How Is Piggy Presented In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Lord of the flies is a novel about a group of boys who crash land on a island and are left to fend for themselves. Piggy is a fat boy who wears thick spectacles. Piggy lives with his aunty and has asthma. Piggy is a clever, cautious and rational thinking boy. Piggy is very cautious he admits to Ralph that he can not swim he says “I can’t swim I wasn’t allowed, my asthma, my aunty wouldn’t let me, blow on account of my asthma”.

This shows that piggy is very cautious about entering the water and does not on account of his asthma.

Essay Example on Piggy Lord Of The Flies

Also this quotation shows that piggy is very attached to his aunty. When the other boys find out that Piggy has asthma they pick up on that straight away and use it against Piggy Ralph said, “Sucks to your ass-mar”. Piggy is a very clever boy the book states that “Piggy was no chief, but Piggy for all his ludicrous body, had the brains”.

This shows that although Piggy is fat he is the only one that can think logically and sensibly. Piggy says, “We ought to have a meeting” this also shows that piggy is thinking sensibly.

This combination between this physical appearance and his brains does not make Piggy very popular as he is also an easy target. The other boy on the island most of all Jack dislike Piggy, they call him fat and discriminate Piggy as he is physically different.

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Ralph is the only one on the island that finally appreciates Piggy’s intelligence. At first Ralph thought in the same way as the others but in the end changed his mind and realised that he was the only intelligent one on the island. Piggy is a victim, Piggy chooses to make himself a victim. He stood outside the circle of boys.

He chooses to exclude himself from the other boys as he strongly believes that he is different not just because he is physically different but mentally too. He feels different because all the other boys make fun of him an do not include him in what they are doing. The other boys are having fun making a tribe, swimming and hunting, but on the other hand Piggy knows that it is more important to survive first to make shelters and have civilised society inlike Jack who like chaos. So Piggy omits himself from the group as he feels that he is better than the rest.

So not only Piggy chooses to reject himself but also Jack and the others do too they call him names and treats him badly like when they stole his glasses, which is why he is a victim. Jack is very weak on the island he cant cope with order he hates it because he likes every think to be chaotic. He also loves power he said “I ought to be chief he said with simple arrogance”. When Jack singles out Piggy it makes him feel good about himself it makes him feel powerful he only picks on Piggy because he is different amd can not stick up for himself.

Jack knows that he is an easy target. I feel Piggy is an important character in the novel as Piggy is the only one with the brains and he is the only one except Ralph that thinks about been rescued and about the future. I believe that it is Piggy’s intelligence helps them to survive but when Piggy died and the conch smashed the symbol for intelligence, order and logic died with him. So there fore Piggy is an important figure in the novel as he help the natural leader Ralph make the vital decisions.