Explore The Character and symbolic significance of Simon Essay

After the end of the Second World War, novelists had fighting time writing on events that had just happened. It made a lot of writers think deeply about mankind and themselves. One of these writers was William Golding who Lieutenant in command of a rocket ship; his first novel was an allegory called â€Å"Lord Of The Flies† published in 1954 it asks the question is humanity all evil/self-destructive. Through out the book mankind is portrayed in a very pessimistic way. The characters in the novel reflect a particular part of humanity Jack reflects dictatorship and he creates a division between the group of children, very cleverly he becomes the leader of a ‘tribe’ of animalistic savages that remind the reader of early man in its time. The ‘Littleuns’ symbolises the vulnerable in society, Simon, on the other hand, is their ‘saviour’ he picks the ‘Littleuns’ fruit from the trees, which they cannot reach. He represents the spiritual aspect of humanity. Simon as a character is a caring and compassionate child who has not a bad intention in his mind. He is not govern by the negative human traits that influence our day to day reactions; human traits such as aggression or hate red even to the children that treat him badly, he treats all the children equal and helps them when ever it is need. An example is when he helps the ‘littleuns’, ‘Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach,†¦, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands’. Simon or though his caring and compassion, he is quiet inarticulate, this is his only weakness, he finds it extremely difficult to communicate with the other children, this has an extremely bad effect on his ability to change the events on the island. Although his wisdom he never mangers to show the others how he could change the mistakes they make. He is physically weak and doesn’t really take part in the greatly physical activities. At the beginning of the novel, as they all meet at the platform, you find out that he has fits, so he is epileptic or has a disability similar to that. He sometimes tries to interact with the other children but he feels the pressured of personality, on his views on the island and the beast, an example is when he says the wrong thing. â€Å"What’s the dirtiest thing there is?† â€Å"Simon. He helps†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"Simon’s always about† This quotation describes how Simon lives in peace with the island and all the children on it. Simon is the only one with unreal view and the beast he is genuinely different to all the others. But he still mangers to live in peace with everyone, even ‘Jack’ he mangers to get on with, there not friends as such, but the don’t really bother each other. Does with show that the other children can see that’s he is different and is some who respected because of this? Or though Simon does live in peace with all the others he is still treated and considered as an outsider by them all this is one of the unfortunate affects of being different, no matter how wise or intuitive you are. This is so easily sensed in the quote, when jack and Ralph go to find Simon. † He’s queer. He funny† They don’t not like him they just realise that Simon is total Different to them selves. The one thing about how the children see Simon is that it changes though the novel and by the end, most of the children, not all of them but a proportion of them, respect him and are quite fond of him. Simon, you can tell is instantly different to the rest of the boys, his absolutely wise view on the beast and island. But William Golding in this novel made him more than just a mere boy he represent intuitive thought, this is to say that he get his knowledge from nowhere really he just know it’s, When he is talking about the beast existents â€Å"What I mean†¦.maybe its only us† No child really think that way, William Golding is making it so that he symbolises Intuitive thought but it doesn’t end there. At one time as he goes to prove the beasts inexistent, it reach’s it climax when he meets an ‘the lord of the flies†, he has an encounter with the pigs head on a stick, the creature is crawling with flies hence calling it ‘the lord of the flies’. â€Å"Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill!†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"You knew, didn’t you? I’m a part of you?†