Essay on The Character Piggy in Lord of the Flies

Even thought Piggy is physically blind without his glasses he has insight as to his surroundings. Jack shows dislike towards Piggy by ridiculing his physique by saying , “Better Piggy the Fatty”. (40) His intelligence is undermined by the fact that Jack makes fun of him.

A character in a novel can represent a larger idea in society. In William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, each character is illustrated to represent a larger idea in society. Ralph represents democracy, Jack represents savagery, and Piggy represents a scientific approach.

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?

He wants to take time to listen to other people’s ideas even the littluns. Ralph and the others don’t feel the need to let them talk or give them the right to talk. Piggy insisted Ralph to give the conch to him. Piggy is compassionate for the others. When the fire got out of hand he was the only one to notice that some of the kids may have been hurt. He cares about others rather than just himself and is willing to listen to everyone. He tries hard to make things work out for the better.

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.

Piggy, though not the most memorable in The Lord of the Flies, resonated the most whilst reading this book. Piggy is the stereotypical nerdy kid who seems to be perpetually bullied, even when he is on a deserted island. He has pinkish skin with glasses and asthma with a belly that ate perhaps too much candy from his aunt’s candy shop. While Piggy is almost useless physically, he is very strong mentally, and proves this when he formulates the idea of the conch, but is too weak to blow into it and call everyone. Piggy seems socially awkward, as if he hasn’t spent much times with his fellow peers and rather passed the time with the adults in this life. We see this when Piggy frequently parrots his aunt’s advice such as “My auntie told me not to run… on account of my

Lord of the Flies presented many changes that the boys underwent as they adapted to the island and freedom from society. The four main characters reacted differently on certain individuals under those circumstances. Jack begins as an arrogant leader of a choir. However, the freedom the island presented caused Jack to develop the dark side of his personality as the Chief of a group of savages. Ralph started as a very assured boy whose self-confidence was only a result of being well liked by his peers. When Ralph refuses to join the society of savage boys, Ralph is forced him to fend for himself. Piggy was a well-educated boy who had grown up as an outcast. Due to his academic childhood, he was more mature than the other boys and kept up his civilized behaviour for the majority of the novel. But his experiences on the island gave him a realistic understanding of just how cruel humans can be. Roger’s character traits become

First, in Lord Of The Flies, Golding uses the social relationships between each of the boys to tell us more about our own relationships. The first of these roles would be the one Piggy played. Throughout the novel Piggy dispenses intelligent ideas to the leader, Ralph, yet he was very rarely listened to. One example that appears on page 45, goes as follows,

Having such a divers array of people living in such close proximity, and not being able to escape one another also influenced the attitudes, and actions of the boys. In normal circumstances, when two people don’t get along it is relatively easy to not be around them, and hang around with others in which your more compatible with. However due to the fact that they are on a rather small island, and that their society only consists of a few people, it is not so easy for rare intellectual to escape people with ideals opposite to their own. Therefore often suffers defeat. This is very true in the case of Piggy.

The agony that Piggy is put through due to his looks acts as a vulnerability. Though that maybe his weakness, his strength, on the other hand, is his mind. His ability to come up with ideas keeps the society together and running. “‘Ralph!’ Ralph looked up. ‘We can use this to call the others. Have a

1. The animals who gather to hear Major’s speech each mirror a single human trait. What is revealed in Clover? Boxer? Benjamin?

The year is 1954; a year after the Cold war started William Golding published a novel called the Lord of the Flies to share his opinion regarding the current situation at hand. Lord of the Flies starts with a young group of British schoolboys crash landing on an uninhabited island with no adult supervision. As the story unfolds we see the boys lose their innocence and turn to a darker side of human nature that can only be expected from primitive beings, not high-class British boys. Golding figuratively used the boys to show the carnage that was taking place between the nations during the Cold War. He displayed various characters but the most valuable character in the novel was Piggy, a pudgy little British lad with thick spectacles. He was the most physically vulnerable of all the boys yet his intelligence was greater then the rest. Piggy symbolized rationality, hope, and science advancement on the island. The rest of the boys even though they had strong features eventually gave in to their inner lust and acted like primitive savages.

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

Piggy throughout Lord Of The Flies by William Golding portrays loyalty, voice of reason and dependence. The fat kid is an perfect example of someone who gets excluded but has high intelligence and understanding of the whole picture. Piggy experiences loss of friendship and trust because of the way he looks, the boys treat him differently.