Jack was first described with having an air of cruelty that made him naturally unlike able. As leader of the choir and one of the tallest boys on the island, Jack's physical height and authority matched his arrogant personality. His desire to be Chief was clearly evident in his first appearance. When the idea of having a Chief was mentioned Jack spoke out immediately. "I ought to be chief," said Jack with simple arrogance, "because I'm chapter chorister and head boy." He led his choir by administering much discipline resulting in forced obedience from the cloaked boys. His ill nature was well expressed through his impoliteness in saying, "Shut up, Fatty" at Piggy. However, despite his unpleasant personality, his lack of courage and his conscience prevented him from killing the first pig they encountered: "They knew very well why he hadn't: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood". Even at the meetings, Jack was able to contain himself under the leadership of Ralph. He had even suggested the implementation of rules to regulate themselves. This was a Jack who was proud to be British, and who was shaped and still bound by the laws of a civilized society. The freedom offered to him by the island allowed Jack to express the darker sides of his personality that were repressed by the ideals of his past environment. Without adults as a superior and responsible authority, he began to lose his fear of being punished for improper actions and behaviour. This freedom along with his malicious and arrogant personality made it possible for him to quickly degenerate into a savage. He put on paint, first to camouflage himself from the pigs. But he discovered that the paint allowed him to hide the forbidden thoughts in his mind that his facial expressions would otherwise show: "The mask was a thing on its own behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness”. Through hunting, Jack lost his fear of blood and of killing living animals. He reached a point where he actually enjoyed the sensation of hunting a prey afraid of his spear and knife. His hunting of pigs brought out his natural desire for blood and violence. As Ralph became lost in his own confusion, Jack began to assert himself as chief. The boys realizing that Jack was a stronger and more self-assured leader gave in easily to the freedom of Jack's savagery. Placed in a position of power and with his followers sharing his crazed hunger for violence, Jack gained encouragement to commit the vile acts of thievery and murder. Freed from the conditions of a regulated society, Jack gradually became more violent and the rules and proper behaviour by which he was brought up were forgotten. The freedom given to him unveiled his true self under the clothing worn by civilized people to hide his darker characteristics.
Ralph was introduced as a fair and likeable boy whose self-assured manner made him feel secure even on the island without any adults. His interaction with Piggy demonstrated his pleasant nature, as he did not call him names with hateful intent as Jack had. His good physique allowed him to be well accepted among his peers, and this gave him enough confidence to speak out readily in public. His handsome features and the conch as a symbol of power and order made him stand out from the crowd of boys and led to his being proclaimed Chief: "There was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerful, there was the conch". From the quick decisions he made as Chief near the beginning of the novel, it could be seen that Ralph was well organized. But even so, Ralph began repeatedly to long for and daydream of his civilized and regular past. Gradually, Ralph became confused and began to lose clarity in his thoughts and speeches: "Ralph was puzzled by the shutter that flickered in his brain. There was something he wanted to say; then the shutter had come down.” He started to feel lost in their new environment as the boys, with the exception of Piggy, began to change and adapt to their freedom. As he did not lose his sense of responsibility, his viewpoints and priorities began to differ from those of the savages. He was more influenced by Piggy than by Jack, who in a way could be viewed as a source of evil. Even though the significance of the fire as a rescue signal was slowly dismissed, Ralph continued to stress the importance of the fire at the mountaintop. He also tried to re-establish the organization that had helped to keep the island clean and free of potential fire hazards. This difference made most of the boys less convinced of the integrity of Ralph. As his supporters became fewer and Jack's insistence on being Chief grew, his strength as a leader diminished. But even though Ralph had retained much of his civilized personality, he too was not spared from the evil released by the freedom from rules and adults. During the play-fight after their unsuccessful hunt in the course of their search for the east, Ralph for the first time had an opportunity to join the hunters and share their desire for violence: "Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.” without rules to limit them, they were free to make their game as real as they wanted. Ralph did not understand the hatred Jack had for him, nor did he fully comprehend why their small and simple society deteriorated. This confusion removed his self-confidence and made him more dependent on Piggy's judgement, until Piggy began prompting him on what needed to be said and done. Towards the end of the novel, Ralph was forced into independence when he lost all his followers to Jack's savagery, and when Piggy and the conch were smashed by Roger's boulder. He was forced to determine how to avoid Jack's savage hunters alone. Ralph's more responsible behaviour set him apart from the other savage boys and made it difficult for him to realize and accept the changes they were undergoing.
