Lord of the Flies Group

Question:

tink10
tink10
Student
College - Freshman

"Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind's essential illness" What does this mean? What is the "illness"?

(Ch.5,p.89)

Rate question:

Posted by tink10 on Thursday April 3, 2008 at 12:45 PM and tagged with illness, lord of the flies, quote, simon.

Answers:

  1. slshcolnik
    slshcolnik Teacher
    High School - 10th Grade

    Man's "essential illness" as presented by Golding, is man's inherent evil nature. This illness (man's tendency towards evil) is represented by the boys decent into violence and depravity - ultimately the death of Simon himself. Simon was the most intuitive of the group and saw that this starting to become a problem in the group. He just was not able to articulate - or find the words to explain - this to the rest of the boys. Even if he could, most likely the group would not have understood or cared about what Simon was saying.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/flies/character-analysis
    http://www.enotes.com/flies/overview

    Rate answer:

    Posted by slshcolnik on Saturday April 5, 2008 at 2:51 PM

  2. moniq16
    moniq16 Student
    High School - 10th Grade

    mankind's essential illness is the necessity to kill

    Rate answer:

    Posted by moniq16 on Saturday November 8, 2008 at 8:29 PM