Explore the importance of Piggy in Lord of the flies

The fact that Piggy wears glasses is ironic. Piggy is the only one on the island who wears glasses; this is ironic as he is one of the only people who have the clear sightedness to see the fall from normal society to the savage depths that the boys reach. As their stay on the island evolves it becomes clear that piggy is clear sighted with things to do with the boy’s changing attitude.

Piggy uses the conch and society as a shield for his insecurity and his lack of proficiency at all physical activities “Piggy was a bore, his fat, his ass-mar and his matter-of-fact ideas were dull.  Piggy is always seen to act with a sense of authority and caring towards the conch within the meetings telling people that “When you done laughing perhaps we can get on with this meeting”. His false sense of security is shown by his keeping hold of the conch throughout most of the meetings and always saying “I got the conch” “They ought to shut up shouldn’t they” and being a sort of translator for the “littl’uns”. This shows us that piggy tries to use his intellect to gain a normal place within the islands society. “Piggy was once more the centre of social derision so that everyone felt cheerful and normal.” This shows us how Piggy is sectioned from the est of the group due to his social status. This may be interpreted as a message from Golding that the society of the world values the wrong things, preferring physical strength to intellectual strength causing those people who should be more highly valued to be victimised.

Piggy as well as Ralph seems to be a minority by the fact that they have a sense of right and wrong. But he differs in that he never strays from this knowledge always keeping a distance from savagery, whereas Ralph sometimes forgets himself and gets involved in certain acts which could be viewed as immoral. This shows Piggy not only as intelligent but as having a strong sense of morality.

Piggy always supports Ralph, this is because Ralph is one of the few people on the island who has a connection to the outside society in as much as he has been democratically elected. This seems to appeal to the boy’s on the island at the beginning of the novel when they all what “lots of rules” but as their stay on the island progresses they become more “savage” and “ape like”. But piggy always through thick and thin sticks to the moral and democratically elected leader.

Piggy is also named so because he is the victim of the island. This name is used as he is the prey of the island just like the pigs that are killed for food this is done to show how society victimises people. This could be done to make you feel sympathetic towards a character that could if represented differently be thought as the character that everyone loves to hate.