An Analysis of Piggy and Jack's Temperament in Lord of the Flies
In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding created an island, which represented a microcosm of the world. The characters in the book had unique and different personalities to simulate the real world. Every kid on the island was different. Each character fell under the artisan, rational, idealist, or guardian temperament. The characters' personalities helped determine their temperament. Two specific characters were Jack and Piggy. Piggy exhibits aspects of the artisan temperament, whereas Jack exhibits aspects of the rational temperament.
Piggy was the one boy in the novel who has all the knowledge. Despite his asthma and obese problem, Piggy never failed to contribute his cerebral and intelligent ideas. He came up with all the ideas on how to survive and tried to keep the group organized and civilized. The glasses of Piggy symbolized his knowledge and smartness.
Out of the four temperaments, Piggy would be an artisan.
In William Golding's, “Lord of the Flies”, all the young boys depict one of the Kiersey Temperaments as they conform to what they believe are the islands expectations. There are four different personality types: the Guardian, Idealist, Rationalist, and Artisian. Ralph is the young boy in this novel that portrays a Guardian the uttermost, through his responsibility, common sense and charisma.
Piggy's literal function in this novel is to be the intellectual and logical thinker to counteract the emotional thinking of the other boys. From the beginning, Piggy viewed everything logically. He quickly came to the realization that the boys may be on the island for a long time, when he told Ralph "Nobody don't know we're here. Your dad don't know, nobody don't know" (9), contrary to Ralph's assumption that his father, who happened to be a naval officer, would simply come and rescue them. While Ralph became the natural leader based on his charisma, "what intelligence had been shown was traceable to Piggy" (18/19). However, it is unfortunate that this intelligence eventually led Piggy to his demise. Piggy's direct way of analyzing a situation and voicing his opinion tended to make him quite un...
In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the characters of Jack and Piggy, are alike and different in many ways. They both show traits of intelligence, leadership, and at times, courage. Although They share what are mostly differences there are some ways in which they are alike. Although these traits are used for many different things they both are used, ultimately, to survive.
There are many aspects that determine how humans behave around one another. This is shown throughout William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies. This book is about a group of British boys that are stranded on an island without any adults due to a plane crash. At first, all goes well; the boys cooperate in attempting to maintain the fire signal, gather food and making shelters. However, human nature takes over and their democracy that they have created fails. This leads to the majority of the boys becoming complete savages when the evil within them takes over. Different qualities help determine whether a person is a good or a bad leader. Although, Piggy and Jack have some leadership qualities, Ralph is the best leader.
Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been stranded alone together on an island with no adults. During the novel the diverse group of boys struggle to create structure within a society that they constructed by themselves. Golding uses many unique literary devices including characterization, imagery, symbolism and many more. The three main characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are each representative of the three main literary devices, ethos, logos, and pathos. Beyond the characterization the novel stands out because of Golding’s dramatic use of objective symbolism, throughout the novel he uses symbols like the conch, fire, and Piggy’s glasses to represent how power has evolved and to show how civilized or uncivilized the boys are acting. It is almost inarguable that the entire novel is one big allegory in itself, the way that Golding portrays the development of savagery among the boys is a clear representation of how society was changing during the time the novel was published. Golding is writing during
In the novel, Piggy represents intelligence and rationality because of how he thoroughly thinks through all situations that he faces and due to his exceptional ability to create simple solutions to any problem. At very beginning of the novel, shortly after emerging from the wreckage of the crashed plane, Piggy and Ralph first meet each other. As the pair walk along the beach, Ralph finds a conch, which gives Piggy the idea of using the conch to “‘call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us’” (Golding 16). Even after the initial shock of crash-landing on a presumably deserted island, Piggy is able to gather his wits and realize that their best chance of survival to gather all the boys and get some kind of organization established. Although Ralph found the conch initially, he was only attracted to it because it looked like “a worthy plaything” (16). Piggy however, unlike Ralph, immediately thought up a novel idea of how to use the conch to better their situation, by using it to gather everyone else, and to assess the overall predicament they found themselves in. Piggy was focused on long-term survival and sustainability rather than the short-term entertainment that the conch presented. People who have high levels of intelligence often possess extremely rational thinking methods. The Beast had begun to terrorize the mountain, particularly in the vicinity ...
