The Role of Piggy in the Novel "Lord of the Flies"
The Role of Piggy in the Novel "Lord of the Flies"
In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding portrays Piggy as an insightful, perceptive and conversant young boy. The boys on the island ridicule him because of his appearance, calling him "fatty"(23) and constantly referring to him as Piggy. The boys never actually call him by his real name. Piggy's ability to see things clearly emerges and evolves through the novel, until finally at the conclusion we see how he loses this ability to perceive . . . with tragic results.
Golding gave Piggy the glasses to represent that he was the one who would see clearly and not filter out reality as most of the children did in the novel. At the beginning of the novel Piggy's glasses were used by others as a tool, when the boys look for a way to start a fire Jack says "His specs— use them as burning glass." (44). Ralph and Jack took the glasses from Piggy's head to start the fire without asking and Piggy just accepts this. Piggy's glasses also represented, the hope the boys had for getting off the island. Piggy starts to show his logical ability by suggesting that they write out a list of the boys on the island so they can keep track of all the "littluns" after one of them goes missing.
Piggy was always organized and had a well-thought out plan. After while, as Ralph's vision for survival becomes less focused, Ralph begins to respect and accept Piggy as a friend. Ralph shows us his doubts in his own ability to lead as he thinks, "I can't think. Not like Piggy. Once more that evening Ralph had to adjust his values. Piggy could think. He could go step by step inside that fat head of his . . . Ralph was a specialist in thought now, and could recognize thought in another." (85). When Jack's tribe stages a raid on Ralph's camp for fire, Piggy urgently redirects Ralph's thoughts to the importance of the fire and being rescued. Ralph stumbles in thought, his vision is clouded as symbolized by the "idiot hair" (156) he has to push out of his eyes. Once Jack left to make his own tribe, Piggy...