The Lord of the Flies - Character Differences between Ralph, Piggy and Jack

Summary: The novel "Lord of the Flies", written by William Golding in 1954, is a breathtakingly accurate account of what can happen to human morality when all rules and civilisation are removed. It makes you think about how you yourself would act if you were on the island with the boys.

The novel "Lord of the Flies", written by William Golding in 1954, is a breathtakingly accurate account of what can happen to human morality when all rules and civilisation are removed. In this Specialist Study I will explore the character differences between the two `groups' on the island.

Ralph, the first boy we meet in the novel, is allocated as the "chief" of the boys, and he develops a close relationship with Piggy, a boy who gained his name due to his weight. Piggy is immediately recognised as the voice of the adult world, and is terrified by the idea of having no grown-ups to take charge. He straight away tries to make sense of their chaotic situation,

."..I expect we'll want to know all their names...and make a list. We ought to have a meeting..."

This underscores Piggy's reliance on law and order, and shows his desperation for his, and the other boys, well-being.

When the boy's find the conch shell, Piggy's seizes the opportunity to use it to find the other boys on the island,

.".. we can use this to call the others. Have a meeting..."

It is here that we meet the opposing group. When the boys start arriving, a group turn up,

."..each boy wore a black cap...their bodies...were hidden by black cloaks..."

The fact that the boys are wearing black reinforces the thought that they will be the more ferocious of the makeshift community. They are a choir group, and they all follow the commands of their leader, Merridew.

It becomes obvious quite quickly that Jack (Merridew) will not get along with Ralph and Piggy. He ridicules Piggy for his weight and awkwardness, but he feels somewhat threatened by Ralph when he is voted as chief,

."..`I ought to be chief,' said Jack with simple arrogance, `because I'm chapter chorister and head boy.'..."

This shows his overconfidence, which will later clash majorly with other characters.

Later, whilst exploring, Ralph, Jack and Simon (a quiet boy who I will talk more of later) discover a small pig on the trail. Jack makes a feeble attempt to kill the pig, but lets the pig run away. He says that the pig ran away whilst he was choosing a spot to stab it.

."..they knew very well why he hadn't: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood..."

This shows us that Jack's hunting influence hasn't had enough time to over-rule the voice of reason, articulated by Piggy. Although Jack's first attempt to kill the pig failed, we are warned of his attitude later in the book,

."..`Next time - !'..."

This foreshadows us of his savage hunting.

In Chapter two, Ralph calls another meeting. Here, he makes up the rule that whoever is holding the conch gets to speak.

."..`I'll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he's speaking'..."

This shows that the conch (and Ralph) represent democracy and order. Piggy uses the conch as his own tool of authority, but he is ridiculed by Jack and the hunters,

."..`the conch doesn't count on top of the mountain,' said Jack, `so you shut up'..."

This shows Jack and Piggy's mutual dislike for each other, and also Jack's arrogance. He thinks of himself as a higher level of importance than Piggy, and reckons he can just tell him to shut up and he will. Sadly, Piggy wilts and does as Jack tells him to do.

The boys decide to light a fire, but have no means of starting a flame. Piggy comes to the rescue, and they use his glasses as a way of starting the fire. Quickly it spreads, burning out of control, and leading to the burning of quite a sizeable piece of the mountain. Piggy uses this opportunity to tell the other boys how he feels,

."..`how can you expect to be rescued if you don't put first things first and act proper"'..."

This shows us that he is probably the most level-headed of all the boys, but they are so caught up in the hysteria of living in their own world, that they have lost all common sense.

In Chapter three, it becomes obvious that Ralph and Jack do not get along at all. Jack has his heart set on killing a pig, whereas Ralph is constantly reminding him that he has to keep the fire alight, so that if a ship passes it will see the smoke. This results in an argument between the two, where Jack's vicious interior comes out,

."..`all the same, I'd like to catch a pig first'..."

This shows us his unhealthy infatuation with killing something before they are rescued. He is solely concerned with hunting, and cannot see the necessity of other things that can keep them alive. This is only a foreshadowing of the tension yet to come between these two.

Here, we are told that the small children think that there is a `beast' on the island. This idea is carried on the whole was through the book, but at this point, Ralph dismisses it as the children's imagination.

