Lord of the Flies9

In William Goldings novel The Lord of the Flies, Piggy’s helplessness and superior intellect lead to his tragic death. Piggy is an outsider. He manages, for a time, to have some influence on the group through Ralph, who recognizes his brilliance and puts into effect several of his suggestions. But, the boys are quick to ridicule him for his fatness, asthma, and lack of physical skill. As an orphan brought up under the care …

…Golding 11), and his squealing, he resembles the sacrificial pig. When he dies, his “arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig's after it has been killed” (Golding 165). His superior intellect is of little use to him in the longer the boys are on the island. In the increasingly more immoral society of the boys, the intellectual is lowered to the status of the beast. Then, as the pig, he is sacrificed and symbolically eaten.