The Lord Of The Flies: Piggy Character Analysis

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.

When first introduced, Ralph is not interested in Piggy, who was not popular because he was fat. “He tried to be offhand and not too obviously uninterested, but the fat boy hurried

"'I don't care what you call me so long as...it's not what they used to call me in school...They used to call me Piggy!'" Chapter 1, pg. 11. Then Ralph told the whole group and they started teasing Piggy. Everyone took it as a given that Piggy was the smart, nerdy and fat person in the group.

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.

He is often subject to harassment because of his weight. When taking roll call, Ralph introduces him as Piggy, so that “ a storm of laughter arose and even the tiniest child joined in” (Golding 14). As shown by this quote, even the youngest boys think they are better than Piggy because they aren’t chubby like him. He is much heavier than the other boys, which is one of the factors that sets him apart. He is never even given a chance to introduce himself; he is just given a nickname that exploits his weight. After this, Piggy never even tries to properly introduce himself. He knows that whatever name he gives will be rejected by the boys who view themselves as superior to him. Those who are isolated are also commonly made victims of. Once his tribe abandons him, Ralph is warned by Samneric about Roger and Jack. Eric says “‘They hate you, Ralph. They're going to do you. They're going to hunt you tomorrow”” (170). At this time, Ralph is considerably weaker than he was at the beginning of the story. He has no tribe to protect him, aside from a few littluns. Piggy and Simon are both dead, and Samneric now are joined with Jack’s tribe. Because of this, Jack can more easily target and kill Ralph.

     Piggy in the beginning of the book was using his common sense, he was intelligent, he knew what was right from wrong, and he could condone things that made him angry easily. In the beginning of the book, (pg. ) Ralph told everyone his name was Piggy even though Piggy specifically told Ralph that he didn't like to be called that name Piggy later condoned Ralph's action with great ease. Piggy's action's and behavior depended on his glasses. Piggy and his glasses symbolized intelligence, he represents the rational side of civilization. With the glasses it seemed as though Piggy made all the right choices, and he helped Ralph know what needed to be done with the tribe. Without his

This is emphasized when he participates in the collective murder of the innocent Simon, Piggy doesn’t feel remorse over the fact he has killed someone, but rather is horrified he would participate in such a savage act. Also, Piggy’s speech is fairly eloquent in the beginning of the book and of course, Piggy developed his speech from watching adult figures in his life. The way Piggy thinks is logically and sensibly, leaving no room for artistic representation such as sarcasm or jokes. When Ralph replies to Piggy’s musings of building sand dials to keep time with sarcasm by way of building impossible machines such as an airplane and TV set, Piggy can’t understand the sarcasm and instead reasons that “You have to have a lot of metal things for that… and we haven’t [any] metal” (65). Piggy isn’t in sync with the younger generation and so Piggy expects that everyone should act and think like him, an adult. Whilst everyone thinks Piggy is easy pickings for bullying and doesn’t quite fit in the box that society has given children. Piggy has his flaws, but still is a memorable

He is eventually chosen as leader on account of his many positive qualities. He maintains a conflict with Jack throughout the entire novel, trying to keep order while Jack isn't as dedicated to it. The next person you meet in the story is a short fat boy, who wears spectacles. He is the most intellectual boy on the island, but since he has no social skills, he is usually in the background trying to maintain the peace. Together Ralph and Piggy represent the struggle for order and democracy.

Although the boys treat Piggy like an outcast, Piggy talks to the group when he has something important to say, but is passive in his remarks and reactions. Piggy accepts how the group treats him, and he does not stand up for himself when mistreated. Instead, he tries to hold his emotions inside. For example, after Jack tells Piggy to shut up and calls him fatty, Piggy does not retort back but, “...he went very pink, bowed his head, and cleaned his glasses again.” ( 21). As demonstrated in the passage, Piggy is hurt by the boys referring to him as “fatty.” However, he does not directly address the group, but tries to state his case to Ralph who does not sympathize with him and further hurts his feelings; hence, “Piggy’s glasses were misted again- this time with humiliation.”( 25). Piggy’s passiveness allows Jack, the antagonist, to use him as an example to further lead the group by fear and bullying.

