How Does Golding Use Piggy's Glasses In Lord Of The Flies

Looking Through the Glass Many people have an object that they cannot let go of. Sometimes these objects are valuable; other times, they are not. To most, however, their favorite item can be something of use to them in ways others will never see. In Lord of the Flies, Piggy’s glasses represent the power to see right from wrong, as well as the intellectual endeavor of society. He cannot let go of them, because if he does, he will lose his power that the inhabitants on the island need most — his ability to use logic. William Golding uses Piggy’s glasses to represent insight and truth to show that without his glasses, the island loses its civility to savagery. In the beginning of Lord of the Flies, Piggy is introduced as an outcast. Everyone

Even though it is clearly Jack’s fault for neglecting his responsibilities, he purposely uses violence instead of listening to Piggy to release his anger. This action relates back to the loose grip of society on the island. It seems as if the boys are losing their societal instincts and leading their selves to a more savage route. In a normal society, one would listen to another to solve problems. However, in this case, Jack is doing everything he has been taught not to do — use violence to solve problems. Piggy’s anger towards the broken glasses makes him more vulnerable than ever before. It is only when Simon walks over to Piggy and picks up his glasses for him that the readers see that there is a little part of civilization left on the island. Realizing that conflicts are all over the island and that change is about to occur, Golding foreshadows that Simon is one of the last hopes on the island to contain civility. “Simon…found them for him. Passions beat about Simon on the mountain-top with awful wings” (Golding 71). Piggy’s glasses, representing truth itself, seem to appear where the boys are losing all hope of their normal life, as it is brought up later in the

At this point in the story, Piggy is already helpless with his broken glasses. When Jack and his tribe take the glasses away, it foreshadows the fall of civilization on the island. Going back to that concept, readers see that Jack has turned to stealing, instead of asking to use the glasses. As Ralph starts to realize the fall of society, he says, “Now Piggy can’t see…We’d have given them fire if they’d asked” (Golding 170). With the glasses gone, readers see that not only is Piggy suffering, but the others are as well. While explaining to Piggy and the others that what Jack did was wrong, Ralph “paused lamely as the curtain flickered in his brain” (Golding 170). From this, readers learn that the power to understand what should be done on the island to escape is slowly diminishing. By the glasses not being there, Golding reveals that Piggy’s insight and truth is no longer present and that all hope of a civilized group has vanished. The boys are forgetting the things they must do to be rescued. Losing the glasses is equivalent to the fall of a well-balanced society. The boys have lost all of their civilized upbringings by giving into their fears and neglecting the truth. By the end of the book, the readers see the difference between the civilized boys in the beginning to the wild savages that they become on an island with no authorial