William Golding's Lord of the Flies: The Joy of Hating Piggy
In many novels there's usually a character the reader loves to hate.
Whether that character be a loser, a loner, or someone who's just chubby, we
all have made fun of that particular person at least once in our lives.
Throughout William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies, he illustrates the joy
of readers in hating Piggy's character.
In the beginning of the novel, when Ralph meets Piggy after the plane
crash, Piggy regretfully tells Ralph what the kids used to call him at school, “
They used to call me ‘Piggy'.”(1) Ralph then shrieks with laughter and makes
fun of Piggy's nickname, “Piggy! Piggy!”(2) Ralph goes on and on with giving
Piggy a bad time, just as kids normally would. This could be Ralph's way of
trying to distract himself from the reality of the airplane smashup. By the
author's description of Piggy and the contents of Piggy's talks, all of us have
a good idea of how he looks like and how he acts. We can all relate to him as
that ‘fat nerd' that always sat alone in the cafeteria. We all had nicknames
for the ‘loner'. We knew deep down that this was a bad thing to do but we
enjoyed putting him or her down.
Piggy is smarter than most of the survivors. You could see this because
he was aware of the situation around him whereas Ralph enjoyed the freedom. It
was Piggy's idea to write down all of the survivors' names and he knew where to
put the hole in the conch and what it could be used for. Piggy is also clever
in which when he is asked to do something physical, whether it would be
exercise or hard labour, he says he cannot do it because of his asthma, but
most people could see that he is lying. An example of this is when he was
afraid to swim.
“Piggy tip-toed down the sandy side of the pool, and
sat there up to his neck in water smiling proudly at
Ralph.
‘ Aren't you going to swim? '
Piggy shook his head.
‘I can't swim. I wasn't allowed. My asthma----'
‘Sucks to your ass-mar!' ”(3)
Ralph could easily tell that Piggy was lying, and whimping out.
Piggy is different from the other survivors, he is considered as an
outsider. His body is different, he also thinks different from the other boys.
At first he is the only one talking about and wanting to get rescued, yet all
the other boys are either happy with their freedom and exploring the island or
From reading this chapter,so far I believe that Ralph’s attitude towards Piggy is Ralph thinks he is a nuisance but later on believes he’s more useful in life. For example when they knew when they had the conch how many funny noises they can make. Piggy then realized how much Ralph was being nice and how much he grew on him. My first part of evidence I found was they realized how much they needed each other and they knew somehow they will learn to get along. My evidence fits well because they both read and judged each other on the outside and how they looked and acted. They assumed a lot of things about each other, they both didn't get a chance to explain what they were doing and how they were doing it.
"His [Piggy] head opened and stuff came out and turned red. Piggy’s arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig’s after it has been killed. Then the sea breathed again in a long, slow sigh, the water boiled white and pink over the rock; and when it went, sucking back again, the body of Piggy was gone."
and they both start off as the leaders. Later on the boys have a vote for leader and Ralph is selected. The first impression we get about Ralph is that he is active and doesn't like authority. When he found out that there were no grown ups on the island he "stood on his head and grinned" Piggy is the first of the other survivors that Ralph meets.
...Although, it can be argued that he had no one else to turn to so he went to Piggy, Ralph could have given up at this point. But, instead he finally consulted Piggy for advice, displaying his maturity. In the end of the novel, when Piggy dies, Ralph addresses the loss. When the naval officer arrives, “Ralph wept for… the fall through of the true, wise friend Piggy” (202). Ralph truly matures at the end when he values the intelligence, and good heartedness of his friend Piggy finally looking past his appearance.
The image of Piggy slowly began to fade to the black silhouette from where the image came. Ralph was shivering and sobbing uncontrollable, sinking back down to the ground, pulling his knees up to his chest. “Please, Piggy, don’t go. Piggy! I need to know, Piggy…”
The author, William Golding uses the main characters of Ralph, Jack, and Simon in The Lord of the Flies to portray how their desire for leadership, combined with lack of compromise leads to the fall of their society. This desire for leadership and compromise led to the fall of their society just like multiple countries during times of wars.
Both Piggy and Ralph’s personalities had a large amount of contrasts that determined their relationship at the beginning of the story. Piggy was the outcast, due to his large awkward body, his thick glasses and his know-it-all personality. While Ralph on the other hand was the stereotypical image of an ordinary boy. Piggy had no friends, besides those that he lived with. Thus was not used to being among other children. He quickly trusted, and latched onto Ralph, ignoring Ralph’s constant teasing . Ralph was insecure as all boys his age are, he didn’t really want to be caught liking the outcast so he teased him. “I don’t care what they call me, so long as they don’t call me what they used to call me at school…They used to call me Piggy'; (Golding: pg.11) Piggy confided to Ralph, asking him to be secretive, thinking that Ralph was his friend. When really he couldn’t care less about Piggy’s fate. Ralph betrayed Piggy by announcing to all the other boys Piggy’s name, not really caring about the consequences it would have on Piggy and Ralph’s friendship. Piggy is hurt but quickly forgives and forgets, thinking that him and Ralph are friends. Ralph doesn’t really mind Piggy’s dependence upon him, but finds Piggy to be a bore and does not consider him to be a friend. “Piggy was a bore; his fat, his ass-mar and his matter of fact ideas were dull, but their was always a little pleasure to be got out of pulling his leg, even if one did this by accident'; (Golding: pg.65). Ralph joined the others in teasing him, especially about his asthma and his love and dependence upon his auntie.
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, – this longing to attain self-consciousness, manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message f...
In his perspective, he has found a paradise where he can abandon all memories of a proper society in exchange for a world where he has absolute power. In order to prevent their chances of being rescued, Jack devises a plan to steal the glasses they used to create the signal. When Jack’s hunters slip into Ralph’s shelter during the night and steal Piggy’s glasses all remaining hope for Ralph is lost. Desperate and left with no other options, Ralph and Piggy attempt to confront Jack. Motivated by his feelings of hatred and betrayal, Ralph’s reasoning with Jack is futile and a fight escalates quickly between the boys. In result Piggy is murdered by a falling boulder, as Ralph runs to seek refuge in the
Piggy is asking for their names. " The children gave him the same simple obedience that they had given to the man with megaphones"(Golding 18).The younger kids simply obey and respond to Piggy in the same way they would to an authoritative figure. The children's behavior towards piggy shows that they are still governed by civility and order. Furthermore, after blowing the conch, Ralph sees a group of boys walking in two parallel lines dressed in odd clothes. “The creature was a party of boys, marching approximately in step in two parallel lines and dressed in strangely eccentric clothing....
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