What is the significance of Piggy's glasses?

What is the significance of Piggy's glasses?

Piggy's glasses are significant to the boys as they are the means with which the boys are able to get a fire started.  Symbolically, the glasses are significant because they represent the intellectual and ordered side of humanity.  The breaking of the glasses represents the breaking of the last tie to humanity that the boys have.  After this event, it is a downward spiral into primal and animalistic behavior, culminating in Piggy's death.

Piggy's glasses also signify Piggy's ability to "see"--both literally and figuratively.  Without them, he is helples and blind.  He is unable to serve as well as Ralph's right-hand man and voice of logic.  As Piggy is "blinded" is symbolizes the blindness of the Jack's tribe to the evil to which they are succumbing.  Piggy's murder completes the blindness and forces them into total darkness which leads to the hunting of Ralph.

Piggy's glasses symbolise civilisation and all that is modern. During their stay at the island, the boys run around, losing more and more of their clothes, whereas Piggy remains intact with his glasses - and does not succumb to tribal savagery. His glasses represent the intellect that holds Ralph's camp together. Once he dies, all is left is the bestial instinct that is displayed by Jack's clan. The breaking of Piggy glasses is seen as the boys' final detachment from what was once a civiliased world they used to live in - a grammar school.

Piggy's glasses represent many different ideas, but the literal importance of his glasses has great importance to Ralph and his followers (and later, it is important to Jack's tribe). The initial importance of the specs is that they represent the ability to make fire, which will hopefully provide the rescue that Ralph so desperately seeks. Jack's tribe (after the split) realizes the glasses' importance only when they are in need of a fire over which to roast the pigs they hunt.

Figuratively, Piggy's glasses represent the hope of being rescued, as well as the characterization of Piggy himself. Piggy's eyesight is weak, so he wears these glasses. The ironic part of it is that although his eyesight is weak, his insight is very strong. In this respect, the glasses may represent knowledge, wisdom, insight, etc.

Piggy's glasses symbolize civilization and when they are broken it symbolizes the destruction of the civilization the boys had at the begining of the book. The conch represents 'Democracy and free speech' or order between the boys and how they could not speak out of turn if they didn't have the conch. When the conch is broken it represents the end of free speech and Democracy.

The conch also symbolizes power, because whenever someone has it, everyone needs to turn their attention to the holder.

One lense is cracked when Jack punches Piggy in the stomach, causing him to fall over, close to the dead fire on top of the mountain. Piggy's glasses are later completely smashed to pieces,as is the conch, when Piggy is hit a glancing blow by the boulder which Roger levers from the top of Castle Rock. The blow from the boulder sends Piggy flying from the cliff and he lands with considerable force on a rock in the sea, smashing his head open and spilling his brains across the rock.

Piggy's glasses represent scientific knowledge.  It can be used to aid humanity or to destroy it. The fact that the glasses can be used to kindle a fire is a positive attribute; however, that same fire may turn into a destructive force when misused. Certainly, this has relevance in a world that has access to atomic energy, cloning and genetic engineering.

Everyone has written about how Piggy's glasses represent science, civilization, humanity, etc.

These are all true, but in a way his glasses also represent weakness. Without them, he can't see, nor can he survive.

In fact, none of the boys could survive without them, since his glasses are the firestarter which in turn provides light, warmth, and cooked food.

This is one of the ironies in Golding's work, that while civilizaiton is strength, in a certain way it is also weakness. While it strenghtens man and gives him abilites to behave in a lifestyle more complex than that of the animals, he comes to totally rely on it. In it's absence, unable to manipulate the natural world, he is helpless.

Piggy's glasses are a symbol of civilization. They are a constant in the boys lives on the island, a small piece of civilization they can still cling to. When the glasses are first cracked, it is symbolic of a signifigant drop in the civilization of the boys. When they arestolen, it symbolizes how power has been passed to Jack, which we, the reader can infer, means that civilization will soon be completely lost.