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new entry on 28th july 2002
Lai Hew Wing Sec 4B Literature CA Term 3 Lord of the flies Discuss the contributions of the following characters to the book as a whole: a) Simon b) Roger. a) Simon is a skinny, vivid boy. He is a saint-like figure, like Christ, who tries to save his fellow friends but his reward is death. Simon is close to nature and considered ‘different’ from the others. His quiet personality makes the other boys find it difficult to communicate with him. However, like Christ, he had his followers. The littluns like to follow him because he is caring and compassionate. Simon helped them pick the ripe fruits that they could not reach. Simon is also sensitive to both nature and people. When Ralph reprimands Piggy for not helping to look after the signal fire, Simon told Ralph that Piggy helped with his specs; the signal fire was made possible because there was his specs. Simon also helped Ralph build shelters while the others went playing and hunting. He volunteered to go back to the shelters to inform Piggy that Ralph and the others would be back after dark, during the time when they decide to climb the mountain to see if there was really a beast. It was Simon who found out that the known ‘beast’ to the others was actually a dead parachutist, tangled by the strings of the parachute, on a tree. He even helped to untangle the strings and the dead parachutist was allowed to float out into the sea. Simon, after his encounter with the sow’s head (known as the Lord of the flies), impaled on a stick near his hideout, realised that there was actually no beast and that the beast is actually in them, themselves. Upon knowing this ‘truth’, he rushes off to tell Ralph and the others but only got killed, just like Christ. Although Simon was killed terribly, his death was a beautiful one. He is known to have a halo on his head as he floats out to sea. b) Roger is more of like Jack. He represents the evil side of mankind. Roger had turned savage during his stay on the island under the influence of Jack. Roger is seen to be destructive when he kicks the sandcastle the littluns have built on the beach. He began to paint his face, and made barbs on the spears he uses to hunt for pigs. During one of the hunts, when they spotted and caught a sow, Roger was one of them who killed and torture the pig mercilessly. He leaned his whole weight on the spear which he pokes into its flesh, leaving the helpless sow squealing in pain. He even played with the sow’s blood after that. Roger was also involved in the murder of both Simon and Piggy, the two civilised people on the island, the representation of the adult-world. He was the one who pushed the huge rock towards where Piggy was standing, during the time when Ralph and Piggy went to get Piggy’s specs back. Piggy and the conch were both squashed. Roger was also one of those who helped in stealing the half-burnt branches from Piggy and Ralph when Jack’s tribe needed fire to cook the sow they had just hunted. Roger, who had completely lost his sense of civilisation, together with Jack and his tribe, chased after Ralph and wanted his life, towards the end of the book. Roger calls Jack chief and helps him carry out his sadistic acts, including the threatening of Sam’n’eric and he forced them to reveal Ralph’s hiding place.
Literature: Lord of the Flies ‘O’ level 2001 paper
1c(ii) In what ways is this incident important in what happens later in the novel? Remember to refer closely to other relevant incidents. The boys acted cruelly towards the sow by torturing her, ‘ prodding with his spear whenever pig flesh appeared.’ The cruelty which they obtained pleasure from, leads to many other killings. One such example is the killing of Simon whom they accidentally killed without any guilty conscience. Although the boys knew that they had mistaken Simon for the beast, they just would not admit that they had killed Simon and some of the boys were not even bothered with the murder. Another killing, which was ruthless and uncompassionate, was the death of Piggy. From evidence in the passage, the boys have learnt how to kill and to become ruthless. One such example is the manner in which they killed the sow. Instead of killing the sow instantly, the boys chose to kill it in a slow and torturous manner, which brought pleasure to them, ‘ The spear moved forward inch by inch and the terrified squealing became a high pitched scream.’ This event eventually lead to Piggy’s death whereby he was killed unsympathetically by Roger when he pushed a rock over and therefore killing Piggy as he was crushed by the rock and fell to his death. The event also led to the stealing of Piggy’s specs by Jack and his hunters when they killed the sow and needed a fire to have the sow cooked. This in turn brought about much conflict between the two separate groups, Jack’s group and Ralph’s group. This event also creates a mindset within the boys that being savages is perfectly legal and normal on the island and civilization does not imply on the island when Jack killed the sow by slitting the throat which made his hands all bloody. He was not at all bothered and concerned by the blood on his hands and even smeared it on Maurice’s cheeks which again emphasizes the onset of savagery in the boys. An event, which could support this, was the fire that was set by Jack and his hunters to kill Ralph in the last part of the novel. They went around the forest, which Ralph hid to hunt him down as they felt that he was a threat to them. It was something similar towards hunting a pig when they used their hunting instincts and techniques on Ralph. They finally set a fire on the forest in their pursuit to kill Ralph in the fire, which again emphasizes their evilness and ruthlessness for not even considering a human life. Done By: Andrew Foo(29) Class: 4B
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