Piggys' intellectual benefit doesn’t benefit the rest of the boys directly through him, if it did he probably wouldn’t have been victimised as he was. However Piggy did not have any leadership qualities and has no rapport with other boys, first impressions were made on looks, and Piggy did not fit the profile of a good leader. So instead his intelligence was spread by Ralph, leaving him with nothing to give to the group that they would recognise, making him even more of a victim because the boys did not know how much they needed him. Ralph was the only one who stood with Piggy and that was because he needed him, Piggy was his anchor to civilisation, when his thoughts began to drift away, and he would forget, Piggy would remind him.
The boys also needed Piggy’s specs; they were the only way to start a fire, which was their main link to the rest of the world, and their signal for rescue. This is what Ralph focused all his goals on, rescue, and Piggy became his best friend, he was Ralph’s link to all his wishes. The reader realised that all the boys depended on Ralph in some form, but only Ralph recognised him for his true virtues “the true, wise friend called Piggy”, and so the reader tends to feel deep sympathy for Piggy. I think that Golding added in the fact that Piggy was a victim especially as another moral. As Golding was a school teacher, he witnessed how mean children can be; I believe he wanted children to read his novel and feel sorry for Piggy so as they know how it is to be bullied in order to stop them from bullying. When the reader first hears of Piggy, he immediately expresses to Ralph that “They used to call me ‘Piggy’.”
Ralph then shrieks with laughter and makes fun of Piggy’s nickname, “Piggy! Piggy!” Ralph goes on and on with giving Piggy a bad time, just as kids normally would. At first this is entertaining for the reader, but as the novel continues, we began to feel sympathy for Piggy and anger towards those who bully him, as does Ralph. This also creates another bond between the reader and Ralph, because we feel guilty together with Ralph, for originally mocking Piggy. We can all relate to him as the outcast that we all have known; we all had nicknames for them and at times had probably talked about them or taunted them. We knew deep down that this was a bad thing to do but we enjoyed putting him or her down. This is how Golding shows the cruelty of human race through Piggy.
Piggy stands out from the rest of the boys right from the start. He is much cleverer than all the other survivors, we can see this as he immediately realises the severity of the situation, whereas Ralph and the others want to enjoy the freedom or hunting. Piggy knows the actual life and death situation upon the group, when he talks about the death of the pilots. “‘They’re all dead... ‘an’ this is an island. Nobody don’t know we’re here. Your dad don’t know, nobody don’t know… We may stay here till we die. ” This concerns the other boys, but they soon forget, and go back to taunting Piggy. We also realise that he is quite lazy, because as soon as he is asked to do anything physical he says he cannot do it because of his asthma, but most people can see that he is lying. An example of this is when he was afraid to swim. “Piggy tip-toed down the sandy side of the pool, and sat there up to his neck in water smiling proudly at Ralph. “‘Aren’t you going to swim?’ Piggy shook his head. ‘I can’t swim. I wasn’t allowed. My asthma’…‘Sucks to your ass-mar!’ ” Ralph could easily tell that Piggy was lying.
Near the end of the book Jack separated from Ralph and Piggy, and as Piggy is the symbol of civilisation, he completely severed his ties with the old world. Golding uses Piggy to show how the other boys detach from society, as they distance themselves from Piggy more and more. Jack and his “tribe” go back to Ralph’s end of the island to steal fire, when there is only Ralph, Piggy and Samneric left. They steal Piggy’s glasses, but Piggy thought they were coming to steal the conch, because he is still firmly stuck in the reality of civilisation, and the conch represents the rules. “I thought they were coming for the conch”.
When Piggy finally died, “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.” As the conch and Piggy are the main two symbols of democracy and the civilised world they used to live in, when they are gone the boys lose all of their roots back home. This is why Jack and his tribe hunt Ralph at the end; they are savages, not boys anymore.
