Lord of The Flies – Piggy

Piggy is very important in this novel and he has a major role in the story. Piggy is someone that has many different skills but often hides them. He is clever, sensible, civilised and has good ideas, but he is quite shy and insecure so we rarely see these films. At first he is very quiet and keeps himself to himself. But as the story progresses he gains confidence, and begins to ‘come out of his skin’. Although he seems to gain mental strength and seems more confident as time goes by, he is still quite fragile and cries several times in the book.

This is due to him being scared of the situation he is in, being away from his aunt who he must love a lot as he mentions her often, and also the fear of never being rescued. But when he cries the main reason is due to the fact that he is constantly insulted and taken the mickey out of. This is what is holding Piggy back from showing his intelligent side and his many skills. Piggy is one of the main characters in the book (along with Jack and Ralph) and we don’t even know his real name!

There is a reason for this and I feel that it is because the other boys see Piggy as just another ‘face in the crowd’. Although he tries to stand up and be listened to like a leader, as Ralph and Jack are, he is always seen as a pest that you can’t get rid of. On many occasions he has been made fun of and he has got angry, but the other boys just find this more amusing as they see him as harmless, weak, slow and fat and are not scared of him at all. They also treat him badly because he is physically inept.

He is unable to join in with any physical activities due to his weight, so he is different from the others. Piggy also says “My Auntie told me not to run, on account of my asthma”. This is another reason for him being treated differently and not being welcomed into the group. No one else on the island suffers from asthma, and no one else is overweight either, like Piggy is. And also, like in real life, people that are overweight are always laughed at and insulted just because of their size and the way they look.

We hardly ever find out / know what the persons is really like and what their personality is like before we judge them, which is wrong because we wouldn’t like it if somebody did that to us, and clearly Piggy doesn’t like it at all, but the boys are too young to realise what there doing and how they are hurting Piggy’s feelings, and don’t stop to think before they say or do things. So it is the same situation with Piggy, they never give him a chance and get to know what he is like (with exception to Ralph) before they judge him. Then there is the Relationship and similarities between Piggy and the conch.

Piggy takes the conch very seriously, almost like a person, as if it was his friends. He obeys the rules of the conch, unlike the other boys and when they are not co-operating and not following the rules Piggy becomes angry and often shouts at whoever it is that isn’t respecting the person who has the conch and shouting and talking over them. Piggy is also very much like the conch. The conch at first is successful and the boys realise its there so they listen, but then gradually the rules of conch are not respected and eventually the boys don’t care about it anymore.

This is exactly the same situation with Piggy. At the beginning of the story he is listened to but then, like the conch, gradually he is not respected and eventually not listened to at all. Piggy and the conch are also trying to keep civilisation and order amongst the boys on the island, and again are both not listened to so there is very little chance of there being any civilisation left on the island. And when the conch is smashed, Piggy is killed at exactly the same time. In those few seconds when Piggy dies and the conch is shattered, all hope of keeping civilisation has gone

They have smashed a very precious item, which is never a good thing, and the fact that this had hope of keeping order amongst the boys makes the situation even worse. And then they have also murdered someone, which is illegal and pure evil. Both of these things that have happened are wrong and uncivilised. Now that they are both gone there is be no hope for anyone on the island. It has also left a free path for Jack to cause havoc, as he has no one or nothing that will get in his way. Ralph has won the battle for leadership.