Journal Entry #4 (Simon)

Simon

Now that we have been here on this island for a couple of weeks everything starts to get worse. The littluns fear an imaginary beast and the biguns, even Ralph, fear Jack. But it is another thing that makes me feel afraid: Today they (Jack, his hunters and Ralph) did something that reminded me of religious rites. They danced and chanted and pretended that Roger was a pig and pretended to stab him with their wooden spears. Robert cried with fear but they didn't seem to care. Even Ralph, who is one of the more intelligent ones on this island, took part in this game. Today there was a kind of excitement in the air that drove people mad.
What would they do if they had really killed him? Would they even care? And, yet more important, what are they able to do? Will they really take a littlun, like Jack said? Will they kill a human being?


I hope that we will be rescued soon. I can’t cope with this any longer. To be on an island together with foolish boys who think that they are adults and that their actions are reasonable. I don’t know how to tell them any longer that we won’t be rescued if there is no fire on the mountain. And there will be no fire as long as they believe that there is a beast on the mountain. How can I show them that the beast only exists in their imagination? That the only beasts in this island are some of us? What can I do to help the littluns and Piggy?

This is the journal of Simon, another boy who was stranded on the island. Now, Simon was a very symbolical person, he saw things differently throughout the story. The setting of the journal was after the introduction to the beast had already happened, which was a huge part in the story. It also talks about his reaction to Ralph and the others' action on Robert, when they were re-enacting a hunt. Simon was the person who was also very sensible in the book, though he may be a little delusional, he knew what to do, and how to do it. 

I just thought of Simon as a boy who frowned towards conjured up things like the "beast". He also reacts negatively towards nonsense like what Ralph and his group did towards Robert, which the hurt him, forgetting that Robert was human and not the sow.