With the death of Simon in Chapter Ten of Lord
of the Flies, the soul of the group has been removed. Without his intuitive
powers, the recognition of the evil that is within them cannot now be admitted.
Symbolic of this myopia in the boys is Piggy's sense of seeing more clearly now if he
"removed his glasses and shifted the one lens to the other eye." As the "green light"
and the patches of sunshine "played over their befouled bodies," Ralph shivers with the
recognition that the boys in their frenzy have murdered Simon. But, when Ralph calls
the incident of the previous night "murder," Piggy become agitated, "You stop it!" he
yells at Ralph. Piggy cannot admit to himself that the boys have so degenerated that
they now murder. Instead, he rationalizes,
"It was dark....There was the lightning and
thunder and rain. We was scared!...Anything might have happened. it wasn't --what you
said."
But, Ralph persists.
"Don't you understand, Piggy? The things we did--" Piggy does not want to understand;
rather, he suggests that Simon may have just pretended. But, his voice "trailed off at
the sight of Ralph's face." For, he knows. Somehow, Piggy cannot accept what has
happened. So he attempts to explain, "I was an accident." Then, he accuses Simon as he
says that Simon had no "business crawling around in the dark. "He asked for it." Then
he changes, "It was an accident."
What bothers Piggy other
than the tragic death of Simon, is his and Ralph's participation in the dance. For this
reason, he tells Ralph not to let on that they were at the dance. Piggy has seen within
himself and within Ralph what Simon has warned against.
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