that the boys have killed a human, they have crossed a moral boundary that cannot be reclaimed. It will not satisfy the boy’s id to just hunt wild animal anymore, they will only derive pure pleasure in slaying another human. “You shall not murder” is one of the Ten Commandments in which Jesus upheld, and the boys have broken that command. When they kill Simon they also kill that religious way of life. Golding is showing that the death of Simon also represents the death of Christianity during World War Two. Many soldiers such as Golding saw acts performed in the war that had men questioning how God could allow them to happen. This death isn’t only to show how Simon has failed as a Christ-figure, but a microcosm of the how Christian people had lost faith during the events of the world