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Simon Lord Of The Flies Ethical Analysis

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What is the Difference Between Ethical and Substandard?

“The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man” (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn). This quote by the Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn means that there is good and bad in everyone’s intentions, but there will always be a divide between the two forces. One character in the Lord of the Flies who is the most conscious of this concept is a boy named Simon. Simon’s actions and thoughts proved the idea that there is good and bad inside of everyone. His character symbolizes the identification between good and bad by the way he views the evolution of savagery, and this is visible through the way his ego is revealed to the reader, and how the savage actions become more serious …show more content…

No one else” (Golding 50). Simon is very involved with this civilized action of building shelters, and does not want to be a part of the hunting or any other uncivil activity. For example, Simon wants to get away from the idea of evil, or the Lord of the Flies, after it starts talking;he tried to brush off the idea by calling it a “Pig’s head on a stick,” (Golding 143), and trying to pretend that the Lord of the Flies does not affect him. Simon is only starting to doubt his sanity after he has a talk with the Lord of the Flies, and even then, he is wanting to prove the voice in his head wrong and gain back his civility. This is the point where Simon realizes that the Beast may be in their heads. The conversation with the Lord of the Flies foreshadowed Simon’s death because it shows how the chaos finally finds its way into Simon’s life; even though Simon tries his hardest to stay sane. Simon’s death is symbolic of two main ideas. After seeing the dead parachuter, the reality that the boys have been mislead to think that there is so much evil on the island that it hurts Simon emotionally, and this is the moment of the climax of the boy’s savagery. The boys have believed that

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544 Words | 3 Pages

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding demonstrates through Simon’s conversation with Ralph, his conversation with the Lord of the Flies, and the weather, that there is a beast inside all of us. Through these three events, Golding foreshadows Simon’s death, increasing the savagery, and leading to a decline in civilization. Through Simon’s conversation with Ralph, Golding foreshadowed Simon’s death on the island. Ralph was watching the body of water surrounding the island. Watching as the waves moved up and down, feeling hopeless and imagining a ship coming to rescue them.

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894 Words | 4 Pages

When Simon first encounters the Lord of the Flies, he realizes that it is a manifestation of the boys' fear and savagery. He thinks to himself, "Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you?" (Chapter 8).

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885 Words | 4 Pages

The first time Simon mentions this concept is at an assembly. He began by saying, “maybe it’s only us,” but struggled to express his ideas on, “mankind’s essential illness,” (Doc F). The next time the boys’ inner evil is brought up is during Simon’s hallucinatory conversation with the pig’s head, when Simon discovers the “beast” is only a dead parachutist. He then, “sets off, weak and staggering, to tell the other boys that the beast is human,” (Doc E). There is a duel meaning behind Simon’s statement.

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203 Words | 1 Pages

Simon’s role in Lord of the Flies is to resemble a Christ-like figure, when he eventually dies, the buried savagery in the boys is revealed. Simon is killed in a gruesome matter, which at the time the boys had “leapt on to beast, screamed, bit, struck, tore” (Golding 153). A group of children had decided to take it upon themselves to have a wonderful time tearing up another boy in the name of fun. The way in which the boys had killed Simon shows that they did not care whether or not they had weapons, the group had shown no mercy to the exhausted Simon. After Simon’s demise, two of the most innocent boys have a conversation of the previous night, that “‘It was an accident…

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645 Words | 3 Pages

At this time the boys did not know that it was Simon, they simply beat him because they were afraid and they assumed it was a monster. The godly figure that the boys fear in “The Lord of the Flies” is shadow on the mountain. The boys begin to fear the shadow. The boys begin to fear this shadow, and treat it almost as a God, they even begin to leave it offerings. In the chrysalids this figure is their God.

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830 Words | 4 Pages

Simon becomes aware of his internal cruelty when it manifests itself in hallucinatory forms as “The Lord of the Flies”. Simon at first lacks the understanding and cannot comprehend what is happening until the hallucination says “‘Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill!’ said the head. For a moment or two the forest and other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. ‘You knew didn’t you?

