Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the Flies

Who would ever guess that a ninety-eight pound weakling would serve as the protagonist's confidant? Looks deceiving, especially in the case of Piggy who serves as Ralph's confidant in William Golding's Novel, Lord of the Flies. Despite his poor eyesight, asthma, a weight problem and vulnerability, he was considered to be the most intelligent of the boys. However his intelligence was only a benefit to the group through Ralph. Unlike Piggy, Ralph possessed the proper leadership skills in which he could apply the intellect of Piggy.

Piggy is a symbol of "civilization", because he supports rational thought along with a system of laws. He functions as a symbol for the values of a "civilized society", in contrast to a savage society created by Jack which lacks the values of a civilized society.. The conch is an example of law and order. A law was made that only the boy holding the conch could speak, while all the others had to be silent. When Ralph is voted to be the chief, Piggy is his sidekick. Without Piggy, he probably would have had more problems as a chief, especially with solutions on satisfying all the boys and how they could possibly leave the island. Piggy was the one to suggest to him that they light a fire on the mountain with a slight chance that a passing ship would see it and come to the island to rescue them. Ralph becomes depressed when most of the boys join Jack's tribe, but Piggy comes up with the idea of lighting a fire on the beach instead of on the mountain which Ralph agrees to do. Piggy is basically a "picture" of a thinker. The fact he wears glasses makes him look like a "nerd", but he is really an intellectual thinker. Another aspect of him is that his skin is really white. This means he does not get out in the sun too often, so instead he reads books in the library back in England which may explain why he is such an intellectual thinker. His fatness is caused by the fact he has asthma, which greatly limits him from participating in many athletic activities. This disease is the main cause for his whiteness, being overweight, and his lifestyle being far different from the average boy. Piggy's glasses clearly indicate that he is the clearest thinker out of all the boys stranded on the island.

Jack is the one person who is the complete opposite of Piggy. He uses his ability of charisma which touches most of the boys, and he eventually uses force as a means