How far does Golding present Piggy as a character with useful and important ideas in Lord of the Flies?

In William Golding’s postwar novel Lord of the Flies, Piggy serves as the voice of science and rationality on the
island, providing invaluable information to sustain a connection with civilisation in a time of distress. However,
despite his intelligence, his lack of confidence and physical prowess prevent many of his ideas from being
recognised, juxtaposing Ralph who attracts the position of leadership due to his charisma and attractive
appearance. Through the dismissal of Piggy’s contributions to the boy’s miniature civilisation, Golding explores
how logic and rational thought can be easily overshadowed when society breaks down, reflecting his own
views on the primitive nature of humans to be violent and aggressive in moments of chaos i.e. war.

In the beginning of the novel, Piggy is shown to have valuable knowledge rooted in his connection to society
as he immediately notices the potential of the conch as a way ‘to call the others’ and ‘have a meeting,’
cementing the conch and himself as symbols of order as he turns to create structure from the start. Much of
Piggy’s intelligence is shown through dialogue, representing his intellectual strength and general composure
as Golding makes him mirror the qualities of a diplomat, preferring discussion and logic over fear mongering
and inactivity. This is evident when he tries to rationalise the superstition around the Beast, stating that ‘Life is
scientific, that is what its is’ and that he ‘knows there isn’t any fear either … Unless we get frightened of
people.’ Here, Golding foreshadows how the boys might reject logic later as Piggy’s explanation of the fear is
quickly suppressed by the boys’ growing hysteria, criticising the real world for ignoring corruption and conflict.

Furthermore, while the conch still represents democracy and is a symbol of power, Golding shows how Piggy’s
commitment to these symbols and the rules reflects how his ideas, although they could help the boys, are still
regarded as useless. Golding uses irony when Piggy remarks ‘I got the conch! I got the right to speak!’ and is
subsequently ignored as others speak over him, illustrating how reason and logic begins to disappear - where
the conch initially provided a way for everyone, including Piggy, to share ideas and cooperate, the boys’
descent into savagery has nullified its importance and reduced it to something they can abuse/ignore as they
did Piggy.

Golding uses Piggy to directly juxtapose ideas of violence as he rhetorically asks Jack at Castle Rock ‘which is
better - to have rules and agree, or to hunt and to kill?’ In contrasting Piggy’s resilience to adhere to society
and reasonable morals with Jack’s complete savagery and moral blindness, Golding develops a powerful
critique of world leaders, both during and throughout time, as if directly judging their inability to be peaceful
and logical. Leading up to his death, the rhetorical question also serves as his last attempt to put forward an
idea for order and civility, representing the fundamental nature of his character to rationally discuss. With
how ‘the rock struck Piggy with a glancing blow’ and the ‘conch exploded into a thousand white fragments,’
Golding uses a semantic field of war and aggression to illustrate how Piggy’s death, the conch’s destruction
and the complete rejection of logic on the island are interconnected, symbolising the ultimate
meaninglessness of his ideas in the eyes of the boys.

In conclusion, Piggy’s logic and rational thinking are essential to the early development of the boy's life on the
island, however, when the island transforms into a microcosm of the war-torn world around it, Piggy’s ideas
are rejected, resulting in the rise of savagery and chaos on the island. His overweight frame, lack of charisma
and blindness mark him as different which could be Golding’s way to critique social hierarchies and how
intelligence is often overlooked in favour of physical power. Ironically, his death signifies how important his
ideas are as the constant rejection of them allows the reader to investigate Golding’s view of how society will
always be capable of regressing into anarchy without appreciation for democracy and rationality.

Compare how poets present ideas about the connection between people and places in ‘In a London Drawing
Room’ and one other poem in ‘Worlds and lives.
In both poems, Eliot and Antrobus explore the lack of connection between people and places, criticising
urbanisation as the root of isolation and struggle in society. Whereas in a London Drawing Room is written
from a romantic lens, focusing on the problems caused by industrialisation such as social disparity and
oppression, With Birds You are Never Lonely explores the speaker’s relationship with nature to develop a
connection with places to suppress the stress of daily life in the modern age. While Eliot’s rigidly structured
poem reflects her views on isolation as suffocating and irreparable, Antrobus explores personal connection
and healing in a volta through time and memory.