In Chapter four, Jack and the hunters finally kill a pig. However, because they were so busy hunting, they let the signal fire go out. Most unfortunately, at this point, a ship passes, but because there was no fire, the boys weren't saved. This results in another argument between Ralph and Jack, but because Jack knows he wouldn't get away with physically hurting Ralph, he turns on Piggy and punches him in the face, breaking his glasses. This is an important event in the story. Not only is it the first show of physical violence on the island, but Piggy's glasses represented clear-sightedness and intelligence. His constant cleaning of them shows us his desire for civilisation. The state of the glasses represents the status of social order. Now that they are broken, we can only expect that things will go downhill from here.

."..the mask compelled them..."

This is a reference to the way that the hunters paint their faces before going to hunt. This, in Jack especially, represents a cover that he can hide behind, which frees him, allowing him to do anything he wants whilst wearing the paint, without worrying about any important matters, such as the signal fire.

In Chapter eight, Jack and his hunters leave the camp set up by Ralph and the others, and decide to start their own camp, on another side of the island. They go hunting, and come across a sow and baby piglets. They attack and kill the mother sow, while the piglets escape. This is important because Jack's killing of the mother pig shows his great lack of foresight, as by killing the mother, they were losing all the other piglets who would've been a future source of food. They sever the head of the sow and put it on a stick, then place it at the end of the island, as a `gift' for the `beast'. Because of the flies that swarm around the pig's head, they call it `The Lord of the Flies'. Later, when the other boys are away feasting on the rest of the pig, Simon approaches The Lord of the Flies, and imagines that the pig head is talking to him. He is obviously delirious, but we don't know what from, possibly lack of food.

."..`fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill...you knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close!'..."

Here we become aware that Simon knows that there is no `beast' on the island. The `beast' is the evil residing in everyone, the dark side of human nature. The Lord of the Flies represents the Devil, whereas Simon represents pure goodness, almost a `Christ-like' figure.

In Chapter nine, Simon decides he must go find the boys and tell them about the `beast'. While he is making his way over to them, Jack starts another ritual in which they re-enact the killing of the pig. Because it is so dark, when Simon emerges from the jungle to tell them, all of the boys assume he is the `beast' and they murder him, brutally and shamefully. The beaten and dead body of Simon is then carried out to the sea by the current. This tragic event is a milestone in the story, because the beating of Simon by all the boys, even Piggy and Ralph who were caught up in the frenzy, fulfills the Lord of the Flies' `prophecy'. Even these boys were overcome with their savage side when in such close contact with all the other boys.

."..the Chief led them...from his left hand dangled Piggy's broken glasses..."

This is where Jack is elected the new Chief, and him and the rest of the hunters attack Piggy and Ralph, stealing Piggy's glasses. This is important, because as I mentioned earlier the state of the glasses represents the status of social order. Their loss would indicate that all hopes of civilisation are lost. By stealing the glasses, Jack has got what he wanted all along. Without the glasses, Ralph cannot start a fire, and all clear-sightedness has long gone. The staling of the glasses shows a disappearance of a symbol of order and democracy, as they unwillingly drift from civilisation.

."..`which is better - to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill"'..."

This is Piggy's last attempt at civilisation. He is trying to talk sense to Jack and the hunters, but it only gets him into even more trouble. One of the hunters rolls a boulder down the hill towards Piggy, hitting him on the head and instantly knocking him off the cliff, onto a rock below. When Piggy fell, the conch he was holding shattered. His death represented two things. Piggy himself represented intelligence and clear-sightedness. By killing him, the hunters had killed their most valuable source of ideas for being rescued. They had also broken the conch, which represented democracy and order. This lets us know that if the boys are not saved soon, they will probably continue fighting until they all kill each other.

."..there was no Piggy to talk sense. There was no solemn assembly for debate nor dignity of the conch..."

This lets us know, that even the boys knew the death of Piggy was the death of social order on the island.

"Lord of the Flies" is a brilliant yet horrifying book. It makes you think about how you yourself would act if you were on the island with the boys. Would you be Piggy, the boy who tries so hard to install civilisation on the island, yet ends up dead? Or would you be Jack, the boy who turns into a savage, anarchist hunter, yet is the boy who survives. It is a brilliantly thought-provoking book, which makes us question our own rules and morals.