Lord of the Flies Essay - Piggy

Lord of the Flies Essay- Piggy

Lord of the flies is a novel which was written in the 1950’s and explains “The end of innocence and the darkness of man’s heart”. The main theme of the book is Golding’s beliefs that without rules and society man has the power and the will power to become evil and immoral. Golding’s way of showing this was putting a group of young school children on an idyllic island with no adults or society. At first they try and model their existence on that they know of and try and place in rules and democracy so they feel like they are at home, and more at ease. Eventually though everything falls apart and their island descends into anarchy, and they begin to gain the state of mind which enables them to kill anything that goes against them.

Piggy is one of the main characters of the book and we are introduced to him quite early on in the story, the first time we see him is in the first chapter of the book when he emerges out of the forest. The first descriptions of Piggy give us quite a good idea of what sort of person he is. He appears to be an outsider and have very little social standing with the other boys. He is described as being over-weight, having glasses, very clever, lower class, also he is asthmatic, all of these things add up to the other boys not taking any notice of him and him being left out of discussions or any main tasks. The first person who Piggy encounters is Ralph and immediately he looks up to Ralph as a leader, and so Ralph looks down onto Piggy as he talks with a lower class accent and Ralph thinks that he is better than Piggy. Ralph is the person who finds the conch but Piggy is the one who has to explain to Ralph what it is, however Ralph is the one with the authority to blow it and group together all of the boys and call him self the leader although he comes under strong competition form a boy called Jack Merridew who is the leader of the choir. Piggy latches onto Ralph and gives him ideas on what to say as the other boys wouldn’t ever listen to Piggy but would to Ralph. This shows Piggy’s intelligence.

In the second chapter Ralph calls a meeting together to try and set some down rules, this is the beginning of them trying to create society. Piggy wants to put things in order and try to help their chances of being rescued and then Ralph suggests that they make a signal fire so that passing ships can spot them. When they have collected up all of the wood and constructed a fire, they discover they have no means of lighting the fire, so they turn to Piggy’s glasses to help and they use them to light the fire, so Piggy becomes essential to their survival as he is the only one with any means of lighting the fire which they need. When they have lit the fire, Piggy gets anxious that they have not yet constructed shelters to live in, and blames Jack and the other boys for not looking ahead and planning what things are most important. During the days Jack takes out his choir to help him hunt whilst leaving Ralph alone with Simon to try and construct the shelters for them to live in, but the hunters spent the day swimming which means they have no meat and Piggy doesn’t think this is very good. I think that on the island Piggy is seen as the mother figure as he is the one with the common sense and knows what things have to be done for their survival on their stay as Piggy realises that they cannot

be rescued unless they are organised “How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper”. This could be one of the reasons for the rebellion against him as the other children don’t want any parental or adult figures on the island with them.

After a while the boys get used to the routine on the island and Jack and the hunters hunt all day while the “littluns” collect fruit to eat, and Ralph and Simon try and finish the shelters. Piggy who is considered an outsider and is obviously not made for physical work, so tries to use his intelligence by making a sundial which they could tell the time with. Piggy is ever growing further and further away form the group “Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent which did not matter, but by fat and ass-mar and specs and a certain disinclination for manual labour”. During one day a ship passes by the island but does not notice them as the fire has been left to die out, Piggy blames Jack for letting the fire go out and then Jack punches Piggy and breaks one of his glasses lenses, this is one of the small steps to outlaw as back in the school no body would ever do anything like this. When Ralph tries to stick up for Piggy after jack hits him it only pushes Jack and Ralph further apart and increases their conflict. When Jack and the hunters eventually kill a pig they behave like savages and make up a chant which they sing whilst dancing around the fire “kill the pig.