Jack and Piggy of Lord of the Flies

Jack and Piggy of Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies is a book authored by William Golding with the intention of illustrating the good side and the dark and savagery side of humanity when facing a desperate situation. He has used several characters in the book to show this, for the good side of humanity, Golding chooses to use Ralph and Piggy and the dark side he decides to use characters like Jack and his followers. In this book, he illustrates how humanity can turn into salvages, unruly and destructive when hope is lost and replaced by fear but at the same time, there are those few who keep the faith until the end (The Biography.com website).

William Golding was born in 1911 to a school headmaster and a suffragette. He worked several posts which included being a lieutenant, a sailor, an actor, a musician, a lecturer and even a schoolmaster. During the time of writing the Lord of the Flies, Golding had retired from all the above post but teaching. Lord of the Flies was William's first novel which was published in 1954 ("William Golding - Biographical"). This paper will look at two characters in Lord of the Flies and compare them with people in our real world. The paper will examine how Jack’s character is similar to Adolf Hitler and how Piggy has similar traits with Winston Churchill.

In this book, Jack’s aggressive personality makes him a symbol for Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler was a powerful dictator of the 20th century. Immediately after the world war I, Hitler rose to power and took over the German government in 1933. During his reign, Hitler established concentration camps where Jews who he deemed a threat were forced to live. As a result, over 6 million people died. Hitler is said to have started the world war II after his attack on Poland. Hitler was therefore ruthless and inhuman as he was only interested in pursuing his interests in power (History.com Staff). The same could be said about Jack in Lord of the Flies. Jack is portrayed as a hostile and dangerous person. Just like Hitler, Jack had an army of hunters who followed his every instruction. Several deaths occurred under his watch one of which was Simon. Jack had introduced a notion that there was a beast among them, therefore, leading the other boys to rituals in honor of the beast. Simon realizes the ‘Beast’ is a corpse stuck in a parachute. He then goes to tell the other boys but they attack him which led to his death "Surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive, bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea"(Golding, William 154).

Piggy’s hope for rationality in the group makes him more like Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill was a wise individual of his time and therefore was able to make calculated moves. One of the primary thing that he did was to oppose negotiations with Hitler and in turn turned all the other countries against the Nazi regime. As a result, the administration failed and therefore saving humanity ("Winston Churchill's Legacy"). The same can be said about Piggy in the Lord of the Flies. Jack himself in the book even recognizes this where he says "Only, Ralph decided as he faced the chief's seat, I can't think. Not like Piggy...Piggy could think. He could go step by step inside that fat head of his" (Golding, William 72). Piggy, therefore, helped Ralph always to see the other side of the coin.

In conclusion, the characters have the similar traits to those in the real world. Jack used force to take over the mantel in leading the boys where anyone who was against him or seemed like a threat was killed. An example of this was Piggy who was killed because he did not conform to Jack’s ways. The same thing could have happened to Ralph were it not for the arrival of the navy. It is the same way Hitler gained power over Germany and killed those who were against him or who did not seem to fit into his was like the Jews. The same is seen for Churchill and Piggy who kept faith in their course. The are many more similarities, and it is almost like it was derived in the events happening in the real world.

 Work cited

Golding, William. Lord Of The Flies. Faber And Faber, 1954,.

History.com Staff. "Adolf Hitler - World War II - HISTORY.Com." HISTORY.Com, 2009,

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/adolf-hitler.

The Biography.com website. "William Golding Biography." Biography, 2017,

https://www.biography.com/people/william-golding-9314523.

"Winston Churchill's Legacy." History Channel,

https://www.historychannel.com.au/articles/winston-churchills-legacy/.

"William Golding - Biographical." Nobelprize.Org, 2018,

https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1983/golding-bio.html.