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Lord of the flies characters analysis essay
Lord of the flies characters analysis essay
Analyses of lord of the flies
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In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding a group of adolescent boys become stranded on an island because of a plane crash. As the boys congregate to create a plan for survival, one boy, piggy, larger with glasses and asthma, becomes ostracized. In this novel, Piggy represents the rational world. He provides the group with clarity and offers a new perspective on situations the boy’s face. Although the boys neglect piggy and his ideas, at times they utilize his knowledge, but they do not give him the credit he deserves. He is the most intelligent out of the boys and tries to offer ideas to assist the boy’s survival, but because he is shut out no one listens or respects his opinions and ideas. The pensive boys collaborated to create ways to escape the island. Ralph, the leader of the group, had the idea to start a signal fire. Once this idea was announced to the assembly the boys dashed to the top of the mountain. After setting the fire, it quickly began to spiral out of control. The soon …show more content…
By relaying the words from an adult to help guide the children, Piggy is acting mature. Maturity allows children to think more rationally and clearly. If one is not mature it can be hard to make the right decisions. That is a problem the majority of the children face, seeing as they are mostly under twelve. This means that almost all of the boys are immature and make their decisions based on if they seem entertaining or amusing. Unlike the rest of the boys, Piggy provides the group with mature thoughts and ideas. By quoting his aunt, an adult, he provides the group with views from an adult. Without maturity, it is difficult to determine right from wrong, view things rationally, and make decisions based on an accurate outcome. While most of the boys cannot do this Piggy offers opinions, but since he looks different than most of the other boys his opinions are discarded along with his intelligence he
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.
Normally, being put down by the others, he can use the conch to speak his mind. Even though the rule is that no one can interrupt someone holding the conch, Piggy has to constantly remind the boys of this, as they try to talk over him. Piggy says “I got the conch” and also states “You let me speak!” (Golding 42). This is a positive change because he is starting to fend for himself.
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Simon and Piggy are among a group of boys who become stranded on a deserted island. Left without any adults, the boys attempt to create an orderly society. However, as the novel progresses, the boys struggle to sustain civility. Slowly, Jack and his hunters begin to lose sight of being rescued and start to act more savagely, especially as fears about a beast on the island spread. As the conflict progresses, Jack and Ralph battle for power. The boys’ struggle with the physical obstacles of the island leads them to face a new unexpected challenge: human nature. One of the boys, Simon, soon discovers that the “beast” appears not to be something physical, but a flaw within all humans
Piggy is known for being the most intellectual and reasonable out of the boys. While the other boys are off fooling around and dreaming about their next adventure, Piggy is using reason to plan an organized method of survival on the island where everyone is satisfied. For example, while the other boys were exploring the island, Simon came up with an idea and said, “‘I’ve been thinking,” he said, “about a clock. We could make a sundial. We could put a stick in the sand, and then—’” (Golding 90). Although the boys can rule using any form of government on the island, Piggy attempts to create a civilized and orderly environment by advising Ralph to implement a democratic state. Despite his weak appearance, Piggy has a very strong moral compass and sense of self assurance, meaning, he’s very confident in the moral choices he makes. Since he bases his actions and way of thinking on reason and justice, he has a tendency to believe everyone should follow and share his methods because “rules are rules.” As seen when electing a leader, Piggy believed that because the conch and name system were his ideas, he should have been voted as leader, resulting in “Every hand outside the choir except Piggy’s was raised immediately. Then Piggy, too, raised his hand grudgingly into the air.” (Golding 29). Due to his strong confidence, Piggy is not afraid to act upon his beliefs and what is right, even if it may not be a popular
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...
Piggy was a moral person and an uncorrupted person for his time on the island. he was moral because he believed in guidelines and weighed each decision he made with what the rest of society would say. He was moral because of this and never would he stray from what was moral or good in society so he would be mostly correct. Piggy had very strong ideas. when everyone else was starting out on the island, the rest of the worlds rules were with them. everyone slowly was drawn away from
Piggy is mentally resilient; he has the ability to think things through with the clear mind even during times of crisis. He is the true voice of reason. “‘I got the conch! Just you listen! The first thing we ought to have made was the shelters down there by the beach…But the first time Ralph says ‘fire’ you goes howling and screaming up this mountain. Like a pack of kids!’” (Golding 45). Piggy has the capability to let his voice of reason run unbridled because he tends to think before he leaps. Because of this, he is able to vocalize his morals proudly and never stray from his own beliefs.
