In many novels there's usually a character the reader loves to
hate. Whether that character be a loser, a loner, or someone who's
just chubby, we all have made fun of that particular person at least
once in our lives. Throughout William Golding's novel, Lord of the
Flies, he illustrates the joy of readers in hating Piggy's character.
In the beginning of the novel, when Ralph meets Piggy after
the plane crash, Piggy regretfully tells Ralph what the kids used to
call him at school, "They used to call me 'Piggy'."(1) Ralph then
shrieks with laughter and makes fun of Piggy's nickname, "Piggy!
Piggy!"(2) Ralph goes on and on with giving Piggy a bad time,
just as kids normally would. This could be Ralph's way of trying to
distract himself from the reality of the airplane smashup. By the
author's description of Piggy and the contents of Piggy's talks, all
of us have a good idea of how he looks like and how he acts. We
can all relate to him as that 'fat nerd' that always sat alone in the
cafeteria. We all had nicknames for the 'loner'. We knew deep
down that this was a bad thing to do but we enjoyed putting him or
her down.
Piggy is smarter than most of the survivors. You could see
this because he was aware of the situation around him whereas
Ralph enjoyed the freedom. It was Piggy's idea to write down all
of the survivors' names and he knew where to put the hole in the
conch and what it could be used for. Piggy is also clever in which
when he is asked to do something physical, whether it would be
exercise or hard labour, he says he cannot do it because of his
asthma, but most people could 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!' "(3)
Ralph could easily tell that Piggy was lying, and whimping out.
Piggy is different from the other survivors, he is considered
as an outsider. His body is different, he also thinks different from
the other boys. At first he is the only one talking about and wanting
to get rescued, yet all the other boys are either happy with their
freedom and exploring the island or they're thinking about 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,' said Piggy, 'an' this is
an island. Nobody don't know we're here. Your
dad don't know, nobody don't know----'
His lips quivered and the spectacles were dimmed
with mist.
'We may stay here till we die.' "(4)
This talk did overcome the boys with concern, but they soon forgot
it and thought nothing of it.
Jack is the obvious one who goes too far in teasing Piggy. At
first it was just mild teasing, calling him names, mostly verbal
abuse. Later in time, Jack and his own separate clan, killed a pig
and invited Ralph's group for a feast. At the feast Piggy was the
only one without meat. Hungry, he spoke.
" 'Aren't I having none?'
Jack had meant to leave him in doubt, as an
assertion of power; but Piggy by advertising
his omission mad more cruelty necessary.
'You didn't hunt.' "(5)
Later Simon gave his meat to Piggy, and Jack went into a rage,
yelling at Simon that he got meat for him, not Piggy. Later in the
Novel, when Ralph and Piggy came to confront Jack about Simon's
death, Roger did the unexplainable when he pushed a large boulder
over a cliff and onto Piggy. Yet everybody thought that this seemed
the right thing to do except for Ralph was the only one who was
sane and thought differently. Ralph realized that they had gone too
far.
Throughout William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies, he
illustrates the joy of readers in hating Piggy's character. In many
forms of entertainment such as movies, books and television
shows, there has always been a character like Piggy .Everybody
has a little evil inside and we seem to take it out on a character like
Piggy and Mr. William Golding has shown us that we enjoy hating
these kind of characters and that things will probably never
change.
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