Lord Of The Flies; Chapter 8-9 – “A Gift For The Darkness”, “A View To A Death”

Chapter 8

I think that Simon talking to the Lord of the Flies, is one of the weirdest parts of the book. “They were black and iridescent green and without number; and in front of Simon, the Lord of the Flies hung on his stick and grinned. At last Simon gave up and looked back; saw the white teeth and dim eyes, the blood-and his gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable recognition.” This is one of the most disturbing lines in the book. Just the thought of a pig’s head on a stick is very creepy. I found it interesting how William Golding explains the whole them of the book through a conversation of two characters. It explained what the beast really was, the evil of human nature. As the conversation Simon starts to faint, “Simon’s head wobbled. His eyes were half closed as though he were imitating the obscene thing on the stick. He knew one of his times was coming on.” The Lord of the Flies also threatens Simon, and he falls unconscious. I found all this disgusting, because of the descriptions William Golding used. “The pile of guts was a black blob of flies that buzzed like a saw.” He clearly depicts the remains of the pig, disgusting and horrifying.

Chapter 9

I think all of Jack’s tribe killed Simon. “At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock leapt on the beast, screamed, struck, bit tore.” This proves that it wasn’t just Jack, but his whole tribe. The underlined word says the crowd, which meant all of Jack’s hunters. “No! How could we-kill-it?” Again, it uses “we”, which shows that more than one person killed Simon. So even if Jack killed Simon, it wasn’t all him. Besides the hunters, I also think that another thing played a role in Simon’s death. I believe that the evil of human nature, played a role in Simon’s death.