After Ralph carelessly reveal the nickname “Piggy” to the others it triggered all the boys, "even the tiniest," to laugh which sets up Piggy to be the brunt of jokes and bullying. As the story develops, Piggy demonstrates time after time that he is able to contribute to the group mentally. For an example, Piggy suggested that they should construct the signal fire on the beach instead of the top of the mountain after Jack formed his own tribe. Piggy’s wisdom and intelligence begins to become obvious to Ralph but to the rest of the group, Piggy is still thought as weak and useless; it seems that the only time anyone speaks to piggy it involves an insult of some sort.
The lord of the flies is a book about a group of boys stranded on a tropical island to illustrate the evil characters of mankind. Lord of the Flies dealt with changes that the boys go through as they gradually got use to the stranded freedom from the outside world. Three main characters pictured different effects on the other boys. Jack Merridew began as the bossy and arrogant leader of a choir. The freedom of the island allowed him to further develop the darker side of his personality as the Chief of a savage tribe. Ralph started as a self-assured boy whose confidence in him came from the approval of the others. He was kind as he was willing to listen to Piggy. He became increasingly dependent on Piggy's wisdom and became lost in the confusion around him. Towards the end of the story when he was kicked out of the savage boys he was forced to live without Piggy and live by himself. Piggy was an educated boy that was more mature than the others, that was used to being picked on. His experiences on the island were a reality check of how extreme people can be with their words.
Lord of the Flies is about a group of young British boys who find themselves stranded on an island without any adult supervision, and are left to their own devices to find ways to survive. We follow these boys’ experiences from them first arriving on the island civilized, to the end where all sense of civilization and order are lost and most of the boys have become savages. The big theme in this book is that evil and violence are a part of human nature, and the use of children for the characters was to portray that evil isn’t learned behavior and even previously innocent children can become evil. One of the children, Piggy, was one of the only boys who did not start down a path to savagery. Piggy represented intelligence, civilized behavior,
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 ...
Imagine a group of young boys who have just crash-landed on a deserted tropical island with no adults or supervision. William Golding showed in his ground breaking novel Lord of the Flies, what may happen in just those circumstances. In his very complicated and diverse novel Golding brings out many ideas and uses many literary devices. Above all others though comes symbolism of three main important objects being the conch, fire, and "Piggy's" eyeglasses. Through each of these three symbols Golding shows how the boys adapt and change throughout the novel. These symbols also help to show each of the boy's ideals on a variety of elements from human nature to society and its controls. All three of these symbols also change and are one of the most important elements of the story.
As heart-breaking as Piggy's violent death is in lord 0f the flies, Golding uses the moment to represent an end to civilization and order on the island. Roger, the symbol of ultimate evil, releases the giant boulder that smashes the conch and kills Piggy his death is incredibly cruel, especially in the way he dies; being smashed by a boulder is not only an extremely violent way to die, but it is also senseless and meaningless. The moment is a snapshot for the most important theme of the novel, civilization and order against chaos and
Piggy is the brainy part of civilization. He is heard saying “Life … is scientific.” The whole island is only populated with boys. Trough quoting his aunt, Piggy provides the only female voice in the whole group. Lacking vital leadership qualities, he could not be in charge of the civilization, but has to channel his influence through advising Ralph. When the conch is discovered, Piggy said to Ralph: “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They'll come when they hear us—.” When the boys were tasked to make a fire, it was Piggy, who came up with the idea of using his “specs” to start it. He was always intent on maintaining a civilization mirroring the one they just left. In many ways, he is too focused on trying to maintain it, when Simon dies, Piggy thought and said “What’s grownups goin' to think?” instead of the emotional response of mourning. This Practical approach didn’t do him any favours in connecting with the other boys. When confronted with a problem, Piggy is rational. Whereas the other boys are easily influenced by scary thoughts and rumours, Piggy kept “searching for a formula” when trying to explain Simon’s
The boys believed that building a signal fire to alert ships of their presence gives them the best chances of getting rescued, so they “scattered through the upper forest. To keep a clean flag of flame flying on the mountain was the immediate end and no one looked further” (Golding 41). The boys’ hope is at its peak soon after they arrive on the island, because they want to go back home. Ralph believes that the fire is more important than everything else, even food.