They Used to Call Me Piggy

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

Because Piggy is much more intelligent than the other boys, he adds a sizeable amount of irony to Lord of the Flies. The other castaways on the island treat Piggy with disrespect and contempt, despite how clever the overweight child actually is. The whole time the boys are stranded on the deserted island, instead of concern, they show a definite lack of interest and care for Piggy. The central reason for this cruel deficiency of empathy is Piggy's appearance. Regardless of how intelligent he was, Piggy was ignored because he was fat and he had glasses; the other children could not see past this unattractive façade to the logical and analytical genius underneath. Several times during the novel, Piggy tried to speak his mind, undoubtedly providing logical insight to many issues, such as lighting and maintaining a

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.

for Ralph to act out. "We can use this (the conch) to call the others.

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?

The book also shows a lot about the survival of the fittest, which can be seen when looking at the character Piggy. I think Piggy was shown as the smartest boy on the island, he had good ideas and he was very level headed and because of the he should have been the leader. He knew what had to be done to survive and to get them rescued, but because of his physical appearance he was looked down on. This can be seen right at the beginning of the book where he offers to go with Jack and Ralph to explore the island, but Jack turns him down saying “You’re no good for a job like this” as he was overweight and has asthma. Although there are no famous examples showing this, it is common thing that I’ve come across and I think that most others have as well.

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.

Laws and rules are what set people apart from savagery. Leaders are what keep a group alive in times of crisis. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Piggy is the only character who remains civil and does not turn to savagery. The boys notice his appearance more than his brain which blinds them from seeing his intelligence, patience, and rationality.

“‘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.

The theme of The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is the reason society is flawed is because people are flawed. Although Piggy is knowledgeable, he has many flaws including his laziness and physical inabilities. Ralph is an authority seeker. He sets rules and laws, yet does little to enforce them. Ralph wants to be the ruler, without doing the work to enforce his laws. Jack is persistent. He is rude, harsh and violent in order to get what he wants. He wants to be supreme. Piggy’s flaws are impactful in the story. His laziness and lack of physical ability hurt him in his quest for survival.

We begin to see Piggy’s insecurities and it’s interesting to see that before the boys say their names, they are all identified by the way they look. For example, Ralph is "the fair boy" and Piggy is the "fat one”. Piggy's name, however, still references his size. This means that even before they got lost on the island, his identity was still determined by his appearance and Piggy was still recognized for his weight instead of his kind heart and

In Lord of the Flies, the character of Piggy was mistreated a lot by the other boys. Piggy was a boy from England just like all the other boys at his old school everyone would call him Piggy even though he wanted them to stop calling him that. Piggy had great ideas, but no one listens to Piggy because of who he is. Back in England, Piggy lived with his aunt, who owned a candy store, in which he could eat all the candy he wanted. His aunt would avoid letting him do anything physical making him fat. While Piggy is just a regular boy on the island he is often abused and the other boys rarely listen to him, for what reason, and also Golding uses Piggy to advance the novel also.

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Ralph and Jack’s power struggle is observed throughout the book. Ralph’s democratic leadership sharply contrasts Jack’s tyrannical and uncivilized rule. Ralph is stripped of everything and the line between him and Jack is blurred near the end because he gives in to savagery. Though all men will ultimately revert back to animalistic instinct and savagery in the absence of civilization, Ralph only succumbs to this when he loses his friends and when he is hunted; Jack succumbs all on his own.

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