What is the significance of Piggy in the novel The Lord of the Flies?

What is the significance of Piggy in the novel The Lord of the Flies?

The author William Golding uses the character of Piggy to relates to

certain themes in the novel. He is linked closely with civilisation,

time and the conch which itself represents order. As savagery becomes

more intense in the novel, Piggy begins to suffer more injustices and

eventually loses his life speaking out against it.

Piggy is described by Golding as 'short' and very 'fat'. This has

earned him the nickname 'Piggy' in his previous school. It's no

coincidence that Piggy's nickname is such, it relates to the

overwhelming emotion Jack and his hunters feel when they feel the urge

to 'kill the pig'. This indirect metaphor suggests that the boys are

killing a part of Piggy each time and that their aggression is

directed at him. In fact, while Jack and his gang continue to kill

more pigs, the logic and reason which Piggy symbolizes progressively

diminishes with the pigs. Piggy's appearance alone has made him an

outsider, because the other boys look down on him. He has asmtha and

doesn't do much physical work on the island. He is not welcomed on

their first exploratory trip of the island. "We don't want you," Jack

says to Piggy. It is his academic background and his isolation from

the savage boys that had allowed him to remain mostly unchanged from

his primitive experiences on the island. Golding uses him as the

'control' character that can contrast the other characters as they

become more and more savage. Piggy depicts different effects on

certain individuals on the island. Ralph has a fair nature as he is

willing to listen to Piggy. He becomes increasingly dependent on

Piggy's wisdom and becomes lost in the confusion around him.

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...isolation and wisdom also helped Piggy to retain

his civilized behaviour. As well, he was made painfully more aware of

the great amount of injustice in the world. From the characters, it

could be seen that under the same circumstances, different individuals

can develop in different ways depending on the factors within

themselves and how they interacted with each other. Their

personalities and what they knew could determine how they would

interpret and adapt to a new environment such as the tropical island.

Not everyone has so much evil hidden inside them as to become complete

savages when released from the boundaries of our society. Some people

will, because of the ways they were conditioned, remember and abide by

the rules they had depended on for social organization and security.

Golding has successfully used Piggy to portray all these ideas and

themes.