The conch is gone-[Golding, 201]. In this quote, Jack is taking responsibility for Roger’s actions of being Piggy’s murder. By doing so Jack now seems more powerful to the other boys, therefore resulting in a more feared leader. Along with being power hungry, Jack has a more democratic leading style. He constantly brainwashes the little uns, by telling his that Ralph is boring and wrong and he only hunts and has fun.”
At the end of the book, Jack has become a beast at heart who lusts for blood and blood alone. Jack and Ralph get into an argument for the right to use Piggy's glasses to cook the meat that they hunt. Jack starts to get violent and they start fighting each other for the glasses. In an act of trying to stop the fight, piggy grabs the conch shell to get the attention of everyone and tell them to stop fighting. Soon after the hunters notice Piggy, they push a boulder off a mountain to kill piggy.
Roger chose to torture the boys, and eventually he chose to kill Piggy. The experience of the island pulled something ugly out of him specifically, but in all the ways that matter, he was fully aware and in control of his choice to murder another person. The other murder, Simon’s, is different in that no one person chose to kill the boy. No one in particular summoned the malice to beat him to death, but the group as a whole lost their individual values and assimilated into the group. Chapter 2 of Opening Skinner’s Box explains that people abandon their core beliefs in order to satisfy some primal need to conform.
Similarly, in Lord of the Flies, Piggy dies while opposing Jack’s leadership. While Ralph and Piggy argue with Jack about what is necessary for survival (i.e. hunting and chaos or law and rescue), Roger, acting in accordance with Jack’s desires, pushes a rock on Piggy and kills him (Golding). Like Macbeth and Banquo, Jack saw Piggy and Ralph as direct opposition and thus obstacles to his rule and sought to eliminate it. Throughout the novel, Piggy and Ralph consistently have ideological conflicts with Jack
Jack’s tribe refuses to return Piggy’s glasses, and as a result, a fight ensues, killing Piggy. While this fight is occurring, Roger is watching like a hawk in his perch waiting for his prey, Piggy. “High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever” (141). Roger notices the powerless Piggy is standing beneath him and leans his weight on the lever, triggering the release of a giant boulder. Roger is now a murderer and is seen as a true savage.
The events of original evil which ironically issued positive results prove Ralph’s success as an individual in contrast to his responsibilities as a leader. Even though he finds trouble accepting his flaws as an untrusted leader, he uses his beliefs in self-importance to overlook the negative possibilities to his selfishness. Piggy recognizes Ralph’s individuality due to his lack of attention and care toward him concerning the respect of his appearance from the other boys on the island. Ralph’s introduction to the conch open the eyes of the boys to a new way of life and hopeful survival, while Jack’s approach to culture on the island institutes the idea of corruption. It is then distinctive that Ralph, “the being that had blown [the conch][...]was set apart” from the rest of the boys (Golding 22).
Despite Roger being “a terror” (175) and the one the boys fear the most, Jack still wields the most authority as chief, proving that fear alone cannot be effective. Jack remains in authority, using the boys’ desire for fun and meat and the threat of torture. Ralph loses his authority, and Piggy is unable to gain a position of authority,
Roger is another example of humans being savage in the story. Roger eventually becomes sadistic and brutal. He joins Jack's side and gets the want for power and blood. Also he is the one to drop a boulder on piggy and kill him. But first when he turns this way it states “You don't half look like a mess.”
(Golding 180-181) At this point in the story, Roger is acting on his primitive instincts and becoming the biggest savage on the island. Speaking about his savagery, Roger kills Piggy with a huge boulder, which not only kills Piggy but destroys the conch into smithereens. Savagery has overtaken Roger, and his murder of Piggy symbolizes savagery and the destruction of their civilization. This quote shows that Jack's cruelty is rubbed off on his people.
When Piggy was trying to reason with Jack to give him back his glasses, Roger lets loose a boulder that “struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee […] Piggy, saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt, traveled through the air sideways from the rock, turning over as he went […] Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea” (163). Piggy’s death was ironically cruel and barbaric during what was supposed to be a civilized, orderly plead to Jack showing that the innate evil of human nature will always overcome any attempts to remain civilized. Sadly, Jack tries to justify this and make a scapegoat out of Piggy by wildly screaming, “‘See? See? That’s what you’ll get!
When Piggy died at Castle Rock the novel states, “Roger with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever” (180). Roger had the choice to not push the boulder but his urge to hurt and kill made him push the lever to kill Piggy. He has became as savage as Jack has, he also does this to show how powerful their tribe is. Roger leaned all his weight on a huge rock and caused the rock to fall which smashed Piggy. Roger also disliked Piggy, Roger said “Piggy is different compared to the rest” him being different made Roger dislike him, which led to Roger killing Piggy.
His brutal behavior reveals when he kills the character of Piggy by throwing the stone. He throws it intentionally without any sorrow. Roger becomes a savage totally and brutal when he enjoys the murder of Piggy: “The storm of sound beat at them, an incantation of hatred high overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever” (Golding, 222).
Readers know that Jack, who represents brutality and the hunger for power, is constantly trying to overthrow Ralph for his position as leader. However, even Jack respects the conch at first, though it represents the exact opposite of his character. Simon is the only person that symbolizes true purity and goodness. He is only one who understands that the island is changing them and that their fear of the beast will eventually cause them to develop into beasts themselves. The conch, much like Simon, represents morality and harmony.
In the midst of the 1950 's, the Cold War begins. While in that period, William Golding creates Lord of the Flies published in 1954. This is a novel about young school boys crash landing on an island. The boys on the island let the fear of something inside of them be in control. In the story, there are lots of events that take place and characters that take part.
He uses Ralph and Piggy to describe the well-educated that attempt to grasp civilisation, but ultimately fail to deliver. His symbol of Roger as an ordinary person that breaks loose of the chains of society once disconnected from it. Finally, the nature of Jack is a depiction of the power hungry that will do anything to lead. Firstly, Golding uses Ralph and Piggy to portray that human nature is hidden by society to continue civilisation.
