Towards the end of chapter eight, Simon comes face-to-face with the severed pig's head impaled on a sharpened stick in the middle of his secluded spot in the forest. Simon proceeds to hallucinate and listens to the Lord of the Flies identify itself as the "beast." The Lord of the Flies begins by referring to Simon as a "silly little boy" and instructs him to "run off and play with the others" so he doesn't come off as "batty." The Lord of the Flies then confirms Simon's belief regarding the true nature of the beast by saying, "Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!" (Golding, 206). The Lord of the Flies then takes credit for the boys' increasingly savage behavior and threatens Simon by telling him that there is no way to escape and the boys will "have fun" on the island "or else."
Since the Lord of the Flies embodies evil and its translated name is Beelzebub, its idea of fun is violent, hostile behavior, which is extremely dangerous and barbaric. During Simon's interaction, the Lord of the Flies confirms that the real beast is the inherent wickedness present in each boy. This contributes to Golding's primary theme concerning the evil nature of mankind. The beast is not a tangible creature like many thought, which confirms Simon's belief and contributes to his Christ-like representation. Unlike the other boys, Simon possesses the wisdom to recognize the truth. The Lord of the Flies also tells Simon that there is no escaping and that he will only find the beast among the other boys. This proves true, as Simon is brutally murdered by the boys when he attempts to inform them about the deceased paratrooper on the mountaintop.
Simon is often seen as a Christlike character in this novel. He is kind and gentle and does not become involved in the violence which consumes the other boys. He tends to the needs of the youngest children, much like a shepherd tending to his sheep. Although he is an innocent boy, he is eventually required to offer his body as a sacrifice to the group of boys who seek a violent death for him.
This scene, therefore, is often interpreted as an allegory for Christ's temptation in the desert. In Matthew 4, the devil leads Christ into the desert after he has fasted for forty days and forty nights. He tells Christ to turn rocks into bread if he is indeed the son of God. Christ refuses. The devil then offers Christ all the kingdoms of the world if he worships him instead of God.
The Lord of the Flies tells Simon that there "isn't anyone to help [him]." The Lord of the Flies conveys that he represents evil itself, telling Simon that he should be afraid of his presence and questioning why he thought the Beast was something he could "hunt and kill." Instead, the Lord of the Flies asserts that he is a part of all of the...
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boys and is the reason that "things are what they are" on this island. He is seemingly able to read Simon's mind and tells him that if he tries to return to the group, he will "only meet [The Lord of the Flies] down there."
Simon himself suffers from dehydration at this point—his mouth is dry, and his is tongue swollen. He loses consciousness at the end of this "conversation." Indeed, when he does return to the group, he faces evil itself and is murdered by the group of boys for sins he never committed.
In a commentary that Golding gave about his reason for writing his story about a group of boys instead of a group of girls, or even a mixture of boys and girls, he stated that he wanted to write a story about what would happen if a group was stranded on an island--it would be a boiled down version of society, and Golding claimed that he could do that with boys, not girls.
Where does this commentary fit in with the question? In Simon's vision, he sees the other part of humanity, the evil side, the side that questions everything and reveals only a pessimistic view of the world. Golding claims in this novel that evil can win in the end if we allow it; if we do not listen to reason and compassion, represented by Piggy and Ralph, respectively, then evil, represented by Jack, will overcome the rest who are not strong enough to resist it.
Simon's conversation with the beast is imagined and comes from within himself, which is where, of course, the beast is in everyone. As Simon imagines a conversation with the pig's head, the Lord of the Flies, it tells him, “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! . . . You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? When the beast tells Simon he is part of him, Simon understands. This leads the beast to reveal that the reason they haven't been able to do anything is because the beast is part of them. Their characters are too flawed with evil. Nevertheless his conversation with the beast within himself foreshadows events that will occur later. For instance, at the end of the chapter, Simon imagines that he falls into the mouth of the beast as he slips into his seizure. This foreshadows the violence that will later consume him and the others as they slip into beast-like savagery.