Piggy in The Lord of the Flies was a very smart, yet unheard, voice. He was a friend to Ralph, and if listened, to he probably would have changed the outcome of the book. In Lord of the Flies, Piggy can be seen as an outcast in three different ways. The first way was that he was never able to talk. He was never given attention, and had to demand attention even with the conch. The next way was how he was excluded from physical activities because of his “ass-mar”. The final way is how unimportant he was as a person compared to how important his belongings and ideas are.
In the book Lord of the Flies, Piggy is unable to talk in many examples. At many points, he demands attention by saying he has the conch, but nobody really cares. “Piggy held up the conch and the booing sagged a little, then came up again to strength. “I got the conch” he shouted “ I tell you, I got the conch!” (Pg 179-180 Lord of the Flies William Golding). In this quote piggy and Ralph are captured. Jack punches Ralph, and Ralph returns the favor. Before they are able to begin a full-on fight, Piggy begins to talk at the top of his voice trying to make himself heard. No one cares at all; until he uses the fact that he has the conch to gain attention. Another example of this is when they are gathered around after lighting the forest on fire. “I’ve got the conch,” said Piggy, in a hurt voice. “I got a right to speak.” … “we got to let that burn out now. And that was our fire wood.” He licked his lips “There ain’t nothing we can do… I’m scared” then Jack says “You’re always scared. Yah—Fatty!” (Pg 44-45 Lord of the Flies William Golding). This quote shows the utter disrespect Piggy gets when he tries to talk. Not only is he ignored, but also insulted.
The next way Piggy is an outcast is because of his “ass-mar”, as the pys referred to his asthma. He is excluded from many physical activities, and he also excludes himself. He also isn’t able to keep up many times with the pace that moves. One account of this is when they were going to swim. Ralph starts “you can’t half swim.” “Piggy took of his shoes and socks… “its hot!”(Piggy) “What did you expect”(Ralph) “I didn’t expect nothing. My auntie—”… “aren’t you going to swim?” Piggy shook his head “I
Piggy, though not the most memorable in The Lord of the Flies, resonated the most whilst reading this book. Piggy is the stereotypical nerdy kid who seems to be perpetually bullied, even when he is on a deserted island. He has pinkish skin with glasses and asthma with a belly that ate perhaps too much candy from his aunt’s candy shop. While Piggy is almost useless physically, he is very strong mentally, and proves this when he formulates the idea of the conch, but is too weak to blow into it and call everyone. Piggy seems socially awkward, as if he hasn’t spent much times with his fellow peers and rather passed the time with the adults in this life. We see this when Piggy frequently parrots his aunt’s advice such as “My auntie told me not to run… on account of my
Piggy’s personality and beliefs also connect him to the “adult world” in this novel. He wants to enforce rules so that everything is in a set order. He shows his organization and order through the use of the conch. Piggy had the brilliant idea that when you have the conch only you can talk. This made it so that he and others would have a chance to talk and the others would listen. The conch also is a big form of unity as it requires them to gather. Piggy realizes quickly that they need to stick together if they want to
He was a very intelligent and sweet boy. Piggy would get bullied by the others for being afraid of the dark, having asthma, being chubby,etc. for example, “He's not Fatty, he's Piggy!”(pg.18). In this quote, Piggy was insulted by the other boys for being afraid of the dark. Since the boys found Piggy to be physically weak and unimportant, they didn't justify any of his ideas: “We can use this to call others.
In the book, Lord of the Flies, the character Piggy is seen as an outcast. Piggy is different in his looks, intellect, and role in the group. There are many instances within the book to further show his experience on and off the island to be different from the rest of the boys. Because of the differences from Piggy to the rest of the boys, Piggy is shown as more of an outsider or outcast throughout the book.
He also tells Ralph how to use the conch from when he saw it before. Piggy initially discovers the conch. The conch was at the bottom of the lagoon. Piggy suggests that Ralph uses it to call the boys. Throughout the novel piggy was very smart but was overlooked. Throughout the novel he represented a meritocracy.
Sometimes, intelligence can be a great use, but it is never heard. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, that intelligence is Piggy. Piggy, is a significant use in the island, he gives great ideas but end up being incompetent, he is trying to be heard and to be part of the group. Piggy is motivated by gaining respect from the other boys, and because he is always rejected, this makes him think more in depth about what is happening on the island and how the boys are changing. As a result, he embraces civilization and the protection it provides.
In the Lord of the Flies, a character that is described as fat and is first introduced to the story is taken advantage the whole book. They tease him with the name of Piggy. He was the one in the book that told people about his asthma, or as what they call it, “ass-mar”, and was questioned about why and what it was. Piggy was the character that was never given the chance to speak his mind. They treated him as if he were a no body that was useless. Us as readers were suppose to believe that he was the left out and we should feel sorry for him. Without Piggy and his mind they probably would have wanted him to stay if they listened to him.
