Savagery in Lord of the Flies and City of God Essay

Piggy lectured them by asking how they could "…expect to be rescued if [they] don't put first things first and act proper?" (45), which is something they did not want to hear, this was proven time and time again when the boys not let him speak without interruption even when he had the conch shell. Piggy's greatest asset was also his weakest point; the only way he could relate to the other boys was at an intellectual level, whereas the other boys could only relate on an emotional level. Ironically, in spite of his intelligence and logic, rational thought, from the beginning of the novel, Piggy was a social outcast.

From the beginning of the book, Piggy is represented as a realist and pragmatic character. The boys are stranded on the island with no adults, yet throughout the book, Piggy acts as an adult. Everything Piggy does is well thought out, and logical. He is the ‘brains behind the operation’. We see this throughout the book. clearly, Piggy is a static character. Piggy continues to have faith in technology and uses his brains to help everyone, and that’s how he is from beginning to end.

He also tells Ralph how to use the conch from when he saw it before. Piggy initially discovers the conch. The conch was at the bottom of the lagoon. Piggy suggests that Ralph uses it to call the boys. Throughout the novel piggy was very smart but was overlooked. Throughout the novel he represented a meritocracy.

Piggy’s physical appearance contributes to his position as an outsider within the society of boys. When Piggy and Ralph first meet, Ralph remarks on Piggy’s shortness of breath to which Piggy responds, ¨ That’s right. Can’t catch my breath. I was the only boy in our school what had asthma, said the fat boy with a touch of pride, ‘And I’ve been wearing specs since I was three¨ (Golding 9). This quote describes Piggy as a fat boy with asthma and glasses, while the other boys are skinny and do not share any of the same characteristics as him. In addition, the author contributes to the outcasting Piggy by never revealing his real name and only describing Piggy as the “fat boy.” This proves that in this society, Piggy is not worth getting to

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?

Piggy’s personality and beliefs also connect him to the “adult world” in this novel. He wants to enforce rules so that everything is in a set order. He shows his organization and order through the use of the conch. Piggy had the brilliant idea that when you have the conch only you can talk. This made it so that he and others would have a chance to talk and the others would listen. The conch also is a big form of unity as it requires them to gather. Piggy realizes quickly that they need to stick together if they want to

Piggy in The Lord of the Flies was a very smart, yet unheard, voice. He was a friend to Ralph, and if listened, to he probably would have changed the outcome of the book. In Lord of the Flies, Piggy can be seen as an outcast in three different ways. The first way was that he was never able to talk. He was never given attention, and had to demand attention even with the conch. The next way was how he was excluded from physical activities because of his “ass-mar”. The final way is how unimportant he was as a person compared to how important his belongings and ideas are.

“There are too many people, and too few human beings.” (Robert Zend) Even though there are many people on this planet, there are very few civilized people. Most of them are naturally savaged. In the book, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, boys are stranded on an island far away, with no connections to the adult world. These children, having no rules, or civilization, have their true nature exposed. Not surprisingly, these children’s nature happens to be savagery. Savagery can clearly be identified in humans when there are no rules, when the right situation arouses, and finally when there is no civilization around us.

In the beginning of the Lord of the Flies we are introduced to two young boys, who have survived a tragic plane crash. The aircraft was an evacuation plane and it was transporting the group of boys out of England. One of the boys named Piggy is trying to catch up to the other boy, Ralph. Piggy is described as being very fat and shorter than Ralph. He wears “thick spectacles” (William Golding 7) and he is the first to determine that they are on an island. Piggy is also the one that knows how to use the conch shell and comes up with the use of it, which is to call everyone else to the beach. He believed the conch created order. Once the conch had been used we are introduced to more boys and they gain interest in Piggy’s glasses. They discover that Piggy’s glasses can start fires and they refer to them as “burning glasses” (Golding 40). The boys also rejoiced when they discovered that his glasses could create the fires. They proclaimed, “His specs - use them as burning glasses!” (Golding 38). The spectacles symbolize Piggy’s intelligence, which distinguished him from the others. Without the glasses Piggy would be blind and he would not know what to do. Although Piggy is portrayed as being physically weak and not having a great chance at survival, he is the only one that seemed to know a few survival skills. He is the one that created the fire, sundial and shelter. Without his glasses he would not be ‘intelligent’. His appearance and personality cause him to be shunned

“‘I don't care what they call me,’ [Piggy] said confidentially, ‘so long as they don't call me what they used to call me at school.’[...] ‘They used to call me 'Piggy.’(11)” Here, one can see that Piggy’s real name is not actually Piggy but, is meant to endure such a horrid name due to his looks. His body size causes the children around him to make fun of him and from then on, the name sticks with him till his very last moments. On this new island with new faces, Piggy’s suffering starts with the horrid name. From the moment Ralph tells the other boys about his name, the boys immediately start to treat him as a different person. These boys realize that on such an island with no other source of entertainment, the only other resort for these children is Piggy. One would assume that Piggy’s intelligence would be able to write off the insults and discrimination, but to these children, his intelligence served as a vulnerability as the boys use it to make him seem different from the others. Overall, Piggy acts as a source of entertainment for the boys. They want fun. They wanted entertainment. They want to enjoy the life without adults when they have the chance.

Children are, by nature, malevolent. They possess an ingrained cruelty that was not taught to them, because they require no instruction. This truth is present throughout the entirety of the novel but is especially demonstrated by the boy's treatment of “Piggy”. Even Ralph, the alleged “good” child takes pleasure from this cruelty, shown when Piggy says to him,“ ‘I don’t care what they call me,’ he said confidently, ‘so long as they don’t call me what they used to call me at school.’ … ‘They used to call me “Piggy”.’ Ralph shrieked with laughter.” (Page 6).

His nickname parallels the wild pigs that are hunted on the island, and it also represents his intelligence. Piggy portrays clear-sightedness and intelligence. He tries to keep peace and clings to civilization, and he is the smartest boy on the island even though he has no social skills. He does not like strenuous work so he refrains from physical work. His only contribution to survival on the island are his specs which become very important in lighting the signal and cooking fires.

Thanks to Piggy’s idea with the conch, the boys are living by rules, obeying the rules and living in a more civilized environment. As additional, Piggy’s glasses help make the fire which is clearly a sense of logic and common sense. One quote would be, “His specs-use them as burning glasses” including the idea of using the conch to bring the boys together. Regardless of him being described as fat and weak, he still has a strength that cannot be compared to other characters which brought civilization towards the attitude of the boys. This suggests that the boys needed a person who has a sense of logic, a person who is smart to know what and what not to do, to help them act in a more sensible and logical

Piggy is one of the smartest boys on the island, however the other boys bully him and don’t take him seriously (or as a joke), this is due to his physical appearance He is fat, wears spectacles, has "ass-mar", is against fun and hunting, and almost irritatingly worthy. He's also a social outcast

Lord of the Flies, an allegorical novel by William Golding, holds truths about mankind’s true nature of existence. The novel explores the savagery in all men that lies dormant, yet when society’s rules cease to exist, the boy’s innocence perishes along with it. The boys attempt to band together and mock the society that they came from, but not understanding the complexity of the situation, results in their society falling into ruins. On the island the boys are returned to man’s primitive nature, without rules or discipline, and they slowly drift into anarchy. Without proper guidance, the boys resort to cloaking their innocence with body paint to survive. With the body paint coating their skin, the boys bury their old personas within and allow themselves to commit acts that society would frown upon. When Jack’s tribe uses the facade of body paint to dissociate themselves from civilization’s morals, they denote that hiding one’s true identity liberates them from the constraints of society.