Piggy Savagery

The book is filled with dark, gruesome moments. Moments that leave the reader with a destroyed faith in humanity. At surface value this is all true, but after looking deeper into the book many values are present. These value pertain to societal change and conformity. In the book, Piggy is the stereotypical fat boy with the glasses. The book portrays Piggy to be the victim of the society the boys have established on their small island. Despite what he has been through, Piggy makes an effort to contribute to the society the boys have built. The book says, “Piggy was … so full of pride in his contribution to the good of society … that he helped to fetch wood.” (Golding 186). The book also contains values of conformity for the better. The book tells of Jack who became upset with the tribe. He decides that he will break away from the tribe and invites everyone but Ralph to join him. One by one all the boys follow Jack to restart their society; leaving Ralph behind. The boys in the new tribe began to succeed more while Ralph begins to struggle. If Jack did not break away, then that success would have been

When Piggy is “crushed” and brings it up to him, Ralph reluctantly decides against “further insult”(27) and the dismisses him. Even Piggy, poor rational, bullied, bespectacled Piggy is aggressive in his mannerisms: “He said scornfully”, “Piggy watched him in disgust”(46), “daring, indignant, Piggy took the conch”(53), “Piggy lost his temper”(56), “cried Piggy indignantly”(57). And that’s just eleven pages. This isn’t only seen in the main characters. Towards the beginning of the book, the boys(first Ralph and Simon and then others) make fun of Jack for not be able to murder a pig. In other words, scorning him because he wasn’t violent enough. Furthermore, their scorn hurts Jack’s ego, resulting in this response: “he snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk. Next time there would be no mercy. He looked round fiercely, daring them to contradict.” (Golding 36) In Chapter 2, the majority surrounds Piggy to steal his glasses, which shows aggression and apathy. At the end of the book, everyone who isn’t dead(or Ralph) is in Jack’s tribe. With quotes such as, “Roger admired. ‘He’s a proper chief, isn’t he?’” when talking about boulder weaponry and ‘[Jack] got angry and made us tie Wilfred up. He’s been’—he giggled excitedly— ‘he’s been tied for hours,

The novel similarly shows the abuse of the weak for one’s own benefit. Jack is the abuser of Piggy throughout the book, but violently shows his tribes selfish need to steal Piggy’s glasses. Jack

Most people try, fail, and never try again, but not because of their capabilities but because of their personality. Piggy has great capabilities as well as a great personality, but throughout the novel, he has never really gotten the chance to reveal his great potential. Piggy is more logical and innovative than most of the boys stranded on that island. Unlike the other school boys, Piggy thinks practically about their situation and tries to reason with it as well as resolving it. On page 34, Piggy points out that no one knows where the boys are nor that a crash had happened by saying “Who knows we’re here?

As the novel progresses, we begin to see the irrationality becoming more and more evident as the glasses slowly break to pieces. Golding begins to use Piggy to

The thing is, the situation the boys are in is a life or death situation and it seems that only Ralph and Piggy are the ones that realize this. When jack left the group the rest of his understanding of survival where all lost except for hunting . Throughout, the story Jack becomes more and more power hungry, but now that he has gone wicked all he can think about is revenge toward his rival leader Ralph. “He’s going to beat Wilfred.” “What for?” Robert shook his head doubtfully. “I don’t know. He didn’t say. He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up. He’s been”—he giggled excitedly—“he’s been tied for hours, waiting—”(Golding, 159). From killing other striving animals, physically hurting piggy, and to tieing up wilfred to beat him. Jack is wicked in every way shape or form. Jack took advantage of his new position as leader on his group and went bloodthirsty. Then the monstrous red thing bounded across the neck and he flung himself flat while the tribe shrieked. The rock struck piggy a glancing blow from the chin the the knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt, traveled through the air sideways from the rock, turning over as he went (jack signals the boys to roll the boulder to go pummel the boys and ends up killing piggy) (Golding, 181).

In the novel the boys are removed from civilization and must learn to think for themselves. The character of Piggy is used to represent goodness and civilization. While the boys on the island must learn to govern themselves and freely choose their actions, Piggy’s naturally mature instincts, ingrained by civilization, begin to rationalize the situation and how the boys can work together to survive. Piggy’s beliefs and values were modeled on that of the authoritative adult world, what he assumed to be best. He enjoys contributing to a working civilization and for the good of society: “Piggy was […] so full of pride in his contribution to the good of society […] that he helped to fetch wood.” (8.118). Piggy’s human defect lies less in the recline into savagery, but rather his meekness to speak up for the greater good of the society. His intellect approach to life, modeled by the attitudes and rules of the adult world, is something he believes everyone should share. He is however weak and lacks the courage to stand up to the growing evil on the island. At castle rock Piggy attempts to stand up for himself against Jack after having his glasses stolen but he is unsuccessful. He

On page 40, Piggy snaps the boys back into reality. Such as, “Piggy put his glasses on. ‘Nobody knows where we are... Perhaps they knew where we was going to; and perhaps not. But they don’t know where we are ‘cos we never got there” (Golding 40).

The narrator shows how Piggy wants the boys to be involved in their government ideas with quotes like,“I take the conch to say that I can’t see without my glasses and I have to get them back” (192). Piggy’s glasses represent intelligence

Piggy’s glasses is the most powerful item on the island, which symbolize the knowledge and intelligence. In addition, it is also an important

Despite him being so intelligent he the most vulnerable from the book because of his poor eyesight, weight problems and asthma. By constantly quoting his aunt, he also provides the only feminine voice. Piggy's intellect benefits the group only through Ralph he acts as Ralph's advisor. Piggy tries to keep life scientific except for the incident, "searching for a formula" to explain the death.

This symbolized that piggy and the other kids would not get along what so ever and it also expressed his personality. He is also unsure about himself and respects what others people think about him the evidence behind this is because he yearns to be accepted by his peers. He has also lost all hope in people rescuing him. Unlike the other kids piggy is the only one who is still civilized and all the others turn into savages and bet each other up as the story states ‘’Samneric were savages like the rest; Piggy was dead, and the conch smashed to powder’’(Golden 268). But when Jacks tribe steals piggy’s glasses it renders him hopeless.

In society people affiliate intelligence with many things and one of them is glasses. People affiliate glasses with intelligence because it is a cultural stereotype. Piggy represents intelligence in the boys “society”. This society is being maintained by their leader Ralph, is in opposition to this “society”

Piggy is the most intelligent, rational boy in the group, and his glasses represent science and logical reasoning within society. When the boys use the lenses from Piggy's glasses to focus the sunlight and start a fire, it portrays intelligence. "The flash of his spectacles" (Golding 44), this quote explains how the flash from the sun helps the boys start a fire while using Piggy’s glasses. Then, Piggy’s glasses are broken after Jack returns from killing his first pig. The killing of the pig was one of the first of the savage like events, and the breaking of Piggy’s glasses represents their disconnection to civilization.

Although no one has admit that things are complete chaos yet, Piggy is the first to acknowledge the fact that society between the boys are ending. When Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric are passing around the conch, Piggy says, “I just take the conch to say this. I can’t see no more and I got to get my glasses back. Awful things has been done on this island. ”(170) Piggy sees losing his glasses as the end of civilization.