The Character of Simon in Lord of the Flies

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Explore the ways a minor character is presented in Lord of The Flies

Golding creates all his character to help him portray his idea of human nature and the character of Simon is no exception to this. Although a minor character he is still crucial in William Goldings’ story of ‘Lord of The Flies’. Simon is used to represent the truth to human nature and to act as extrasensory character into human natures raw state and some even say the character Simon portrays many characteristics similar to those demonstrated by Jesus Christ.

Simon first appears in the first chapter as the “choir boy who had fainted” and Golding has presented him like this to illustrate to the reader that Simon is very different from the other boys in the novel. He has a physical frailty, which allows the reader to understand from the offset that Simon is not going to be able to go along with the other boys in the activities, so already the reader gets a sense that Simon is quite a solitary character, which is something that becomes clearer later on. Simon faints due to the heat of the island and by having Simon affected so quickly the reader can see that it is clear Simon will probably be one of the most affected by the island.

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Simon is different from the other boys not only due to his physical frailty, manifested in his fainting spells, but also in his “consistently expressed concern” for the more vulnerable boys. “Littluns follow him”, and he, Simon, finds “for them the fruit they could not reach”. It is interesting that Golding has chosen to present Simon in this way, as though he is almost a saint-like a figure, a much gentler and caring character than the other boys in the book and he is the only one from the original choir boys who has a good nature. As the novel ...

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