On page fourteen, Ralph blows the conch and calls everybody; this could be seen as an omen that he might be leader in the future. Ralph is the first to mention having a chief. At the beginning of page seventeen, piggy sees Ralph as a protector “he shrank to the other side of Ralph…” when jack was first introduced. Ralph is undoubtedly the favourite to be chief, the majority of the boys on the island wanted him to be leader. Even though he was voted chief, he is fair and realised he should give jack some role.
Ralph and jack are very much alike; they both take charge and are confident. This could be a sign that they will become enemies in the future. Ralph is liberating, confident and the references to him being good looking and fair-haired means that he is good.
The second character to be introduced is piggy. He was brought up by his aunt as both his parents are dead. His appearance is completely opposite to Ralph; he is described as a “greasy wind-breaker” on the first page, he is fat, wears thick spectacles and is asthmatic. He also cannot swim. At school piggy was bullied, this is how he became “piggy”. Piggy has no real friends and he is a bit of a loner, and so he seeks friendship with Ralph. He does not speak well, he uses “them” instead of “those”, “was” instead of “were” and so on. Piggy is lower class than Ralph. In spite of this he is still very intelligent, organised and sensible. One of the first things he suggests is to make a register of everyone on the island so they could keep a record, he also suggests a meeting as well. He is concerned to find the others and suggests using the conch to call people to them (page twelve).
Piggy is pessimistic, he brings up that they might stay on the island until they die, but he is also friendly. He asks Ralph for his name when he first sees him, Ralph is cool towards him and does not return the question. Later on piggy sees Ralph as a protector when he is scared of jack, but then Ralph betrays Piggy by telling jack that his name. When this happens piggy gets very upset, and his glasses lenses steam up, so he does not vote for Ralph at first because he sulks. Piggy doesn’t want recognition, apart from Ralph; he tells everybody that it was Ralph’s idea for a meeting, when it was really him. Piggy is Ralph’s right-hand man, he gives ideas to him. Ralph is almost like a puppet for piggy and is a front-man for his ideas. Piggy would be a better leader but he cannot because of the way he looks.
Jack is the last to be discussed in the chapter. He is not a good character such as Ralph or piggy. He is instantly portrayed as evil when he is first described. Jack wears a long black cloak; his face is crumpled and freckly. He is ugly “without silliness”. Jack has red hair and he has a long thin, bony body. When everyone is half-naked jack is fully dressed.
Jack is very commanding, “he shouted an order”, he is also very demanding and expects there to be a ship waiting for them. When Piggy asks jack for his name for the register, jack doesn’t see why he should be called Jack – he wanted to be known as Merridew, his surname, as he feels that he is not children like the others and he thinks of himself better. Jack is a bully, all of the other boys in his choir are scared of him and he is very nasty towards piggy “…shut up fatty…” He thinks that he should automatically become chief because he is head of the choir, and he doesn’t consider anyone else’s feeling towards it.
Jack gets very angry easily and is not pleasant at all. The first mention of violence comes from jack when he says that the choir should be the army and they could hunt, he is threatening and violent himself, on page twenty Jack “…snatched from behind him a sizeable sheath-knife…” Jack uses this knife to cut at the bushes but also when he was going to kill the piglet. He did not have the courage to kill it, which is understandable for just a boy, but becomes embarrassed. He makes the excuse that he was waiting for a moment to decide where to stab the piglet. Jack emphasises to Ralph and Simon that he will kill it next time. I think that this was an omen that jack will eventually kill piggy.