On the last page of William Golding's Lord of
the Flies, having been rescued by the naval officer from death at the hands
of Jack and the hunters who have descended to pure savagery, Ralph assesses what has
happened on the island where the boys have been stranded. Overcome with emotion, Ralph
begins to sob, weeping for what in themselves has been lost. Certainly, their
child-like innocence is gone, and Simon is dead. Ralph recognizes "the evil that men
do" [Julius Caesar] instrinsically; finally, he understands what it
has been about which Simon was inarticulate at the assembly held in Chapter Five. "The
darkness of man's heart" is a metaphor for Simon's
understanding of the evil that is inherent in human beings, an evil that is released
when the restraints of civilization are loosened or
removed.
As he remembers his wise friend, Piggy, Ralph
shakes and sobs, too. Poor Piggy, who was so cruelly killed by the sadistic Roger, "who
carried death in his hands" and sent the pink granite rock upon Piggy, striking him with
a blow from chin to knee. Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across a red
rock; his head opened and his arms and legs twitched in death. Then, the sea swept
Piggy's boy from Ralph's view. Piggy's death is
metaphorically expressed in Ralph's thoughts of his "fall
through the air."
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