Characters

• Piggy


  • uses non standard language, sets him apart from the other boys
  • fatter, shorter than the others, represents his inferiority
  • spectacles symbolise intelligence, uses the conch and advises Ralph
• "for all his ludicrous body he had brains" "all intelligence traced to him"


  Piggy's intelligence
• "like a crowd of kids" "we ought to have a meeting" "martyred expression of a parents"


  Piggy in Chapter 1

  • ironic maturity
  • contrasts his physical appearance
• "shut up fatty"

  Piggy's immediate rivalry with Jack
• Piggy vs the others

  • hunters hunt pigs, symbolises Piggy is an outsider and used as a scapegoat
  • colour imagery, pink face and pink granite cliffs, scientific rationalist
• "life is scientific, I know there is no beast" "What are we? Humans? Animals? Or savages?"

  Piggy's attitude towards the Beast in Chapter 5
• "It's come! It's real!"


  Piggy's attitude to the Beast, scientific and rational character reaches a state of fear
• Piggy's death


  • explicit, graphic and literal language
  • boys move on quickly, desensitised to murder
  • no care for Piggy
  • reminds reader that he viewed the word mathematically, precisely and factually
• "Piggy's arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig after it had been killed"


  Piggy's death, constant comparison with animals
• "Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment"


  Piggy's death, murder with intent and savage desire, unlike Simon's
• "the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments"


  Piggy's death, demolition of peace and democracy
• contextual links with Piggy

  • blindness is often used as symbol for having the ability to see beyond "normal sight"
  • Tiresias in Greek mythology, blind prophet
  • perceives things beyond normal senses
  • can be enlightened in different ways
• "the boy with the fair hair" "proclaimed no devil" "stood among the skull like coconuts"

  Ralph in Chapter 1

  • light and innocence
  • foreshadows that he stays innocent
  • and he will stand among others that lose their innocence
• Piggy and Ralph's relationship

  • Ralph is initially hostile in not accepting Piggy's friendship but shows kindness
  • "better Piggy than Fatty...I'm sorry" represents his diplomacy and leadership attitudes
  • eventually develops and they learn from each other
• "golden body" "may have been a boxer"


  Ralph in Chapter 1

  • shows his physical superiority to the others
• "he was big enough to be a link with the adult world of authority"


  Ralph in Chapter 1
• Ralph's development in Chapter 5


  • forced to grow up quickly as life becomes more serious
  • order breaking down due to Jack's mask and hunting
• "understanding the wearisomeness of this life"


  Ralph in Chapter 5

  • matured and no longer sees initial enthusiasm
  • notices negatives of the island
• "this meeting must not be fun, but business" "we'll be like animals"

  Ralph in chapter 5

  • becoming an adult figure
  • attempting to salvage civilisation on the island
• "Ralph was a specialist in thought now" "Piggy could think"


  Ralph in chapter 5

  • new respect
  • matured
• Ralph as a leader

  • Jack lacks respect for authority and the conch
  • Piggy sees Ralph as a good and natural leader
  • fears for his own position if Ralph lost power
• Ralph and Piggy in chapter 10


  after Simon's death, swap roles

  • Ralph becomes more straightforward "that was murder"
  • Piggy tries to excuse their behaviour "It was an accident. An accident"
• "Ralph tried to remember, there was something good about the fire" "the fire was dying on them"

  Chapter 10 Ralph and Piggy begin to lose their faith in keeping the fire going

  • they feel defeated
  • maintaining civilisation in the face of savagery proves too hard
• "Ralph desperately prayed that the Beast would prefer littluns"

  Ralph and Piggy are attacked by Jack's tribe for the glasses

  • suggests that human instinct is to sacrifice the weak and innocent
• "which is better - to have rules and agree or to hunt and kill?"

  Ralph after Piggy's death

  • optimistically asking the savages
  • civilisation vs order
• "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart" "true friend called Piggy"


  Chapter 12

  • shows Piggy's impact on Ralph and how he has matured to recognise this
  • significance of their relationship
  • importance of team work and friendship
• Simon


  • represents truth, innocence and religion
  • often goes into the wilderness on his own
  • often prophetic, predicts his own death
• "skinny, vivid little boy" "he's queer" "always throwing a faint"


  Simon

  • different to the other boys
  • epilepsy, medieval belief that epileptics have divine powers and knowledge
• "Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach" "passed them back to the endless outstretched hands"


  Simon chapter 3

  • natural imagery
  • boundless kindness
  • associations with Christ and religion, feeding the five thousand
• "Maybe there is no beast? What I mean is...maybe it's only us"


  Simon in Chapter 5

  • lack of confidence even in the wisdom he shares
  • shows intelligence and a deep understanding of their situation
• "you'll get back alright"


  Simon to Ralph

  • prophetic and understandin
• "you knew didn't you? I'm part of you?"


  beast speaking to Simon

  • speaks like Jack
  • threatening
• "We used his specs, he helped that way"

  Simon about Piggy

  • shows kindness and sensitivity towards him when Jack was saying he wasn't helping
• Simon as a literary construct

  shows how human ability to be self aware and reflective allows them to live a life guided by morality
• "he walked with an accustomed tread through the acres of fruit trees"


  Simon in chapter 3

  • used to being in nature
  • contrasts Piggy and has a complete understanding of the terrain
• "slope of the bars of honey-coloured sunlight"


  when Simon is in his cabin in the woods

  • gold connotations linked to value
• antithesis to Jack


  Simon

  • celestial, omnipresent being
  • parental figure who cares for the littluns
• "the half shut eyes were dim with the infinite cynicism of adult life"


  the lord of the flies in Simon's enclosure chapter 8

  • aware of Simon's torment
  • inside his head
  • figment of his imagination
• "Might the beast not come for it?"

  Chapter 8

  • Simon's thoughts at Jack's pig head offering for the Beast
  • realistic thoughts
  • taking things seriously
• "Simon felt a perilous necessity to speak; but to speak in assembly was a terrible thing to him" "his heartbeats were choking him"

  Simon in Chapter 5

  • he doesn't like speaking publicly
  • shyness and vulnerability
  • innocence, care and selflessness