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886 Words | 4 Pages

No one else.’” (p.70) Good is mentioned, but not without the equivalent mention of evil, as shown through how the other boys abandoned the project to have fun. Throughout all of this, Simon, the most pure of the boys, is physically affected by evil through a disorder, presumed to be epilepsy. In chapter eight, the Lord of the Flies cause him to have a seizure and blackout because the personification of evil is too strong for Simon to handle.

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1122 Words | 5 Pages

In the chapter titled “Gift for the Darkness” Simon hears the sound of the flies buzzing around the Lord of the Flies. The buzzing sound is what causes Simon to have hallucinations. These hallucinations leads to Simon hearing the Lord of the Flies talking to him. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon that evil is within all the boys.

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492 Words | 2 Pages

While They didn't start out doing the right thingThe Christmas Carol has a lot of examples of being morally responsible and also doing the right thing in the end, along with lord of the flies. Christmas carols are morally responsible and do the right thing. The christmas carol starts off with scrooge not being nice but then he has a change of heart eventually when the ghosts of christmas past visit him and take him through his past, his present and his future. I chose Lord Of the flies from the literature we read this year because human nature was a big theme in Lord of the flies.

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585 Words | 3 Pages

Civilization means to be a part of a culture, to have a leader who takes power, and to be apart of orderly society. In the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Simon is the most civilized boy on the island because he has the most positive outlook out of every boy on the island, he is insightful of what and where the beast is, and, he is the first to realize most of the problems that occur on the island. Simon has the most positive outlook out of every boy on the island. Simon insisted multiple times that the boys would get rescued, even when Ralph strongly doubted the possibility.

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223 Words | 1 Pages

In William Golding’s book, Lord of the Flies, most of the characters demonstrate decision making that helps them in the moment, not ones that help in the long run. One of the few characters to act differently than this, is Simon. More than once, Simon has spoken and said things that almost suggest he knows what is to come. During one of the meetings that was held where they discussed the beast, Simon steps forward and offers the idea that the beast is only them (Golding 89). Later in the book, we learn that Simon is correct in his suggestion, and that the beast is only “mankind’s essential illness”, not some giant thing that wants to kill them all.

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309 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout the book, “The Red Badge of Courage,” there were many themes that were explored. Some of the themes included in the book was the definition of being a “man,” individual v. self, and growing maturity. The main theme in the book, however, is probably in the title itself: courage. Henry explores the meaning of courage throughout the book.

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1963 Words | 8 Pages

Entry 12: What was the Social Gospel movement? What was the Social Gospel movement? The Social Gospel movement affected much of Protestant America and the Presbyterians describe its goals in 1910. The goals were salvation of humankind, shelter and nurture to the children of god as well as the promotion of social righteousness.

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820 Words | 4 Pages

According to the University of Minnesota, his brain must have perceived all of the fear in the group of boys as negative and remembered it when he was tired, causing him to imagine the Lord of the Flies character. This quote is an example of Simon’s brain reacting to the signals from the amygdala, instead of rational processing. “They became motionless, gripped in each other’s arms, four unwinking eyes aimed and two mouths open” (Golding 98). Their unwavering fear of the beast magnified their experience from merely seeing the movement of the dead paratrooper to seeing a threat and consequently caused them to experience the sight before them more terrifying. Moreover, their fear has caused them to become incapacitated, according to the University of Minnesota, as they did not run away immediately after seeing the paratrooper that they perceived as the beast.

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1127 Words | 5 Pages

During Simon’s encounter with the Lord of the Flies, Golding reveals the central issue concerning human nature. Simon reaches the realization that they fear the beast because it exists within each of them. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon that the beast is inside each boy and cannot be killed. The boys go from behaving like civilized young men to brutal savages. “What I mean is…maybe it’s only us.”

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