LOTF Thesis

Thesis: In Lord of the Flies, Golding parallels Simon to Jesus to contrast and significantly shine the spotlight on the rest of the boys' savage-like behavior.

Passage: "Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight, Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage, passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands. When he had satisfied them he paused and looked round. ... He came at last to a place where more sunshine fell. Since they had not so far to go for light the creepers had woven a great mat that hung at the side of an open space in the jungle; ... Then he bent down and wormed his way into the center of the mat." (56-57)

This passage is the first to truly show Simon's kindness to others. He is walking through the forest, and stops to feed hungry children who want his help. According to the Bible, Jesus also did this numerous times throughout his journeys. This contrasts the other boys' behavior, especially Jack's, who don't care about the littluns, and later suggest (maybe jokingly) that they kill the littluns for food. So instead of killing the littluns for food, Simon feeds them. Simon waits until they are all satisfied to go do what he wants to do.

Another significance of this passage is that this is the first time Simon is in his "special place." No one else knows about this, and Simon can kind of be at peace here. However, this is also the place where Simon meets the "beast". All the boys have their theory of what the beast is, whether it doesn't exist, it's a ghost,  or it comes from the water or air. Little do they know, as Simon finds out in this place, that the beast is a part of them.

Something worth mentioning – the next things that happen are: the kids throwing sand at Percival, Roge throwing rocks at Henry (sociopath!), and Jack painting his face for the first time to go on a hunt. This is all preceded by Simon feeding children and being at peace in the forest.