Piggy's Glasses
Maggie Mills Rose
Piggy's specs symbolized civilization and savagery. The boys had to fight for natural resources and they were running out. They slowly were falling apart and they would use anything and anyone to survive.
"Piggy came in with it in shorts and shirt, laboring cautiously out of the forest with the evening sunlight gleaming from his glasses. He held the conch under his arm" (Golding 40).
This is the rising action of the boys getting the idea to use piggy's glasses to start a fire. His glasses are the only technology the boys have. Creating fire brings them the idea to start a signal fire which represents rescue and going back to civilization.
"Ralph made a step forward and Jack smacked Piggy's head. Piggy's glasses flew off and tinkled on the rocks. Piggy cried out in terror ' "My specs!" ' (Golding 71).
One side of Piggy's glasses breaks after Jack throws them down. Since the boys are slowly losing their grasp on civilization the glasses breaking symbolizes the boys slowly breaking mentally.
"Piggy eyed the advancing figure carefully. Nowadays he sometimes found that he saw more clearly if he removed his glasses and shifted the one lens to the other eye; but even through the good eye, after what happened, Ralph remained unmistakably Ralph" (Golding 155).
The glasses represented civilization because the boys start to break up and loose their dignity. At first they used the glasses to start a fire, but now the glasses are used more than that. They have bad memories and experiences on them.