The Death of Piggy:
Earlier
At their meeting on the
mountain top Jack
says: “We’ve got to
have rules and obey
them. After all we’re
not savages.”
On their first journey
up the mountain the
boys have fun rolling
rocks, “Like a bomb!”
Lead Up
After the ship goes by
Jack leaves the meeting
saying, “Bollocks to
the rules! We’re strong
- we hunt!” Then later
he leaves the group for
good to form his own
tribe.
Roger was throwing
stones “Zup” near
Piggy like earlier with
Henry: “Roger’s arm
was conditioned by a
civilisation…”
Key Scene – climax
“Which is better –
to have rules and
agree or to hunt
and kill?”
Roger, with a
sense of delirious
abandonment,
leaned all his
weight on the
lever.
Piggy finds the conch
which is used to call
the others and becomes
the symbol of
democracy and
equality: Ralph says,
“Hands up. Then I’ll
give him the conch.”
Before the death of
Simon Ralph
threatened to call a
meeting by blowing the
conch and Jack said,
“We shan’t hear it.”
The conch
exploded into a
thousand white
fragments and
ceased to exist.
Pig as victim which
starts with the piglet
caught in the creepers
in the first chapter
which Jack cannot
bring himself to kill.
He and his tribe
become obsessed with
killing pigs.
The boys thought the
beast might live in the
sea and Ralph sees it as
preventing their return
to civilisation like the
parachutist by the fire.
Foreshadowing of
Piggy as the sacrificial
victim when the boys
discuss the beast:
“What would the beast
eat?”
“We eat pig.”
“Piggy!”
Piggy’s arms and
legs twitched a bit,
like a pig’s after it
has bee killed.
The sea also takes the
body of Simon and
consumes it.
Seeing has been
important as a symbol
regarding the blindness
of Piggy and losing the
fire – civilisation being
taken over by darkness,
fear and lack of selfknowledge.
Lord of the flies to
Simon: “We shall do
you. See?”
Then the sea
breathed…and
when it went,
sucking back
again, the body of
Piggy was gone.
Jack: “See? See?
That’s what you’ll
get!
The death of the boy
with the birth mark in
the fire had been an
accident.
Ironically, it is the
blindness of the boys in
the darkness and the
storm and their fear
which causes them to
kill Simon later.
Simon’s death had
been intentional but
mistakenly in self
defense: manslaughter
Viciously, with
full intention, he
hurled his spear at
Ralph.
Relevance and Later
Piggy stands for
civilisation but is blind
to the hopelessness of
his position just as he is
physically blind
without his glasses.
Roger has progressed
to murder. He has gone
further than Jack in his
savagery and later
takes the lead in
torturing Samneric who
describe him as a
“terror”
The conch as a symbol
of civilisation and good
is gone and is replaced
by the pig’s head as the
symbol of savagery and
evil: “the skull that
gleamed as white as
ever the conch had
done.”
Piggy is likened to a
pig as the pig is a
victim. Later Ralph
will be hunted like a
pig and Roger has
“sharpened a stick at
both ends” to put his
head on, just like the
pig’s.
The beast of savagery
has taken Piggy.
Jack voices the words
of lord of the flies
which makes him like
the beast but ironically
he is blind to his own
motivation. This is
symbolised in the
“empty eye sockets” of
the skull that Ralph
finds.
Jack has become a
murderer and will
pursue Ralph to kill
him.