Piggy's Transformation In Lord Of The Flies

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William Golding’s Lord of the Flies depicts the fall of a society through a group of stranded school boys. On a desolate island where they are stranded, a type of civilized order is formed, yet because of fear, the boys disregard civil life and become brutal savages. As the isolated adolescents transform from civility and sensibility to savagery and irrationality, Piggy, the most grounded in the group, serves as a scapegoat due to his maturity and knowledge which challenges the other boys and results in rejection and detrction of both Piggy and his philosophy.
From early in the novel, as the group of boys began to develop their “civilization”, Piggy’s knowledgeable expertise is evident. Immediately after Ralph finds the conch and realizes it …show more content…
Throughout the novel Piggy, is never truly accepted as evidenced when Jack killed a pig to eat, and Piggy asks, “’Aren’t I having none?’” to which Jack responds with, “’You didn’t hunt’” (62). This simple assertion of power perfectly illustrates how Piggy is not truly treated as an equal because he did not participate in hunting. Unfortunately, all of his significant contributions were seen as pointless. Towards the end of the novel when Jack’s tribe of savages has been assembled, Piggy attempts to talk some sense into the boys by questioning, “’Which is better—to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is? ... Which is better—to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?’” (162). Rather than appreciating Piggy’s sensibility, the boys are angered to the point that Roger rolls a rock onto Piggy, to which he, “fell forty feet and landed on his back… his head opened and stuff came out and turned red” (163). Golding incorporates the murder of Piggy to emphasize that instead of addressing their own corruption, the tribe of savages look down upon his maturity and intelligence and squash it with the ultimate punishment:
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