Piggy
Piggy
Piggy is the fat boy who is the brunt of all the jokes and teasing in the novel. He is physically weak and constantly complains about his asthma. He is also myopic and almost blind without his glasses. But Piggy is also rational and has an understanding about life. He constantly warns the boys about their behavior and foolish ways. He also becomes Ralph's best friend and serves as a sounding board and advisor to him.
Piggy is also the fire-starter in the novel since his glasses are used to light all the flames. When Piggy's glasses are broken, it symbolically points to the breaking up of civilized society. When his glasses are stolen by the savages, he becomes completely blind and helpless. He cannot even see to dodge the large boulder that kills him. When he is killed, he is clutching the conch, a symbol of order and authority; appropriately, the conch is crushed with him.
So, Piggy is kind of the social outcast of the group. What’s more, he’s going to get smashed to an untimely and tragic death by a large rock.
But let’s talk about this rock-related injury. We were rather intrigued by the line that said, in Roger’s eyes, Piggy just looked like a “bag of fat.” This sounded familiar, so we went back a few chapters and found that the pigs were referred to as “bags of fat” as well. Then we sat around and thought about how Piggy’s name is PIGGY, and about how the boys went gradually from killing PIGS to killing PIGGY. Then we abused the use of capital letters to get our point across.
It seems the boys start to see Piggy as just another animal, and he is therefore killed as though that’s just what he is. The interesting thing is that the boys, because they kill Piggy, sort of become animals themselves. It’s a slippery, slidey, downward slope of atrocity. But animals aside, there’s another key point in Piggy’s death, and that is that the conch dies with him. The conch is smashed into thousands of pieces, which is about as close as an inanimate object is
Piggy is the fat boy who is the brunt of all the jokes and teasing in the novel. He is physically weak and constantly complains about his asthma. He is also myopic and almost blind without his glasses. But Piggy is also rational and has an understanding about life. He constantly warns the boys about their behavior and foolish ways. He also becomes Ralph's best friend and serves as a sounding board and advisor to him.
Piggy is also the fire-starter in the novel since his glasses are used to light all the flames. When Piggy's glasses are broken, it symbolically points to the breaking up of civilized society. When his glasses are stolen by the savages, he becomes completely blind and helpless. He cannot even see to dodge the large boulder that kills him. When he is killed, he is clutching the conch, a symbol of order and authority; appropriately, the conch is crushed with him.
So, Piggy is kind of the social outcast of the group. What’s more, he’s going to get smashed to an untimely and tragic death by a large rock.
But let’s talk about this rock-related injury. We were rather intrigued by the line that said, in Roger’s eyes, Piggy just looked like a “bag of fat.” This sounded familiar, so we went back a few chapters and found that the pigs were referred to as “bags of fat” as well. Then we sat around and thought about how Piggy’s name is PIGGY, and about how the boys went gradually from killing PIGS to killing PIGGY. Then we abused the use of capital letters to get our point across.
It seems the boys start to see Piggy as just another animal, and he is therefore killed as though that’s just what he is. The interesting thing is that the boys, because they kill Piggy, sort of become animals themselves. It’s a slippery, slidey, downward slope of atrocity. But animals aside, there’s another key point in Piggy’s death, and that is that the conch dies with him. The conch is smashed into thousands of pieces, which is about as close as an inanimate object is