piggy

• "Which is better - to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?"


  interrogatives - Piggy questions the boys' regression, establishing him as an outsider who acts as Golding's didactic voice: to maintain social cohesion, humans need the civilising influences of society such as rules and order
• "fat, ass-mar and specs" "accent"


  Piggy's physiognomy instantly establishes him as an outsider - the marginalisation of Piggy reflects how Nazi Germany adopted a system of rewarding the strong like Jack and attacking the weak. The degrading language presents Piggy as physically vulnerable and immediately marginalised by the rest of the boys.
• "I got the conch, i got the right to speak"


  anaphora connotes Piggy's desperation to cling to civilisation and his trepidation concerning the ephemerality of democracy
• "cradled the conch"


  maternal language depicts Piggy as the protector of not only the littluns, but democracy too
• "What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What's grownups going to think?"


  repeated interrogatives polarise Piggy from the other boys - he has an unwavering commitment to maintain order and civility on the island which is ultimately futile in the face of evil.
• "his head opened and stuff came out and turned red"


  childish euphemism of "stuff" reminds readers of the naivety of the boys, unable to comprehend the atrocities they have committed - Golding utilises Piggy's death to didactically warn his readers how the weak and enlightened in society are the most likely to become vulnerable and mistreated
• "The conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist"


  civility is ephemeral - Piggy's brutal death marks the height of the boys' savagery and the loss of innocence on the island
• Piggy acts as a beacon of civility - he is resistant, but not immune to savagery