Juxtaposition In Lord Of The Flies

The calm night is interrupted by the drenching rain and gunfire as a plane is shot down, leaving only six- to twelve-year-olds as the survivors. These boys are from a military school and find that physical strength is the only thing that matters. Any sign of intelligence while lacking physical strength is met with teasing and ridiculing, In William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” he uses imagery of characters, juxtaposition of protagonist's vs antagonist, and the death of two supporting characters. This is all evidence of the theme that people judge strength based off physical appearance rather than intelligence.

In “Lord of the Flies”, the characters Ralph and Piggy are introduced and throughout the chapter, Piggy and Ralph are described physically

He uses it to compare the characters Jack, Ralph, and Piggy in the way each boy has different levels of respect from the boys. While at the top of a mountain on the island a heated argument breaks out between Jack and Ralph, “You’re always scared-yah fatty.” (Golding 38). Piggy is already established as fat and short and using this to his advantage Jack can bully Piggy with no repercussions. Earlier in the novel Jack is described as “Ugly without silliness” and the boys know not to mess with Jack based on physical appearance (Golding 20). On top of the mountain while holding the conch shell piggy says “The first thing we ought to have made was shelters down there by the beach... But the first time Ralph says ‘fire’ you goes howling and screaming up this here mountain.” (Golding 45). Piggy is a logical thinker and while not being physically appealing to the reader, it is established that he is smart, and the boys need him. However, the boys only look at physical strength and ignore him only following Ralph. The readers' view of Piggy starts to change because now they know his true strength, but the boys view him only as fat and short without looking at his brain. Through the comparison of Piggy, Jack, and Ralph the reader can establish that strength to the boys is only