“Lord Of The Flies”, a story written by British writer William Golden. Golding expresses the different aspects of human nature through his characters he slowly reveals their true selves throughout the novel. Piggy is a major character, he is shown to be an overweight boy with asthma however, as the book continues on we found out Piggy true self. Piggy is the embodiment of wisdom, rationalism and law and order he represents the superego in Sigmund Freud’s idea of human personality and once piggy gets killed the boys realise that the last bit of civilisation and rationalism is gone and how important Piggy was to the island.
Piggy is the embodiment of wisdom, rationalism and law and order. Right from the start of the novel. Golding expresses aspects from the real world in “Lord of the Flies” through his symbolism and his characters. In “Lord of the Flies” his character in the novel are normally build out to represent an aspect that is in the normal world, such as Ralph representing civilization. however, he also uses an opposite to the good aspects to make the rivalry between characters such as Jack representing savagery. Golding also added in the novel a voice of reason and an aspect between civilization and savagery which is Piggy, Piggy is the middle of these aspects he has no more or less of Ralph and Jacks aspects. Piggy is the representation of logic and reason. An example of what Piggy represents is in chapter 5 of the novel. Piggy refuses to believe the beast is real, but he does concede that the fear itself exists “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What’re grownups going to think?”. Here piggy shows his traits Piggy uses science against the boys “Life…is scientific” and intellect to defy them that there is a beast, however, he still provides the reason that there is fear. The reason Golding wrote Piggy like this was to make Piggy be a character that everyone feels sympathy for and make everyone think that he has no real purpose but when the Piggy is gone everyone releases how much Piggy was needed. This is because when Piggy dies at the end Ralph falls to his knees because his only friend was killed and that once piggy died all civilization was lost.
Sigmund Freud’s idea of human personality revolves a-lot around “Lord of the Flies”. His idea of Id, Ego, and Superego is shown through the characters in the novel. Jack is the Id of Freud’s theory, Id is the primitive and instinctual part of our brain and Piggy is the exact opposite of Jack. Piggy represents the superego in Freud’s theory. The superegos function is to control the id impulses, and it tells the ego part of what is right and wrong. It is basically the rule book. Piggy is a great representation of superego because of his constant attention for following rules. An example of this is when Piggy latches on today the conch when he wants to speak because he feels it has a symbol of authority. “I got the conch! Just you listen!”. Why Golding did this was to most likely to capture the essence of human nature and show the different types of people in the world just like “Lord of the Flies” the real world has people who represent Id, Ego, and Superego, for example, babies/toddlers they represent Id and as they grow older they develop Ego and Superego.
When Piggy gets killed in chapter eleven Ralph realized how important Piggy was too him and the island. Also that the last ounce of civilization is gone. When Piggy gets killed by Roger. Ralph realizes Piggys true self. He understood why Piggy was so important to the island. also why Piggy stood by Ralph even after Ralph rejected him. Piggy fought for the good cause he knew what was right. When Piggy died with the conch not only did the conch represent civilization but Piggy also did and when Piggy died holding the conch Ralph realized that all rationality and civilization was gone. The boys fell into complete anarchy. Most of the characters in “Lord of the Flies” are revealed throughout the book. However Piggy is different the reader doesn’t fully understand Piggy until the end when you truly understand Piggy for who he is. The saying of “you don’t know what you have till it’s gone” perfectly fits into this situation. An example in which Ralph truly understands the loss if Piggy is when Ralph is on the beach crying in front of the naval officer “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy”. The reason William Golding did this was to show the reader how important civilization and rationality is. He shows how fast we can lose the greatest aspects of our society and how we can never understand something until it’s gone.
Altogether Piggy is a very important character in “Lord of the flies” he is revealed thought of the book to be the embodiment of wisdom, rationalism and law and order. Meaning he uses science and logic on his side. His effects on others as well as himself really did express Golding’s ideas of human nature. As Well Piggy represents Sigmund Freud’s idea of Superego meaning that Piggy incorporates the morals and values of the society. Furthermore, once Piggy is killed we understand how important Piggy was to Ralph and the boys, and that once he died all civilisation and rationality was gone.
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