Where They Belong
Throughout Lord of the Flies, Ralph, Jack, and Piggy showed certain characteristics that are similar to characteristics that high school cliques show during school and everyday life. These boys are all different from each other in how they act, talk, how they think, and who they hang out with. In high school there are different cliques that certain people hang out with or who they belong with.
Throughout the book Jack shows characteristics of a bully. He’s very violent, mean, and he’s infatuated with being leader. “When his party was about ten yards away from the platform he shouted an order and they halted…The boy himself came forward, vaulted on to the platform with his cloak flying…” (Goulding 20) This quote shows Jack as the leader of the choirboys and how he lead them over to the platform where the other boys watched. Piggy was intimidated by Jack, who was referred to as Merridew in the beginning, “Piggy asked no names. He was intimidated by this uniformed superiority and the offhand authority in Merridew’s voice. He shrank to the other side of Ralph and busied himself with his glasses.” (Goulding pg. 21) Further into the story Jack becomes more and more obsessed with being leader and uses his authority over the choir boys to make other boys that are stuck on the island to join his clique. When Jack goes hunting for pigs in the forest he becomes this primitive, violent savage which lead to Jack having a bloodlust. “He made one cheek and one eye-socket white…and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw.” (Goulding 63) Jack told the boys about their hunt which showed how savage-like he was, “Jack himself shrank…for a minute became less a hunter than a furtive thing, ape-like among the tangles of trees.” (Goulding 49) Jack is a bully using the fear of the boys to control them and using the fact that he had meat instead of fruit, which represents the bully using the fact that he can hurt you compared to the rich Jock, Ralph, who only cares about certain things like the fire.
In Lord of the Flies Ralph is the leader and is considerate of others but cares mostly for the fire. Ralph is the jock of the boys because he shows leadership, persistence, and he’s also good at strategic thinking, like when a football captain helps plan out plays for his team. Ralph comes up with a plan to get him and all the other boys off the island by keeping the fire going so if a ship or an airplane that may be passing by will see the smoke signal and rescue them. Ralph and a few other boys when they first met they surveyed the island to determine where they were, looked for a place to camp, looked for food, and then decided to make shelters. Ralph was mostly focused on getting rescued and called an assembly to tell the boys that they all had to help keep a fire going for a smoke signal. “…We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire.” (Goulding 38) He shows how he cares for the boys when they kept getting scared at night of the beast so he had them talk about it at an assembly to reassure that it’s okay. This resembles how a football team treats each other as a family and they make sure to support one another. “We’ve got to talk about this fear and decide that there’s nothing in it. I’m frightened myself, sometimes; only that’s nonsense!…” (Goulding 82) Ralph is very similar to the typical jock today, he’s kind, protective, and a good leader which is what made him easy to compare to today’s jock.
Piggy resembles a nerd in Lord of the Flies throughout the book up until his death. The nerd today is smart, weak, and is usually victim to bullying in some way. In the book Jack and the hunters pick on Piggy quite a bit throughout the book, they call him names, tease him, and Jack even hurt him physically a few times. Piggy didn’t help too much when they were making shelters, hunting, making a fire, or searching for fruit in the trees because of his asthma. “My auntie told me not to run, on account of my asthma.” (Goulding 9) Piggy also wears glasses which are an obvious resemblance to the stereotypical nerd. Piggy’s glasses are of huge importance to Ralph and the boys because they are able to start a fire with his glasses but he isn’t very fond of the boys using him for his glasses. Piggy is also very good at coming up with intelligent ideas and plans. “We could make a sundial. We could put a stick in the sand, and then-” (Goulding 64) Piggy was easily seen as a weak link in the group but Ralph saw him as a value to the group. Ralph slowly began to realize that Piggy’s ideas vere of value and started to rely on Piggy. Piggy was the one who knew how to use the conch, knew that there weren’t any adults on the island, and suggested getting everyone’s names when they first assembled. Ralph seemed to want Piggy’s intelligence and respected Piggy’s ideas. Piggy resembles today’s nerd because a lot of high schoolers rely on nerds to help them with homework or to come up with good ideas in class.
As you can see Jack, Ralph, and Piggy all resemble typical high school cliques in Lord of the Flies. They all have certain characteristics that are arguable and can be characterized as many different cliques through various perspectives.