Lord of the Flies- Pigs
There is a Pig in Every Person
Pigs have played an important role in the lives of humans a thousand years ago and till this very day. Their fat can be used to make soap and their skin can be made into leather but most importantly, they provide food for people. The word pig has many meanings also. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a pig means “a swine of any age” but it can also mean “a greedy, dirty, or unpleasant person” and a person who likes “to gluttonize”. These definitions all relate to William Golding’s novel, the Lord of the Flies where pigs play a significant part of the story. Since the term pig can be interpreted in many ways, the word can represent many themes when it is used in writing. Pigs have appeared in past works of literature such as The Odyssey. When Odysseus’ men landed on the island of Aeaea, Circe, a minor goddess of magic, converted them all into swine. The Odyssey was written near the end of the 8th century BC, which shows that pigs were used in literature a long time ago. The story about Circe can be related to the Lord of the Flies because when the men arrived on the island, they were human but while they were still there, they were morphed into a pig, which is something completely different from a person. The boys in the novel are also transformed during their time spent on the island. When the characters were first introduced, they were all either “dressed, in school uniforms” (18) or “in strangely eccentric clothing” (19) but as the novel progresses, everything changes. Jack and his crew of hunters are later described as savages who are seen as “[d]emonic figures with faces of white and red and green” (140). After Jack and his group split from Ralph, they alter their appearance so that their faces are “painted out of recognition” (175) and they also adopt a depraved indifference to human life. When the naval officer landed on the island, he saw Ralph as a kid who “needed a bath, a haircut, a nose-wipe, and a good deal of
Pigs have played an important role in the lives of humans a thousand years ago and till this very day. Their fat can be used to make soap and their skin can be made into leather but most importantly, they provide food for people. The word pig has many meanings also. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a pig means “a swine of any age” but it can also mean “a greedy, dirty, or unpleasant person” and a person who likes “to gluttonize”. These definitions all relate to William Golding’s novel, the Lord of the Flies where pigs play a significant part of the story. Since the term pig can be interpreted in many ways, the word can represent many themes when it is used in writing. Pigs have appeared in past works of literature such as The Odyssey. When Odysseus’ men landed on the island of Aeaea, Circe, a minor goddess of magic, converted them all into swine. The Odyssey was written near the end of the 8th century BC, which shows that pigs were used in literature a long time ago. The story about Circe can be related to the Lord of the Flies because when the men arrived on the island, they were human but while they were still there, they were morphed into a pig, which is something completely different from a person. The boys in the novel are also transformed during their time spent on the island. When the characters were first introduced, they were all either “dressed, in school uniforms” (18) or “in strangely eccentric clothing” (19) but as the novel progresses, everything changes. Jack and his crew of hunters are later described as savages who are seen as “[d]emonic figures with faces of white and red and green” (140). After Jack and his group split from Ralph, they alter their appearance so that their faces are “painted out of recognition” (175) and they also adopt a depraved indifference to human life. When the naval officer landed on the island, he saw Ralph as a kid who “needed a bath, a haircut, a nose-wipe, and a good deal of