An Analysis of Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Often in great literature, authors often seize upon the plight of one particular character to represent a more general concern of humanity. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding portrays the general concern of survival and humanity best in our loveable character we all know as “Piggy”.

In the first few pages of the book we see that the boys are stranded on a uninhabited island. Thanks to Ralph’s conch, all the boys grouped up together. Once again as a group, they choose themselves a leader, which turned out to be Ralph, and once the formalities were over, who brings up the point that they’re stranded on an island with nobody’s knowing? Why none other than our loveable friend Piggy. “Who knows we’re here? Eh? Nobody knows where we are. Perhaps they knew where we were going to; perhaps not.

But they don’t know where we are ‘cos we never got there.”(page 34) This shows Piggy’s more social side, because he expresses this idea to the entire group of boys, and showing the bond he has to civilization. We can see Piggy’s is a very civilized and sophisticated child, always remembering all the useful thing his auntie taught him. These two small yet very relative examples show the bond Piggy has to society.

Another example showing piggy’s bond toward the world they left behind was when they ran off to build a fire at the top of the mountain. Jack and his choir boys, along with some of the other kids ran off to build a fire. They all ran off in a mob mental state, not thinking of anything but their little fire. Then Piggy says, “ Like kids! Acting like a crowd of kids!” Eventually, even Ralph can’t help a little fun and he runs off too. Eventually, piggy goes to but not because he wants to have fun, but because everyone else went as well. This is yet another example of Piggy proving his loyalty to humanity be knowing when and where to fool around and also, showing how mature he is when it comes to things like this.

One of the greatest examples, is piggy’s final stand of humanity . In chapter 11 piggy makes his final encounter with Jack Merridew, going straight up to him and saying to the kids, “Which is better-to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is? Which is better- to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill? Which is better-law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?” Those were Piggy’s last words before he took a boulder to the head. This ultimately proves that Piggy is the symbol of humanism that Golding was trying to portray throughout the book. This shows Piggy’s bond to society and his fait in humanity.

To conclude, Golding portrays humanism in his novel Lord of the Flies best in Piggy’s Character, for Piggy stands for what is right, goes against corruption and even dies fighting corruption. He best portrays the civilized way of survival and the humanic traits everyone should stick to.