Gisele Souto Mr. Sandefur Hon English 10B - 6 28 March 2023 The Three Modes of Persuasion in Lord of the Flies Lord of the Flies is a famous novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been deserted together on an island with no authoritative figure to watch over them. Throughout the novel, the boys struggle to create a stable structure of society in order to survive. Golding uses many literary devices throughout his novel. Although one of the main devices used can be recognized as the rhetorical triangle. He displays this device by using 3 main characters known as Jack, Ralph, and Piggy to represent pathos, ethos, and logos. As the novel progresses the boys are thrown into a struggle of trying to …show more content…
This mode works as an appeal to logic as well as reasoning. Piggy can be seen as the most rational boy on the island compared to all the other boys. As a logical person, he is able to control his emotions as well as analyze any situation with a clear head. His personality enables him to resolve conflicts that the boys may face on the island. As he tries to assist the boys on the island as the brains behind Ralph’s ideas, Piggy demonstrates his appeal to logic and reasoning by being the first one to suggest that the first thing they need was “shelters down there by the beach” furthermore he adds, “how can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper” (Golding 45). Consequently, this proves to be a very effective use of logos. Not only is he taking initiative, but he is also being the logic that they need to decide what the most important thing to do is in order to survive. An example of Piggy’s attempt to settle any conflict that any of the boys may face can be identified when Ralph goes to Castle Rock to confront Jack. Piggy assists Ralph by reminding him to “‘remember what [they] came for. The fire. My specs’” and as a result is able to stop Ralph with his reasoning before he engages in a fight (Golding 177). Piggy’s use of logos in this part of the story is proven to be effective since he has aided in keeping Ralph sane during his time
The readers' view of Piggy starts to change because now they know his true strength, but the boys view him only as fat and short without looking at his brain. Through the comparison of Piggy, Jack, and Ralph the reader can establish that strength to the boys is only
Piggy befriends Ralph after they crash and Ralph is the first person who Piggy’s ever been friends with so he looks at Ralph as his hero and chief. We see an example of this when Lord of the Flies says, “Then Piggy too, raised his hand grudgingly into the air” (23 Golding). This was when the boys voted for chief and Ralph called Piggy Piggy for the first time, even though Ralph hurt Piggy by calling him that in front of everyone Piggy still keeps his loyalty to Ralph. The actions by Piggy and Nick show how they’re willing to push themselves for
From his left hand dangled Piggy’s broken glasses.” This is important because it shows how when Piggy had his glasses to see, it was civil. It became uncivil when the glasses became an item of power and a desired object for the boys to fight over. It also shows the civilization difference from Ralph’s tribe to Jack’s
After a quick vote, Ralph was elected leader of the stranded boys, leaving Jack jealous and vengeful. Golding expresses in the novel how people can be made powerless and put in danger due to their self image. As a way to express this, Golding uses the character, Piggy, to give the audience a sense of what it feels like to have problems and conditions that create a separation between people. Piggy is a character with more of a sensible appeal to the problems that arise in this novel, but he is dramatically weakened after being caught time and time again envying Jack and Ralph. Piggy is described as a "fatly naked" (13) boy as he and Ralph are first scoping out and entering the pool, whereas when Piggy was exiting
This is an important quality to obtain as a leader because it encourages Ralph to make the best possible choices for the boys on the island. An example of this occurs when Ralph includes everyone in the group and protects the more vulnerable, specifically Piggy. Through reading the novel, Piggy is consistently picked on and left out of the group because of his physical appearance and difference from the boys. For instance, a quote Ralph says is; “Now go back, Piggy, and take names. That is your job.
Piggy and Ralph being by themselves with little to no mechanism of self-defense create tension and issues for the children. All of the boys were on top of the escarpment above deep maritime when Piggy got pummeled back into the water and got killed by Jack’s tribe pushing a huge rock at him (Golding 181). They look back and Piggy was lifeless with his face in the water, and body floating. This represents mob mentality as well because Jack’s tribe may have only directed that rock at Piggy because their leader, Jack modeled that by being aggressive and physical to Ralph. Jack represents savagery by killing animals and being bellerigent towards everyone because he thinks he should be the boss and he knows everything.