Both poems explore similar ideas of human detachment in urban settings as the senses are suppressed and
communication is limited. In Eliot’s poem, she describes how ‘no figure lingering pauses to feed the hunger of
the eye,’ juxtaposing a personification of human appreciation for nature and the world with the idea that
people are suffocated and cannot stop to think in the city. The verb ‘lingering’ implies that they are constantly
in motion like ghosts, suggesting that the city contributes to a loss of individuality, self-expression, and
fulfilment as they must ‘all hurry on,’ as if urged to work themselves to soullessness by those of more fortune.
Similarly, in Antrobus’ poem, a sense of suppression is explored as the deaf speaker, in a cafe, struggles to
focus ‘over the coffee machine’ and how the ‘spoons slam, steam rises.’ These external noises of human
activity feel intrusive and subject the speaker to discomfort as their ability to perceive and communicate,
which is already limited, is defined by the constraints of urban life.

However, while both are critical of human activity and its contribution to social isolation and disparity, Eliot is
more pessimistic in comparison to Antrobus who expresses nature as some sort of medicine for urban
melancholy. In a metaphor, the speaker in Eliot’s poem states ‘the world seems one huge prison house &
court’ suggesting that the lower classes who ‘are punished at the slightest cost’ are heavily oppressed and lack
lots of freedom. This level of injustice in the penultimate line leaves a significant impression considering the
backdrop of Victorian England, criticising the act of neglecting human suffering in favour of capitalistic gain. In
contrast, the speaker in Antrobus’s poem speaks with ‘a young Mauri woman’ in a deliberate way to close the
poem with human connection and interaction as opposed to the closed contemplation of Eliot’s speaker. They
are told that ‘with birds you’re never lonely’ which also serves as a direct address to the reader of the
importance of nature to heal loneliness and bring back human reverence of nature to urban populations.

In the Richest Poor Man in the Valley, how does the poet present ideas about living a happy and contented
life?

In Macrae’s poem, the idea of a happy and contented life is explored through a narrative of a simple life,
suggesting that true wealth is found on an appreciation of nature and relationships compared to materialism
and physical riches. Through the speaker Harry, Macrae evokes a powerful message of how living from love
and subsistence marks a better life than committing to intense work and business.

Macrae presents the juxtaposition between external appearance of poverty and misfortune with internal
fulfilment, suggesting that life does not always have to be decorated in luxury or beauty to have value. She
uses a simile to describe Harry’s face like a weather map full of bad weather suggesting that he has seen
difficulty and may be overworked or lacks content with his life. However, she contrasts this in describing his
heart was fat with the sun - through this metaphor, despite being visibly worn down, his character being ‘fat’
with warmth and light opposes typical images of fatness associated with greed, and instead suggests he is
completely satisfied with life and does not need anything physical in surplus.

Furthermore, Macrae develops this idea of internal fulfilment through Harry’s connection with others,
suggesting that companionship and kindness live on further than material wealth. As the poem follows Harry’s
life until his death, it is said at his funeral that his friends’ tears fell like a thousand diamonds. In this simile,
Macrae layers many ideas, showing how deeply he was loved through the contrast of diamonds and riches
with the raw emotions of grief and sadness. In a sense of irony, Macrae suggests that the love he experienced
through life was more valuable in the end than having any real luxuries, conveying the idea that life feels
meaningless without love and human connection.

What are the similarities and/or the differences between the methods the poets use to present these ideas
about how to live your life?

In Nobody, Laskey encourages the reader to participate with nature and the wider world, asking them to find
some reason to take you out of yourself, suggesting that the human mind can be dangerous and contribute to
life’s trouble, adding a sense of motivation and urgency to the poem’s general tone. In contrast, Macrae’s
narrative style allows the reader to develop a connection to the protagonist Harry as ‘he didn’t care for things
that other people prize’ allowing the reader to adopt some of his own selflessness and content with what he
has. While both poems explore the importance of living a simple life, Laskey’s more instructional tone serves
to urge the reader to improve their current lifestyle as if giving advice whereas Macrae’s poem provides an
image of a simple life from which the readers can learn from and incorporate habits into their own lifestyles.

Similarly, though, both poems do explore the power of nature, using it as a metaphor for living a satisfying life.
In Nobody, Laskey’s instructing the reader to scrape a patch of grass clear for the birds suggests how we
should be compassionate, not only with each other but with nature as well. The uncertainty of contradicts the
general direct tone of instruction and advice but could be Laskey’s way of implying how living a fulfilling life is
by choice and effort. Macrae’s metaphor of the sun making Harry fat shows how nature can fill us with joy and
heal us despite human efforts to move away from nature.