lord of the flies

From really the very beginning of the Lord of the Flies, we can see this idea of Piggy being very clever, but also the victim. This occurs when Ralph and Piggy meet for the first time after the plane crash on the beach. In this scene, Piggy spots the conch first and knows immediately what it is which suggests to the reader that he is very bright for his age. At the same time though, Ralph ignores Piggy and thinks of him as an "irrelevance" and shouts at him telling him to "shut-up." This illusion of Piggy being an "irrelevance" continues to his death - some could say this thought was the reason why he was murdered - and also influences the idea of Piggy being everyone's scapegoat. The phrase, "Piggy once more was the centre of social derision" greatly reflects this thought as the other boys just seem to mock him constantly, and do not listen to his helpful, life-saving ideas.

Later on in the novel Piggy says "The first thing we ought to have made was shelters down there by the beach. It wasn't half cold down there in the night" and makes the other boys realise how foolish they have been and how they should have listened to him beforehand. At this point, Golding has reinforced the fact that teamwork in this situation is very important, especially when lives are in danger, and the fact that the others didn't listen or act on Piggy's ideas, has effectively endangered the group. The writer, throughout the book, suggests this idea of 'teamwork=survival' at different stages of the novel, and this idea is always influenced by Piggy's feelings and ideas. Another example of this is when he says "Let him have the conch" to Jack as he refuses to let another young boy speak, suggesting that Piggy wants everyone to be equal and fair. This idea of equality among the boys disintegrates as the novel progresses, as Piggy is the one who becomes aware of the fact that things on the island are slowly slipping out of control.

Here, we can see that the writer has used irony because it is Piggy who wants equality, but ends up the one being able to see that things are becoming wild and uncontrollable on the island; the complete opposite to what he wanted and expected from the boys.

When Piggy's glasses are broken by Jack, it means that Piggy can no longer see. The writer is very clever here, as metaphorically, the cracked glasses means that none of the others can see either as Piggy was the one who produced the vital ideas and ways in which the boys could survive on the island. The fact that none of them can see where they are going anymore, leads to the death of Piggy, and the divide between the boys (the two groups of Ralph and Jack). Therefore, the event of the breaking of the glasses is the major turning point in the novel.

Clearly then, we can understand the writer, William Golding, uses the character of Piggy to send various messages to the reader throughout the novel by using the scenes where he gets bullied by the others and how they completely ignore his intelligence due to the fact that there is no freedom of speech on the island.