“Personages in Lord of the Flies / Allegory”;
F Personages
There are a few leading characters in the book, like: Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Roger, Simon, Sam and Eric.
Ralph: He is the main character. He is a twelve years old fair boy, has blond hair and a muscular body. He is the brave hero of the story and a real chief. His father is a commander in the navy. He is a protagonist. He also is a round character, because you know a lot about him and he develops himself during the book. In the beginning he only cares about himself, he is best friends with Jack and he doesn’t like Piggy.
He is chosen to be the chief of the group. Ralph believes in democracy and fair play for everyone. He offers Jack to be chief of the choir and lets him choose what kind of jobs they are going to do: 'What do you want them to be?’. Ralph wants to get rescued and he knows what’s important to do if you want to get rescued. He wants a lot of rules for the sake of order. He asks: "Which is better — to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?".
After a fight between him and Jack the group splits in two. Ralph becomes friends with Piggy. During the book he stays reasonable. He is one of the few boys who chooses the right side and he is the only one who stays alive from that group. At the beginning Ralph is innocent; he makes mistakes because he is unaware of evil. "Ralph . . . would treat the day's decisions as though he was playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player."
Jack: He is also a chief, but the exact opposite of Ralph. He is a antagonist.
He is also 12 years old, tall, thin and he has red hair and blue eyes. He is choirmaster and ‘head boy’ at his school. He takes control over the choir during the story. He is a round character, because he develops to cruel and a primitive hunter. He wanted many rules, not for the sake of order, but so he can punish the boys who break them. He says: "'We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.'"
He starts his own group in the second half of the story. Almost all the boys join him, because they are afraid of him. His main interest is hunting, it starts with pigs but later also humans.
He is the person that is fast going back to the primitive thoughts. He has a natural authority about others and the ability to influence boys.
Piggy: He is a twelve years old fat boy with glasses. Due to his astma he can’t do very much, so he often takes care of the younger boys. His father is dead. What happened to his mum is not clear, but he used to live with his auntie. He is lower middle-class.
He is a very clever boy, but not very social so he doesn’t have much friends on the island.
He is a loyal and honest boy. He is important to the group, because he has glasses and with the glasses they can make a fire.
Piggy is not his real name. He actually hates the name and doesn’t want to be called Piggy on the island. He makes this clear to Ralph in the beginning of the story, but when everybody comes together, Ralph calls him Piggy and everybody picks that name up. Piggy is mad at Ralph because of this, but that doesn’t take long. Ralph says to him: ‘Better Piggy than Fatty.’
Piggy speaks with his mind instead of his emotions: 'Life . . . is scientific . . . .I know there isn't no beast . . . but I know there isn't no fear, either . . . .Unless we get frightened of people.'
From the beginning of the book he is with Ralph and stays with him till he gets killed by Roger. During the story he advises Ralph. Everyone makes fun of him, except Ralph and Simon. He is one of the few boys who chooses the good side and that’s why he gets killed by Jack and Roger by trowing a big rock on him.
Simon:
Simon is younger then Ralph, Jack and Piggy. He is very sweet and he takes care of the younger children. He likes to help people a lot. And he would never hurt anyone. He is philosophical, silent and very withdrawn. He says: 'Maybe there is a beast . . . .maybe it's only us.' He comes to the understanding that the beast is not something that the boys can hurt or kill, but is part of them. He also discovers that the beast on the top of the mountain is just a dead parachutist. After discovering that, he wants to tell this to the others, but he gets killed by Jack's group, because they think he is the beast.
Roger: He is thin and he has black hair. He is a mean boy and during the story it only gets worse. He is the right hand of Jack. He likes being cruel to others and therefore he gladly helps Jack. He stands for Evil. He likes to hurt other people and that’s why he is the executioner and torturer of Jack’s group.
Sam and Eric:
They are twins. They do everything together. They stay on the good side for a long time, but when Piggy gets killed they join Jack’s group, because they are afraid for their own lives. They still help Ralph who is hunted by giving him information. On the other side they betray him by telling Roger where he is, but they did this also out of fear.
Allegory
This novel is an allegory. It is a story in which characters, settings, and events stand for things larger than themselves.
The conch shell stands for order, rules and discipline as well as the signal fire stands for their connection to the civilization.
The pig’s head, the Lord of the Flies, stands for the fact that evil lies within every human.
Ralph represents leadership. He stands for order, leadership and civilization.
Jack on the contrary represents evil and violence, the dark side of human nature. He stands for the desire of power and savagery. He can be compared to the Devil, who lures men away from goodness.
Piggy represents the rational world. Piggy tries to keep life scientific.
Simon is the Christ-figure in the book. He came with good things and was killed.
Roger represents the sadist. He enjoys hurting others.
Sam and Eric represent totally civilized and socialized persons.