Piggy stays somewhat static as a good and civilized boy, like some others (e.g. Simon). However, Piggy’s character change involves his entitlement of civility and his specific separation from the rest of the boys. “‘Like kids!’ he said scornfully. ‘Acting like a crowd of kids!’” (38). This quote exhibits Piggy’s nature of judgment over the other boys’ rashness and establishes his entitlement over the other boys early on. This creates a barrier of sorts, as Piggy might not feel tempted to interact the same way because he is “better than that.” Piggy is also directly characterized as the outsider of the group: “There had grown up tacitly among the biguns the opinion that Piggy was an outsider, not only by accent, which did not matter, but by fat, and ass-mar, and specs, and a certain disinclination for manual labor” (65). In a sense, Piggy is separated from the overall group of boys by his physical and character traits. Piggy also has this emphasized character trait of being myopic. Once Piggy’s specs are destroyed, not only is Piggy literally blind but symbolically as well. This, in turn, means the group is also blind, as Piggy was the only character that seemed to provide a substantial amount of rational thinking and ideas. This leads to irrational thoughts to flow free, like Jack’s ideology of madness and
Without cloudy days the sun wouldn’t be appreciated as much. In Lord of The Flies, the character Piggy acts as a foil to Ralph, the main character, to accentuate how great a leader he is. This is shown through their appearances, how they interact with each other, and the state they are in by the end of the novel. The relationship the two share illuminates the the meaning the book’s meaning that / a person has to be the best to survive in society or lack thereof. / a person can’t have to many flaws otherwise You need to stay civilized to survive. Only the best of the best can survive in society.
Piggy from the start of the novel is portrayed as someone the boys can bully and ridicule which makes him a victim. He confides in Ralph that he is sensitive about his appearance (he is overweight) and the fact he has to wear glasses. I don't care what [you] call me so long as . . . [it's not] what they used to call me in school . . . They used to call me Piggy!'"Ralph finds this funny and straightaway betrays his confidence . Yet it is not long before Piggy proves his worth and intelligence when he spots a conch shell lying in the lagoon and suggests Ralph uses it to call all the boys together. He cant use it because of his asthma . He
“‘I don't care what they call me,’ [Piggy] said confidentially, ‘so long as they don't call me what they used to call me at school.’[...] ‘They used to call me 'Piggy.’(11)” Here, one can see that Piggy’s real name is not actually Piggy but, is meant to endure such a horrid name due to his looks. His body size causes the children around him to make fun of him and from then on, the name sticks with him till his very last moments. On this new island with new faces, Piggy’s suffering starts with the horrid name. From the moment Ralph tells the other boys about his name, the boys immediately start to treat him as a different person. These boys realize that on such an island with no other source of entertainment, the only other resort for these children is Piggy. One would assume that Piggy’s intelligence would be able to write off the insults and discrimination, but to these children, his intelligence served as a vulnerability as the boys use it to make him seem different from the others. Overall, Piggy acts as a source of entertainment for the boys. They want fun. They wanted entertainment. They want to enjoy the life without adults when they have the chance.
Because he is physically different from the other boys on the island, he is looked at differently almost immediately after he started to make suggestions for how the island should have been run. His suggestions for what some of rules should be prior to the election of a leader prove that Piggy was ultimately and fundamentally good because he wanted what was best for the other boys.
Piggy’s physical appearance contributes to his position as an outsider within the society of boys. When Piggy and Ralph first meet, Ralph remarks on Piggy’s shortness of breath to which Piggy responds, ¨ That’s right. Can’t catch my breath. I was the only boy in our school what had asthma, said the fat boy with a touch of pride, ‘And I’ve been wearing specs since I was three¨ (Golding 9). This quote describes Piggy as a fat boy with asthma and glasses, while the other boys are skinny and do not share any of the same characteristics as him. In addition, the author contributes to the outcasting Piggy by never revealing his real name and only describing Piggy as the “fat boy.” This proves that in this society, Piggy is not worth getting to
Because Piggy is much more intelligent than the other boys, he adds a sizeable amount of irony to Lord of the Flies. The other castaways on the island treat Piggy with disrespect and contempt, despite how clever the overweight child actually is. The whole time the boys are stranded on the deserted island, instead of concern, they show a definite lack of interest and care for Piggy. The central reason for this cruel deficiency of empathy is Piggy's appearance. Regardless of how intelligent he was, Piggy was ignored because he was fat and he had glasses; the other children could not see past this unattractive façade to the logical and analytical genius underneath. Several times during the novel, Piggy tried to speak his mind, undoubtedly providing logical insight to many issues, such as lighting and maintaining a
William Golding describes the characters in great detail in his novel Lord of the Flies. At the very beginning of the novel, Golding introduces Piggy as “shorter than the fair boy and very fat. He came forward, searching out safe lodgements for his feet, and then looked up through thick spectacles”(Golding 5). Based on the way that Golding describes Piggy, it can be seen that he could be