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Unit 26: William Golding — Lord of the Flies: Detailed Study of Text-II

he is the only boy to discover the truth about the supposed beast. This irony is compounded Notes
when Jack’s hunters mistake Simon for the beast himself. His murder represents the culmination
of the violent tendencies prevalent among Jack’s band of hunters, who finally move from
brutality against animals to brutality against each other. The change is subtle: they murder
Simon out of instinct, descending on him before they realize that he proves no danger to them.
Nevertheless, this is yet another line that the boys cross on their devolution into inhuman
savagery and another step toward engaging in complete and premeditated violence against
one another. Simon’s murder reveals the essential brutality of the human spirit. On both
metaphoric and structural levels, Golding casts Simon as a martyr, a figure whose death is
instructive at least to the reader.
The parallels between Simon and Christ continue even after Simon is dead. We may note not
only the religious subtext of the chapter’s final image, but the distinctly pessimistic tone of
this subtext. The storm simultaneously removes the parachutist’s and Simon’s bodies from the
island. Yet, while the parachutist appears to ascend on the winds, Simon is dragged under the
tide. The parachutist, who represents both the war that caused the events that brought the
children to the island (he is a soldier) and, in a more general sense, the evil that is present in
the human psyche (he resembles a fallen angel, a common figure for Satan), is lifted into the
sky, while Simon, a Christ-like figure, appears to descend beneath the surface of the earth. The
image, therefore, reverses the traditional story, with Satan rising to the heavens and Christ
descending to the underworld. The implication is that the ideal order of good and evil has
been reversed on the island. Evil has triumphed, a suggestion that mirrors Jack’s rise to power
and foreshadows the even more tragic events to come. Still, a vestige of optimism remains:
Simon’s body, as it is carried out to sea, is surrounded by some small glowing fish, who
function as a kind of living halo. They do not necessarily want to eat the body; perhaps they
are figuratively honoring it. The implication is that the truth of Simon’s message, and the
injustice of his death, will be recognized in time, as is the case with martyred prophets and
saints.

Chapter Ten: The Shell and the Glasses

Back on the other side of the island, Ralph and Piggy meet on the beach. Tired, injured, and
disturbed by the previous night’s action, they discuss Simon. Piggy reminds Ralph that he is
still chief or at least chief over those who are still with them. Piggy tries to stop Ralph from
dwelling on Simon’s murder by appealing to Ralph’s reason. Piggy says that he participated
in the murder because he was scared, to which Ralph replies that he was not scared. He does
not know what came over him. Piggy tries to justify the death as an accident provoked by
Simon’s “crazy” behavior, but Ralph, clutching the conch defensively, is consumed with guilt
and regret and insists that they took part in a murder.
Piggy asks Ralph not to reveal to Samneric that they were involved in Simon’s death. Ralph
and Piggy reveal that almost all the other boys have abandoned them for Jack’s tribe save
Samneric and some other littluns. Samneric return to the beach, where they present Ralph and
Piggy with a log they have dragged out of the forest. They immediately take off to go swimming.
Ralph stops the twins with the intention of informing them that he and Piggy did not participate
in Simon’s murder. All four appear nervous as they discuss where they were the previous
night, trying to avoid the subject of Simon’s murder. All insist that they left early, right after
the feast.
At Castle Rock, Roger is attempting to gain entry to Jack’s camp. Robert, already inside, makes
Roger announce himself before he can enter-one of Jack’s new rules. When Roger enters,
Robert shows him a new feature of Jack’s camp: the boys have rigged a log so that they can
easily trigger a rock to tumble down and crush whatever is below it. Roger appears disturbed

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