Piggy was an educated boy rejected by the kids of his age group on account of his being overweight. It was his academic background and his isolation from the savage boys that had allowed him to remain mostly unchanged from his primitive experiences on the island. His unattractive attributes separated him from the other boys on the island. He was not welcomed on their first exploratory trip of the island. "We don't want you," Jack had said to Piggy). Piggy was like an observer learning from the actions of others. His status in their society allowed him to look at the boys from an outsider's perspective. He could learn of the hatred being brought out of the boys without having to experience the thirst for blood that Ralph was exposed to. Although the other boys, especially by Jack, easily intimidated him he did not lack the self-confidence to protest or speak out against the indignities from the boys as the shy former choirboy Simon did. This self-confidence differed from that of Ralph's as it did not come from his acceptance by their peers nor did it come from the authority and power Jack had grown accustomed to. It came from the pride in having accumulated the wisdom that was obviously greater than that of most of the other kids at his age. Piggy not only knew what the rules were, as all the other boys did, but he also had the patience to at least wonder why the rules existed. This intuition made Piggy not only more aware of why the rules were imposed, thereby ensuring that he would abide by them even when they were not enforced. When the boys flocked to the mountaintop to build their fire, Piggy shouted after them, "Acting likes a crowd of kids!” Piggy was a very liable person who could look ahead and plan carefully of the future. He shouted at the boys' immature recklessness, “The first thing we ought to have made was shelter down there by the beach... Then when you get here you build a bonfire that isn't any use. Now you been and set the whole island on fire”. Like Ralph, his sense of responsibility set him apart from the other boys. The author used the image of long hair to illustrate Piggy's sustenance of his civilized behaviour. "He was the only boy on the island whose hair never seemed to grow". The author's description of his baldness also presented an image of old age and made Piggy seems to lack the strength of youth. The increasing injustice Piggy endured towards the end of the novel was far greater than any that he had encountered previously. In his fit of anger, Piggy cried out, "I don't ask for my glasses back, not as a favour. I don't ask you to be a sport, I'll say, not because you're strong, but because what's right's right”. This new standard of harshness brought tears out of him as the suffering became intolerable. For a brief moment, Piggy's anger at the unfairness and his helplessness robbed him of his usual logical reasoning, which returned when he was confronted with his fear of the savages. Piggy was an intelligent boy with a good understanding of their situation on the island. He was able to think clearly and plan ahead with caution so that even in the freedom of their unregulated world, his wisdom and his isolation from the savage boys kept him from giving into the evil that had so easily consumed Jack and his followers. The resulting cruelty Jack inflicted upon him taught Piggy how much more pain there was in the world.
Piggy’s glasses are vital to him, as he for one can’t see with out them, it’s like taking away a persons vision/eyes. For one Piggy only has one lens as the other fell out, so he can only see from one eye properly. This makes him more vulnerable to the others as they can play a joke on him which he can’t see, this may of also caused his death as he may not seen the boulder or had no time to react to the boulder which hit him “from chin to knee” and flung him forty feet in the air. Piggy’s specs are also crucial to the other boys rescue as it is the only way of lighting a fire, as none of the other boys happen to wear glasses or matches (which at there age is obvious). The glasses are needed for rescue but when Jack’s tribe steal Piggy’s glasses then its just cat and mouse. As Ralph and Piggy want to get of the island but Jack and his tribe of savages don’t, as they are having “fun”. This includes playing games, mocking Ralph and Piggy, dressing up and most importantly having face paint. This is typical of savages as they dress up in just a few rags, this is what most of the boys may only have left of the clothes they wore when they first came on the island, having face paint on and scaring the others. So Piggy’s glasses are need for rescuing and not being rescued.
Law and order in Lord of the flies plays a big part in the book as the degeneration of the law and order set by Ralph gets destroyed when Jack takes Piggy’s glasses to make the fire. This is when the rules set by Ralph gets ruined. To Ralph and Piggy the thing that keeps the law and order on the island before it got destroyed was the conch. The conch symbolised ‘Democracy, Order’. This is what Jack wanted and when he got it he went power mad. He had his own tribe, this was formed as Ralph’s first priority and the main priority was to get rescued, but jack’s first priority was to hunt. Obviously the big’uns and the original choir (except for Simon) followed Jack as to them it was all fun and no work, and soon after the little’uns followed. So Ralph had everything and because Jack new what everyone wanted to do which was to hunt, so he formed a new tribe and revolted against Ralph’s tribe. There are many other aspects in the story that may be considered symbolism, but the several above are probably the most significant. Another good example of symbolism is the shape of the island. The boat shape of the island is an ancient symbol of civilization. The water current around the island seems to be "flowing backwards," giving the subtle impression that civilization may be going backwards for the island or its inhabitants. Additionally, Jack could also represent Communism or Fascism. Golding was influenced by events during the time period that the book was written, which was around World War II.