Essay question -
Do you think Piggy is an important character from Lord of the Flies?

 

Piggy is an important character because he is one of the few characters whose mostly fatal fates portray the disintegration of society. This is shown through the constant link between Piggy and the conch throughout the book – indeed the conch is ‘born’ with Piggy as it is he who finds it and immediately, unlike Ralph, sees it value straight away. It is poignant that not only does Piggy give birth to the conch, but that the conch dies with him also. The conch and its inextricable link to Piggy is vital in helping us to understand that what it symbolises -  order, the rule of law and mutual respect and integration of all – therefore when Piggy dies so too do all of these values and so society disintegrates. This is highlighted as the conch “exploded into a thousand white fragments”. The verb choice explode highlights the total destruction of the conch and its values and it also is associated with war perhaps highlighting Golding’s belief that war destroys order, rules and mutual respect also. The death of Piggy being tied up with the conch and its ‘explosion’ highlight how society is disintegrating – when we consider that it was Piggy that gave birth to the conch, we see how important a character he was – both in what he gave birth too, and what dies alongside him.