Lord Of The Flies: Simon, The Christ Figure
References to various religions in novels are made to help the
author illustrate to the reader the situation in which he has placed his
characters. In The Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses biblical
allusion to enhance the reader's perspective on the story. In events and
metaphors, the character Simon stands out as the Christ figure, and the
Beast plays the part of the Devil.
As Simon is out walking, he comes across a group of small children
trying to reach fruit hanging from the higher branches of the tree. Here,
the littluns who had run after him had caught up with him. They talked,
cried out unintelligibly, lugged him toward the trees. Then, amid the roar
of the bees ...
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from the others to be alone and begins to have feelings that
something is wrong. He starts to have premonitions of the Beast: The Lord
of the Flies.
When the boys set off in a party to find the Beast on the mountain,
Simon starts to see a vision of what they will find.
Simon . . . felt a flicker of incredulity -- a beast with claws that
scratched, that sat on a mountain-top, that left no tracks and yet was no
fast enough to catch Samneric. However Simon thought of the beast, there
rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and
sick. (103)
Simon has a direct premonition of one of the physical manifestations of the
Beast. He later finds that "the Beast" is a dead paratrooper. Christ was
also known to be a profit and to predict works of the Devil. Simon
predicting the instances of the beast conjures thoughtful feelings in him,
and leads Simon to contemplate his situation through silent thinking, or
meditation.
Before he ...
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he looks around and can see something on the top of
the mountain. On the top, he finds the dead paratrooper. He quickly loses
strength, falls once. and begins to be sick at the sight of the decaying
corpse: the truth of the Beast. He then takes the tangled lines of the
paratrooper and sets them free from the rock which holds them. As he turns
around, he sees the entire camp along the beach, with nearly all of the
children there. As he starts down the mountain, he staggers and falls a
second time, as did Christ when he bore his cross, his burden of truth, to
the hill. He then begins his descent.
When Simon comes from the forest to the beach, the hunters are
engaged in ...
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Lord Of The Flies: Simon, The Christ Figure. (2004, May 15). Retrieved November 3, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Lord-Of-Flies-Simon-Christ-Figure/7881
"Lord Of The Flies: Simon, The Christ Figure." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 15 May. 2004. Web. 3 Nov. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Lord-Of-Flies-Simon-Christ-Figure/7881>
"Lord Of The Flies: Simon, The Christ Figure." Essayworld.com. May 15, 2004. Accessed November 3, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Lord-Of-Flies-Simon-Christ-Figure/7881.
"Lord Of The Flies: Simon, The Christ Figure." Essayworld.com. May 15, 2004. Accessed November 3, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Lord-Of-Flies-Simon-Christ-Figure/7881.
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