Essay Focus on Simon – ‘Lord of the Flies.’
Read from ‘Towards midnight...’ to the end of Chapter 9. Contrast this description of Simon’s beatification to the previous description of his murder. How is Simon’s role in the Novel captured by this extract?
The description of Simon’s murder and the description of his final journey out to sea after his death are completely different to each other. In the first, the boys brutally murder Simon because they think he is the beast. In the second, Simon is beatified and martyred as his body is carried out to sea.
When the boys murder Simon, Golding’s use of language helps to create the sense of crowd mentality that the boys are feeling as the storm around them grows. Language such as ‘unbearable noise,’ ‘explosion,’ and ‘abominable,’ give the impression that the storm is deafening the boys, and that the cacophony of sound is contributing to the sense of hysteria that is driving the boys to their actions. In comparison to this, the use of language in the description of Simon’s beatification is much softer, and gives the reader a sense of calm, in contrast to the feeling of agitation in the description of Simon’s murder. For example, there is a wide use of language suggesting light in the description, such as, ‘phosphorescence,’ moonbeams,’ and ‘brightness.’ This gives the reader the idea that Simon is being watched over by God, or a higher being, and therefore suggesting that God is accepting Simon’s body as a martyr.