Lord of the Flies Group

Topic: I chose Piggy as the best leader between Ralph and Jack

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1

crystalmeth

I chose Piggy as the best leader between Ralph and Jack in The Lord of the Flies.

but I need more info. for my persuasive essay
please help me

2

Piggy is the intellectual of the group.  He's the one who suggests using the conch.  It is Piggy's glasses that are used for starting fires.  Piggy is the first to remind the boys that no one knows where they are and that they need to draw attention to themselves if they hope to get rescued.  Piggy even suggests, in chapter 4, that the boys construct a sundial to keep time.  Later, Piggy suggests that they build a signal fire on the beach since no one wants to go up the mountain where the "beast" (dead parachutist) is. Also, Piggy tells Ralph that he knows that Jack would hurt him if Ralph wasn't there to protect him; he knows that Jack is a savage and he is the first to suggest it. One of the most significant examples of Piggy's intellect is when, in chapter 5, he, along with Simon, suggests that there is no beast like the littluns say there is, he says "...not with claws and all that, I mean..." indicating that he understands that the real beast, the real evil, is inside of each of them.  They have each other to fear, not an outside force.  For all his intellectualism though, Piggy lacks the ability to command respect, reflecting Ralph Waldo Emerson's words: "To be great is to be misunderstood."

3

Piggy is more comfortable being behind the scenes, but without his intellect and reason, Ralph would not have been as successful a leader for the length of time he was.  Piggy and Ralph make a good team since Ralph listens to Piggy's reason and understands the logic behind Piggy's ideas.  Ralph is the people-person with the charisma to execute the ideas that Piggy comes up with--the conch for order, the glasses for fire, the fire on the mountain, the shelter, and the understanding of the dark side of human nature.  Without Piggy, Ralph is ineffectual and lost as a leader.  Once Piggy is murdered, Ralph instinctively knows he will be next.

4

Piggy would have a lot of difficulty being the leader despite the fact that he's the smartest boy on the island. To be persuasive, you'll need to convince the reader that Piggy's physical weakness (eyesight, size) would not be a factor. One way to do this might be that Piggy might use his intellectual abilities to convince the boys he has a detailed plan for getting off the island, but that they'll have to follow him to make it happen.

Or, you could use the idea presented above, that Piggy could be the "behind the scenes" leader who uses others to be the "front" while he is calmly leading from behind the scenes, which in many ways is exactly what happens at first.

5

theschoolemo

Piggy as the others have noted stands for intellectual ways.  it is he who thinks of everything. But why wasn't he chosen as the leader?  this is quite simple to answer, because of how he looked.  If you look into today's culture who is looked up at?  The beautiful, good looking people.  So piggy didn;t get elected because he was fat.  And you notice that Jack was also described as a little hideous, thus he wasn;t elected either.  But Ralph on the other hand was described as really good looking.  So who would u want to follow? some fat kid, ugly kid or some kid who seems to have smarts and is also good looking. 

Yes ralph did have some smarts, he was the one who stood for civilization, it was he who built the huts and maximized the boys chance to get rescued.  Thus he was chosen as leader, but mostly the election was based on looks. 

But piggy i guess you could say was "behind the scenes" but i woudl say that very loosely.

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