LotF: Piggy + Simon
Important quotes
Important Quotes
“What I mean is . . . maybe it’s only us”
Spoken during the meeting in which they question the existence of the beast
Simon is the first character who understands that the beast is innate and within. It is not physical but mental.
The other boys laugh at what he says and do not believe his point
“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! . . . You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are the way they are?”
LotF to Simon
These words confirm Simon's hypothesis
He taunts Simon using familiar, colloquial language
The idea of the evil of the beast being within the boys themselves is central to the novel and confirmed in this passage.
"Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, but by fat, and ass-mar, and specs, and a certain disinclination for manual labor.”
' (Simon saw) The picture of a human at once heroic and sick'
He loses his innocence when he realises the beast is within.
"As if... the beastie, the beastie or the snake-thing, was real. Remember?
Simon sees the boys really fear the beast although he believes they should fear themselves // the darkness within.
"We used [Piggy’s] specs...He helped that way"
He stands up for Piggy. He defends him and does not mock him like all other boys do.
"Acting like a crowd of kids!"
He is frustrated by the immaturity of the other boys.
He wants them to calm down, think rationally and use adult like instincts in their actions. It shows his mature side - Like Ralph
"What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What's grownups going to think?"
He already links savagery to the boys. Foreshadows
As the voice of intellect and reason he is ridiculed and ignored
"He’d hurt the next thing. And that’s me."
Piggy foreshadows his own death.
He knows Jack is capable of killing him