Lord of the Flies Essay

The Weak and the Powerful There are many uses of symbolism and allegory in The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Leadership roles, intelligence, and savagery are all remarkable examples of allegorical and symbolic patterns in this novel. This novel has many characters that represent these allegorical concepts throughout the book. Piggy and Jack are two examples of characters that represent these symbols. With this in mind, Piggy represents an intelligent, but weak leader, and Jack represents an evil and powerful leader; both characters need civilization to survive. First of all, Piggy and Jack have different leadership roles. Piggy is not a leader because he depends on Ralph to make decisions and cannot perform many physical activities. In the beginning of the story when Ralph and Piggy find the conch, Piggy teaches Ralph how to use it; he says, ‘‘“My auntie wouldn’t let me blow on account of my asthma… You try Ralph. You’ll call the others”” (Golding 16). Piggy possesses knowledge that Ralph and the other boys need to survive. However he is unable to do many important tasks such as blowing the conch. Jack, on the other hand, is a leader because he obtains power from the beginning through fear of the unknown; portrayed through the “beastie”. He represents a dictator because even though he knows that the beast does not exist he says to the younger children, ““There isn’t a snake-thing. But if there was a snake thing we’d hunt it and kill it. We’re going to hunt pigs… And we’ll look for the snake too--”” (36). Jack makes the younger kids rely on his strength in hunting early on which gives him power that gradually increases as the children’s fear increases. Jack would be a dictator in today’s society because he created power through fear. Piggy would not be a leader in today’s society, but he may be a scientist or a congressman because he is intelligent and can make logical decisions and interpretations. In addition, Piggy signifies the need for