He is the most rational boy in the group; making his glasses also symbolize logical reasoning within society. But he was completely disrespected, as Jack says in the novel, “ ‘you’re talking too much fat.’ ” (Golding 18) The glasses don’t just represent Piggy and what he stands for, but for everyone else as well. Similar to real life, we have symbols that signify power, and Washington D.C. is a good example of that.
In conclusion, Piggy’s glasses ultimately represent the use of knowledge. In the beginning of The Lord of the Flies, the glasses aided the boys in many ways, but towards the end it destroyed the island. Without Piggy, the boys couldn't properly use knowledge, and without knowledge Piggy couldn't rationalize. The glasses were extremely symbolic throughout the
Foremost, Piggy's glasses come to represent the strength of science and intellectualism within civilization. Without them, he cannot see anything, “‘[j]us’ blurs, that's all. [He can] hardly see [his] hand--’” (Chapter 2).
Piggy, the heavy, asthmatic, nearsighted boy, was often teased and ridiculed, however Golding made it obvious to the reader that Piggy was indeed the super ego. Piggy symbolizes all the hate and discrimination in the world. If it was not for Piggy’s bizarre appearance, he may have been made ruler of the island, and he certainly was the most suited for the job. He also symbolizes intelligence. He was analogous to sanity and reason. “Piggy’s role as a man’s reasoning faculties him as a father” (Rosenfield 264). Piggy always used ideal judgment and was the island’s only adult-like figure. He demonstrated this at a tribal meeting after the boys nearly burned down the island:
Piggy is the next victim, when more innocence is being lost. This point the boys have separated into two groups. Most of the littluns are with Jack, who is one of the oldest and in charge of the Hunters. SamnErik, Piggy, and Ralph are the only ones that make up the other group. Jack and Ralph have a strong hatred towards each other. Power has gotten in the middle of them multiple times. Ralph wants everyone to help each other and act civilized. Jack on the other hand is developing a strong and obsessive passion for hunting. His only priority is hunting and that is coming between Ralph and his dying desire to be rescued. Ralph and Jack have split up and both groups are figuring out how to survive without each others differents skills. Fire is one of the most important resources because it offers a place to cook food and a way to be rescued with the smoke.
Piggy stood for intelligence which every civilization needs, when he died it showed that savagery had completely taken over civilization. In chapter ten Piggy said, “You were outside. Outside the circle. You never really came in. . . . You ought to know Ralph.” (157). Piggy was the only boy who attended the feast, but didn’t help in attacking and killing Simon. This quote demonstrates that his morals are very intellectually based. Furthermore in chapter eleven Piggy said, “Ralph – Remember what we came for. The fire. My specs.” (177). Another quote Piggy said was, “I got this to say . . . . Which is better – to be a pack of painted Indians like you are . . . . to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?” (pg.180). The two quotations show
An important piece of symbolism used are Piggy’s glasses. Piggy is an overweight boy who has asthma and bad eyesight but is also very smart and quick thinking. He is constantly belittled and teased by the other boys, “You’re talking too much,” said Jack Merridew, “Shut up Fatty.” (20) Piggy’s glasses are
Picture this, an island divided into two sides, one good and one bad, and there is a conflict amongst them all. On one side you have a civilized, rationalized man named Ralph who represents the good in man. On the other savage, animalistic side you have Roger, a cruel and ruthless individual, who represents the bad in man. Both Ralph and Roger have basic human traits, however, there are many differences in their lifestyle, actions towards others, and appearance in this book. One of the most significant things that define an individual to be “good” or “bad” lies in how they go through their daily routine.
In William Golding’s “Lord Of The Flies” There is a world war and these kids are sent away on a plane that crashes on an uncharted island, stranded with a bunch of schoolboys. There is no adults supervision and all the boys seem happy about it at first then they realize that anything and everything can happen on the island. When they realize that there is no order , no civilization there is a fear of .what can happen to them while they wait to be rescued. Piggy who is teased and picked on throughout most of the book, is a boy who is not physically weak but he is mentally strong. He constantly complains about his asthma , he is virtually blind without his glasses but Piggy is very responsible and he is the brains of the boys. He constantly warns the boys about their behavior and foolish ways but noone seems to listen. Jack when he first gets to the island is the red headed boy that is the leader a choir group and during the book Jack turns into more of a boy of action and When he is first seen on the island, he is leading a group o...