Their lust for excitement drove them to kill an innocent boy. Ralph, felt alone and traumatized by the loss of his friend. He felt isolated when “there was no Piggy to talk sense” (Page 260). Piggy had always been the voice of reason and the only person who stuck with him the entire time they were on the island. The destruction of Ralph and Piggy’s relationship and the murder of Piggy shows the sheer primitiveness of Jack and his
“Lord of the Flies” by William Golding is a novel published in 1954 in which a group of boys from Britain get stranded on an uninhabited island, and in an attempt to govern themselves become brutal and violent without adults to serve as a civilizing impulse. With Ralph being chief he needs to persuade the rest of the boys to do what's best to get off the island and survive in the meantime. However, not all the boys will acclimate to Ralph and his rulership. The boys use the three common modes of persuasion: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, to convince the mass to do what they feel is the best course of action.
Piggy’s glasses connects to his integrity because he acted like his true self when he had them on. Also as shown here by the way he instantly reacted to Ralph. Ralph was in the pool, while Piggy is on the side of the pool, then Ralph squirts water onto Piggy and laughs. He thought Piggy was going to just let it go and not do anything, but “Piggy beat the water with his hand” onto Ralph (Golding 131). Piggy demonstrates the lesson he learns because if Ralph had done this in the beginning of the book Piggy would 've just taken it or try to ask him to stop.
On the other hand, Ralph disagrees, he thinks that the "beast" does not exist, and also the gigantic squids that eat whales whole. This quote also shows how Piggy is the brains of the group, everyone goes to him for answers, he's the smartest. Furthermore, it shows that Ralph trusts Piggy, he believes what he says, and how open he is to talking within the group. "They agreed passionately out of the depths of their tormented private lives." - Page 103
This displays how Piggy is sagacious and knowledgeable, by giving accommodating propositions in a time of desperate need when the rest of the boys are quite lost and do not quite know what to do, for he is the only one smart enough to dare and bring up such an idea. Suggesting rational solutions and helping the boys find a way by using his intellectuality, to create smoke, exhibits his insightful collaboration in order to get rescued. Another example that demonstrates Piggy is incisive is when he declares, “You have doctors for everything, even the inside of your mind. You don’t really mean that we got to be frightened all the time of nothing? Life…is scientific, that’s what it is.
While Piggy faces difficulties due to his looks, he also possesses strength because of his mind. His ability to come up with ideas keeps the society together and running. “‘Ralph!’ Ralph looked up. ‘We can use this to call the others.
Piggy is very intelligent, he comes up with ideas on how to help the boys survive on the island from the moment they crashed on it. Ralph starts begins to admire him for this clear focus on their rescue off the island. “ we can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They'll come when they hear us” (Pg 16)
For example, Piggy takes charge at the firs meeting of the boys to exclaim that they must build shelters and that a signal fire should be used in case a ship passes by the deserted island. Piggy has taken over as a leader of the group, even though he by no means has to. He feels that survival is the most important idea in their lives and all of the boys need know that. By making shelters and lighting a fire, the boys follow Piggy’s ideas of survival. Later, Piggy, at an assembly, demands that a littlun be allowed to speak when he quietly tries to express his opinion.
At the end of the novel, upon rescue, Ralph “wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy”(Golding 206). This illustrates Ralph’s realization that order and logic do not exist on the island anymore because the boys ultimately turn to savagery. The act of killing Piggy symbolizes the destruction of reason and order on the island, which Piggy previously represents in the novel. Piggy’s glasses are no longer a tool for making fire or signaling for rescue, just a symbol of lost civilization and hope. The boys fully embrace their savage instincts and the rationality or morality of the "proper world” that they came from does not exist anymore.