Quotes from text-
"Surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea"(Golding 154).
In the Lord of the Flies there are several symbols that are very specific. The first symbol is Simon. Simon is Christ like. He goes off to meditate by himself and is a deep thinker. He is loving and good to the little children. He is also the one who is sacrificed after the boys go into a frenzy doing their ritual dance. When his body is washed out to sea, it has a certain inhuman like quality about it.
"The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee: the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt, traveled through the air sideways from the rock, turning over as he went. Piggy fell 40 feet and landed on his back across the the square red rock in the sea. His head opened and stuff came out and turned red. Piggy's arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pigs after it has been killed"(Golding 181).
This is an important quote from Lord of the Flies because this was truly one of the major turning points in the novel. When Piggy dies, the conch is smashed, signifying all the order and control and civilization in the story. Once the conch is smashed all chance of civility is gone to the point of no return. This also marks the end of rational thinking due to the fact that Piggy is the voice of reason.
"Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy" (Golding 202).
In Lord of the Flies the rescue is not a moment of joy and happiness for Ralph. He realizes that, although he is saved from death on the island, he will never be the same. He has lost his innocence and learned about the evil that lurks within all human beings. Ralph was weeping for the death of his friend, because he ultimately represented the last of the good that was left on the island. With his death there was nothing left but the darkness of human nature.
Literary CRITICISm Quote-
"When he(Simon) returns to tell his frightened, blood crazed companions that, in effect, they have nothing to fear but fear itself, his murder becomes the martyrdom of a saint and prophet, a point in human degeneration next to which the wanton killing of Piggy is but an anticlimax. In some of the novel's richest, most sensitive prose, the body of Simon is taken out to sea by the tide, Golding here reaching close to tragic exaltation as Simon is literally transfigured in death. With his mysterious touch of greatness Simon comes closest to foreshadowing the kind of hero Golding himself has seen as representing man's greatest need if he is to advance in his humanity-the Saint Augustines, Shakespears, and Mozarts, "inexplicible, miraculous."
Piggy, who, just before his own violent death, clutches at a rationalization for Simon's murder, has all the good and bad attributes of the weaker sort of intellectual. Despised by Jack and protected by Ralph, he is set off from the others by his spectacles, asthma, accent and very fat, short body. Freudin analysts would have Piggy stand as superego, but he is extremely id-directed toward food: It is Ralph who must try to hold him back from accepting Jack's pig meat, and Ralph who acts as strong conscience in making Piggy accept partial responsibility for Simon's death. Although ranked as one of the "biguns," Piggy is physically incapable and emotionally immature. The logic of his mind is insufficient to cope with the human problems of their coral-island situation. But this insight into him is fictionally blurred-denied to the Ralphs of this world, who (as on the last page of the novel) weep not for Simon, but for "the true, wise friend called Piggy."
Piggy, who, just before his own violent death, clutches at a rationalization for Simon's murder, has all the good and bad attributes of the weaker sort of intellectual. Despised by Jack and protected by Ralph, he is set off from the others by his spectacles, asthma, accent and very fat, short body. Freudin analysts would have Piggy stand as superego, but he is extremely id-directed toward food: It is Ralph who must try to hold him back from accepting Jack's pig meat, and Ralph who acts as strong conscience in making Piggy accept partial responsibility for Simon's death. Although ranked as one of the "biguns," Piggy is physically incapable and emotionally immature. The logic of his mind is insufficient to cope with the human problems of their coral-island situation. But this insight into him is fictionally blurred-denied to the Ralphs of this world, who (as on the last page of the novel) weep not for Simon, but for "the true, wise friend called Piggy."
Literary CRITICISM explained
Simon, a Christ figure is one of the only characters in the novel who displays true morals and can understand the difference between right and wrong. The irony prevails in which out of sheer coincidence as Simon is coming back to tell the group that there is no monster and how it was all a hoax the boys mistake Simon for the monster and brutally assault him to death. Piggy, the voice of reason, understood the situation of survival and the importance of sticking together, the others didn't and because Piggy spoke his mind that eventually led to his own demise. Both Piggy and Simon were looked at different ways and considered outcasts but ultimately put on this world for the same cause in that of which to display that in actuality there is good in mankind and there is hope to change from the savage nature.