What Is Piggy's Glasses Symbolize In Lord Of The Flies

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The color green is sometimes used as a symbol representing wisdom or knowledge. This symbol can be seen in various places. For example, it can be seen in Star Wars since Yoda, a wise and knowledgeable alien, is green. Symbols are the gateway to truly reading and understanding a book or story. They can be used to give a story a second meaning or to help the reader understand the story further than they had conceived it. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the amount of symbols is astounding. All of them giving the reader a deeper understanding of this story. One of these symbols is the glasses of a reasonably well-informed boy named Piggy. Piggy’s glasses are an important symbol in this story because it symbolizes intelligence, the balance …show more content…
There are many instances in Lord of the Flies in which Piggy is the voice of reason or Piggy knows what to do. The very first instance of this is when Piggy and Ralph meet on the island and find the conch. As Ralph examines the alien object, Piggy informed Ralph that “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us…” (Golding 20). The process of finding all of the kids would have been much more difficult for Piggy and Ralph if Piggy had not given Ralph the idea to blow the conch. An instance of where Piggy was the voice of reason is when Ralph told the boys to make a signal fire so that they could become rescued. Right as the word fire was spoken, all of the boys except for Piggy hastily left to get firewood. The boys collected so much wood that the signal fire they were requiring quickly became a humongous bonfire that burned some of the island away along with a “little’un”. At this, Piggy remarked “...what’s any use. We couldn’t keep a fire like that going, not if we tried” (Golding 57). Another instance in which Piggy was the voice of reason is after the “signal fire” became a failure. Piggy decided to tell everyone what they should have done which was “The first thing we ought to have made was the shelters down there by the beach…” (Golding 62). Piggy, in many of these situations, had a good idea on what to do but was ignored since he was different. He had