simon

• "Simon reached for them the fruit they could not reach"


  Biblical allusion to "fruit" upon the Edenic island demonstrates Simon as a Christ-like figure who acts as an allegory for saintliness and omnibenevolence.
• "Just a place I know. A place in the jungle."

  • Simon's affinity with nature - does not involve himself in hunting and instead retreats to 'Simon's Church'
  • antithetical to Jack who destroys nature
• "Maybe there is a beast. Maybe it's only us."


  anaphora highlights how Simon attempts to rationalise his divine understanding of the evil of mankind - tentativeness connotes the subtlety of Simon's didactic message
• "batty" "queer" "funny" "crackers"


  repeated slurs are used to alienate Simon from the rest of the boys - both Piggy and Simon fail to conform to savagery and are killed
• "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!"


  monosyllabic chant - the ritualistic sparagmos of Simon is a didactic vehicle for Golding's bleak outlook on life and his belief that human nature was decaying in the post-war era
• Golding uses the ritualistic sparagmos of Simon in the novel to represent the boys' completion of their degeneration from civilisation to social breakdown
• Simon is the only character on the island who is entirely resistant to savagery, depicting him a a beacon of civility amongst barbarism.
• Simon is a Christ-like figure who is sacrificed like Jesus Christ, but unlike Christ, Simon's death does not cleanse the boys of their sins because they refuse deliverance