Jack snatches the glasses off Piggy's face to create the fire, despite Piggy's protestations, and his dependence upon them. Later, Jack punches Piggy which cause the glasses to fall, smashing one side.
At the end of the chapter, Jack and some of his boys raid Ralph's and the boys' shelter, stealing Piggy's glasses in order to have fire for themselves.
What does the breaking of Piggy's glasses symbolize?
Here, Jack, feeling frustrated by his power struggle with Ralph, takes it out on Piggy, breaking one of the lenses of Piggy's glasses. This assault symbolizes savagery and lawlessness attacking order, intellect, and civilization.
Why does Jack hit Piggy and knock off his glasses?
In Chapter 4, Piggy is still trying to be friendly with Ralph. He also chastises Jack for leaving the fire unattended after Ralph does. This causes Jack to punch, slap, and taunt him. His glasses get cracked during this assault.
What is Piggy's Plan to get his glasses back? Piggy plans to go to Castle Rock and ask Jack for the glasses, believing that Jack will give them back because it is the right thing to do.
The death is foreshadowed in the early pages, when Piggy tells Ralph he has asthma, can't swim, needs his glasses to see, and is sick from the fruit. “Sucks to your ass-mar!” Ralph replies, foreshadowing the boys' lack of concern about Piggy's physical vulnerability.
Jack treats Piggy with disrespect and cruelty throughout the novel. He often belittles Piggy and mocks him for his physical appearance, intelligence, and usefulness. One specific example is when Jack slaps Piggy in the face, causing him to lose his glasses.
Symbolically, the beast represents evil, original sin, and/or the negative aspects of human nature. Jack and his tribe embrace and appease the beast (evil), while Ralph, bPiggy, and Simon do their best to maintain order and cooperation, resisting the beast as best they can.
Ralph and Piggy confront Jack's group about letting the fire die out because they went hunting instead. With provocation, Jack reacts violently by punching Piggy and shattering his glasses- the first physical altercation in the novel so far.
Why are Piggy's glasses so important in Lord of the Flies?
Piggy's Glasses Symbol Analysis
By allowing the boys to create fire, the first necessity of civilization, Piggy's glasses represent science and technology, mankind's power to transform and remake their environment to best suit its needs. Get the entire Lord of the Flies LitChart as a printable PDF.
The name "Lord of the Flies" is a reference to the name of the Biblical devil Beelzebub, so on one level, "the beast" is a kind of savage supernatural figure, but mostly it symbolizes the evil and violence that potentially exists in the heart of every human.
Piggy himself is a very shy and timid person, he is called a follower many times in the book, but when the time comes he stands up and says very logical things. When Piggy does not have his glasses, he is useless because he cannot see. The effect that the specs have on the boys is tremendous.
It is also easy to see why the other boys would find him annoying as Piggy always seems to want to spoil their fun. He is also physically different from them as he is fat, has asthma and wears glasses. All these things go towards making him an outsider to the rest of the group. Piggy's real name is never revealed.
What are 5 reasons Piggy is considered an outsider?
There are many things that mark Piggy out as "different". He comes from a lower social class than the others and has been brought up by an auntie. He wears glasses, is fat, has asthma and seems to be a bit lazy. Piggy saw the smile and misinterpreted it as friendliness.
At the end of Lord of the Flies, most of the boys survive. A littlun goes missing after the group builds a fire that gets out of control, and can be assumed to be dead. Simon gets killed by the group after they mistake him for the beast. Finally, Piggy dies when one of the boys in Jack's tribe throws a boulder on him.
Piggy's death suggests that intellectualism is vulnerable to brutality. While Simon's death can be viewed as an accident or an escalation of mob mentality, Piggy's murder is the most intentional and inevitable on the island, and the moment when the group's last tie to civilization and humanity is severed.
1> Symbolism: Simon represents the epitome of goodness, kindness, and insight in the novel. His death symbolizes the loss of innocence and the triumph of savagery over civilization.
Piggy is now half-blind, a foreshadowing of later events in the book when Jack's tribe steal the spectacles, leaving Piggy completely blind and vulnerable. The glasses are also symbolic of Piggy's character; his rational thinking and ability to see a solution to the boys' predicament.
Glasses are seen as a symbol of intelligence, insight, and enlightenment, and many characters with glasses are portrayed as having advanced intellect or mental faculties. Many fairy tales portray glass as having otherworldly intellectual and omniscient capacities.
In the darkness, Simon crawls into the group and tries to tell them what he has seen but it is too late. The boys have lost all control and thinking he is the Beast, they kill Simon - even Ralph and Piggy are involved. That night, Simon's body is carried out to sea.