Piggy stays somewhat static as a good and civilized boy, like some others (e.g. Simon). However, Piggy’s character change involves his entitlement of civility and his specific separation from the rest of the boys. “‘Like kids!’ he said scornfully. ‘Acting like a crowd of kids!’” (38). This quote exhibits Piggy’s nature of judgment over the other boys’ rashness and establishes his entitlement over the other boys early on. This creates a barrier of sorts, as Piggy might not feel tempted to interact the same way because he is “better than that.” Piggy is also directly characterized as the outsider of the group: “There had grown up tacitly among the biguns the opinion that 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 labor” (65). In a sense, Piggy is separated from the overall group of boys by his physical and character traits. Piggy also has this emphasized character trait of being myopic. Once Piggy’s specs are destroyed, not only is Piggy literally blind but symbolically as well. This, in turn, means the group is also blind, as Piggy was the only character that seemed to provide a substantial amount of rational thinking and ideas. This leads to irrational thoughts to flow free, like Jack’s ideology of madness and

He sounds as if he is trying to convince himself and the separation of the word’ really’ makes him sound desperate. Golding also suggests to the reader just how desperate people are to become part of a group, and how in some situations, becoming part of a group may literally be a life and death decision. Ralph, Jack and Simon set out to explore the island, and Piggy suggests to Ralph that he should go too, because he ‘was with him when he found the conch’ and he ‘was with him before anyone else was’. Ralph seemingly tries to put Piggy down gently by saying ‘you’re no good on a job like this’ implying, again, because Piggy is fat and has asthma, he won’t be able to keep up and he will be a burden to the other boys. In contrast Jack is blunter with Piggy. He simply says ‘we don’t want you, three’s enough’. In this, Jack shows obvious contempt for Piggy. When he firsts speaks to Piggy all he has to offer is ‘you’re talking too much, shut up fatty’. Jack’s obvious loathing of Piggy is evident throughout the novel. Through Jack’s first contact with Piggy it strengthens the idea that children judge people solely on looks, and as well as this it is obvious that the constant name calling and bullying of Piggy will render him the victim of the boys throughout the novel.

The boys treat Piggy as an outsider because he promotes civility and acting logically insulting the boys' thoughts and actions. When the boys are meeting at an assembly discussing plans for the island, Piggy describes the boys as acting “Like a pack of kids!” (45). Piggy is using “Like a pack of kids” in a derogatory way. He is saying that it is bad to act like kids, even though they are children, and they should act like formal adults. He goes on to say that in order to be rescued, they must “put first things first and act proper” (45). Piggy is saying that in order to accomplish their goal of being rescued, they must act properly and do tasks in a logical order. In this case, they should have initially built shelters. This illustrates that

He is voice of reason that contradicts jack’s voice of mischief. However due to him being a huge buzzkill, he isn’t taken seriously by the others on the island; this is depicted when Ralph says “But Piggy, for all his ludicrous body, had brain.” (67). In many instances, Piggy is the unwanted conscience on the island, but his nagging and stories about his “Aunty” were like a string that tethered the boys to the distant memory of civilization. In a way he represented civilization; up until his death, which marks when everything completely fell apart.

Throughout the novel The Lord of the Flies, assumptions and tragedies were estatically raising into chaos that where sought as war within one another. War was what made delightful children turn into savages from one moment to another. It made them learn how to survive on their own and how to experience the life in the wildlife without nothing. They saw fear and torture in their adventure and they faced many obstacles within each other that they had to resolve as team. If it wasn't as a team it was them on their own. Team that was something the boys never learned. They fought and fought until lives were taken away. And once lives were unable to be revive no tears could be sought as victory nor resolving any of the chaos. Piggy was the one who had useful ideas, so they

Piggy is chubby in his physical appearance. He is practical and intelligent and has asthma. Piggy is also been a right hand man to Ralph, every time he would give valuable advices to Ralph. In spite of being intelligent, he cannot be the leader himself. Piggy is so obligated with the rules; he thinks that the conch holder should be respected when giving a speech: “I got the conch… I got a right to speak” (Chapter 2, p. 44) He is all about law-abiding nerdy schoolboy, the efforts that he has been putting is trying to bring the group members together. He does not want the savagery and violent act happen yet Jack and the other boys try to make fun of him. In the end, he is brutally murdered by Roger with a big boulder falls onto him with the conch