Monday 29 August 2011

The Beast's Threat: Who kills Simon?

As we very quickly covered this morning, in "Gift for the Darkness", the boys split into two groups, with Ralph's group hanging around the beach trying to keep a fire going, and Jack's group going hunting. Simon, not accepted by either Ralph or Jack, goes off alone to his secret place again, where he has an interesting conversation with the Lord of the Flies, who explicitly claims to be the beast, a claim that Simon is not so sure about - he contradict's the Lord of the Flies by telling it that it's just "a pig's head on a stick" (Golding & Epstein, 1954, p. 143). In response to this doubt, the Lord of the Flies gets angry and threatens Simon. It threatens to kill him if he keeps on thinking, reasoning and asking for evidence. More precisely, it's threat is that "we shall do you? See? Jack and Roger and Maurice and Robert and Bill and Piggy and Ralph. Do you. See?" (p. 144).

Sadly, in "A View to a Death", Simon continues to seek a true understanding of things by using reason and evidence, so the Lord of the Flies, the beast, acts on its threats: Simon is killed.

Who kills Simon?
Is the Lord of the Flies' detailed list of names at the end of "Gift for the Darkness" correct?

__________
References
Golding, W. & Epstein, E. (1954). Lord of the Flies. New York: Perigee.

6 comments:

  1. In my opinion, the list of names is not correct because we have to add Sam and Eric into the list.

    From Page 155-158, Ralph, Piggy, Sam, and Eric have suspicion. They try to say that they didn't stay in the dance, but from the suspicion, they are there.

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  2. Fai,
    I agree, both with your idea and your support for it.

    And the twins were in fact the originators of the killing dance after the first pig feast, which followed their disastrous neglect of the fire on Jack's orders in "Painted Faces and Long Hair" (p. 75).

    There is a lot of dancing before: Ralph dances, Jack dances, the butterflies dance, but it is the cheerful, fun loving and obediently law-abiding Samneric who take the lead in the first killing dance.

    I don't think anyone can escape guilt for Simon's death.

    And the beast appears again to terrify the boys immediately after they have all finished killing Simon, leaving them to rush "screaming into the darkness" (p. 153).

    And what then happens to the beast they have killed?
    What is the symbolism in the description that follows?

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  3. I agree with Fai. If the threatening by Lord of the Flies, at the end of "Gift for the Darkness" (p.144), is the answer of this question, so it's mean that the twins involve with Simon's death.

    References
    Golding, W. & Epstein, E. (1954). Lord of the Flies. New York: Perigee.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So I agree with NongFai, Peter and NongTang too :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree with Peter that everybody was involved in killing Simon.

    The beast they killed is actually Simon. He was carried by some fiery bright creatures toward the sea.

    The symbolism of the stars, the silver and the bright creatures is the halo of the saint, Simon.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you June,
    Yes, Simon's battered body is described as surrounded by light, especially his hair, like way Christian saints were traditionally depicted.

    I think the symbolism of the light, the beauty of marble used in classical sculpture, and the gentleness in Golding's description on page 154 works well by itself, but it helps to know the cultural background that June has provided.

    ReplyDelete

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