How Piggy Changes Throughout Lord of the Flies Essay Sample

Have you ever wondered how much people would change and how they would act if all of their rules and morals were taken away from them? The novel   Lord of the Flies  by William Golding is about a group of British boys who are in a plane that crashes on a deserted island and no adults survive the crash. The boys have to learn how to survive with no adult present to supervise the boys and make sure they aren't acting out. They start to learn that not everyone is going to get along or think the same way in terms of how they want to survive. The boys start to separate and find their groups that they feel comfortable with and the boys that they don’t like to be around. The boys are tested in how they interact with each other while still trying to survive and not get anyone killed. In  Lord of the Flies , the character Piggy changes throughout the novel by not being confident in himself, to becoming more confident.

At the beginning of the Novel, Piggy is not confident in himself, by not speaking up for himself. When the other boys started making fun of him, Piggy got quiet and wouldn’t speak up for himself to everyone. He would only speak to Ralph, telling him, “‘About being called Piggy. I said I didn’t care as long as they didn’t call me Piggy; an’ I said not to tell and you went an’ said straight out--’”(Page 25) Piggy is not comfortable speaking to everyone in the group about being called Piggy; he is only comfortable talking to Ralph. Piggy doesn’t have much self esteem to stand up to the people that made fun of him and tell them that he does not like to be called Piggy. He is also yelled at by all the other characters for trying to voice his opinion; for example, when Jack starts to yell at Piggy, “Jack turned fiercely. ‘You shut up.’ Piggy wilted.”(Page 42) Piggy was trying to speak and contribute to the conversation about what they were going to do, and Jack yelled at him for contributing. This could really bust someone’s confidence in themselves, and make them feel that they aren’t worthy of being part of the group and speaking their opinion. This made Piggy not want to contribute his ideas to everyone, so his good ideas were not talked about or used. 

Towards the middle of the novel, Piggy begins to gain more confidence in himself, yet he’s not able to gain the respect of the community. Once Jack leaves and starts his own group Piggy begins to gain his confidence and tells Ralph, “‘I’m going to the Jack Merridew an’ tell him, I am’...‘Ill tell him what’s what.’”(Page 171) Piggy is willing to go and stand up to Jack, the bully that made Piggy’s life miserable and feel meaningless. When Piggy goes to see Jack it shows his confidence is growing because he isn’t afraid to talk to the bully. He is still struggling with earning the respect of the other boys because Ralph doesn’t think that Piggy will be able to stand up to Jack, and that Jack will listen to him. After Jack leaves he becomes more confident and is willing to help out more and “was so full of delight and expanding liberty in Jack’s departure, so full pride in his contributions to the good of society, that he helped to fetch wood.”(Page 129) Piggy is willing to help out more in society without having to worry about Jack yelling at him for trying to help. When someone who is a bully  leaves the picture, the person who is being bullied is more likely to change the way that they act. Piggy starts to become more confident after Jack decides to leave and start his own group of hunters. Ralph still doesn’t respect Piggy in the ways that he respects some of the other boys. 

The character Piggy in  Lord of the Flies  undergoes some major changes which include having little confidence, to gaining his confidence but not the respect of the community. Piggy starts at the beginning of the novel not able to speak up for himself when he has good ideas that could be useful. Towards the middle and end of the novel once Jack leaves, his confidence starts to grow by contributing to the work that the community needs done. The reader is introduced to a very intelligent boy who doesn’t have much confidence, to then seeing him grow as a person by finding his confidence when something toxic is taken out.There are multiple toxic people in Piggy’s life that don’t let him contribute to society.However, he is still struggling to find the respect of the other boys around him. The changes that Piggy undergoes are crucial in understanding the person that he is and why he does the things that he does.