of democracy would be enough to ensure the flourishing of a true civilization on the island.

But over time, he comes to realize—or rather, the realization is forced upon him by Jack and his gang—that no civilization is sustainable without the threat of violence against those who would jeopardize its very existence.

Because Ralph was unable to do this, Jack and his merry band of pig-sticking choirboys were free to destroy the rules-based order that Ralph had so carefully established and replace it with a brutal dictatorship. In turn, this forces Ralph to change, to become angry and savage as he tries to resist Jack's despotic reign.

Before long, Ralph is literally running for his life, drawing upon his instinct for survival in order to avoid the fate of Simon and Piggy. By the end of the story, the calm, rational administrator of the earlier chapters has been replaced by a hunted animal drawing upon his innermost resources in a desperate bid to stay alive.

At the beginning of the story, Ralph is a relatively optimistic, naive child who believes that the boys will be able to create a civilized society on the uninhabited tropical island. After being elected chief, Ralph has faith that the group will obey his directives and that he will be able to maintain order. As the novel progresses, Ralph discovers that Jack resents him and is gradually attempting to undermine his authority while the boys begin to neglect their duties. Ralph then begins to lose hope when the majority of boys refuse to help build the shelters on the beach or follow simple instructions that would help cultivate a civilized society. In chapter 4, Ralph becomes infuriated and discouraged when they miss a rare opportunity to be rescued by a passing ship because Jack allowed his hunters to neglect the signal fire. In the next chapter, Ralph holds an assembly and attempts to address the numerous issues among the boys.

After Samneric claim that they witnessed the beast on the top of the mountain, Ralph begins to realize that they will not be able to establish a civilized society, and he slowly loses hope and confidence. Jack also becomes increasingly antagonistic, and Ralph expresses his desire to give up his position as chief. Once Ralph mistakes the dead paratrooper for the beast, Jack forms his own tribe of savages at the opposite end of the island, and Ralph recognizes that their chances of being rescued have severely diminished. He also acknowledges his participation in Simon's murder and begins to fear for his life.

After Roger brutally murders Piggy in chapter 11, Ralph runs for his life and desperately avoids Jack and his savages as they chase him throughout the island. Fortunately, a British naval officer is waiting on the beach, and his presence prevents the savages from murdering Ralph. By the end of the novel, Ralph has significantly transformed into a frightened, mature adolescent, who understands that humans are inherently evil and weeps "for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."

At the start of the story, Ralph is optimistic, calm, and confident.  He seems to know what needs to be done to get rescued and he knows that leadership is required.  Since he does immediately state the obvious need for leadership, he is a natural choice to the boys to be the leader.  He lacks the ability to lead however.  He does not continue to command respect from the boys, he does not see that things get done and get done correctly; instead, he complains to the boys that they aren't doing things right.  Unfortunately, he does little more than complain.  By chapter 9, Ralph is beginning to sink into savagery like the other boys.  He actively participates in the circle of chanting and dancing boys who kill Simon, even if he doesn't actually lift a spear and stab at Simon himself.  He realizes later, the horror of what happened.  That attests to the idea that he still has some civility left in him.  By the last chapter, however, he is slinking through the brush and trees on the island, trying to think like a wild pig as he attempts to elude the boys who are hunting him in order to kill him.  He has had to become savage in order to survive.  At the end, when the boys are discovered by the naval officer, Ralph has just enough civilization left in him to cry for all the civilization he has lost.

In many ways, Piggy doesn't change at all. When he is first introduced to the group by the nickname he'd previously asked Ralph not to share, he becomes the laughingstock of the group. The boys continually insult him, making fun of his weight and his asthma, and Piggy remains an outsider for much of the novel. In fact, when Jack is making a reach for leadership, one of his main arguments against Ralph is that he says things that sound like Piggy. Piggy remains loyal to Ralph's leadership, recognizing him as the boy the group has chosen, and tries to provide adult-like advice when he can. He worries more than once throughout the novel about what adults would think of the behavior on the island. As Ralph is gradually alienated himself, Piggy is his faithful ally. When their group is whittled down to just the two of them and Samneric, Piggy clings to the rules of order which he thinks will save him. Of all the boys on the island, Piggy is one of the least changed.

Something does happen to him, though, in chapter 9. Jack asks them to take part in his tribe and his dancing. Perhaps Ralph's thoughts reflect the needs of Piggy as well:

Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable.

Piggy (and Ralph) see this window to belong to the group, enjoying its protection, and for a moment, they are swept up in the chaotic frenzy of blood and killing. As Simon comes out of the forest, they charge him with the rest of the group.

Piggy's reaction afterward shows that he tries to distance himself from Simon's murder, claiming that he was on the outside of the circle. For such a character of reason, the excuse that it was an "accident" falls a bit flat, considering he did nothing to prevent the murder.

Piggy dies proclaiming the value of reason over passions, of rules over killing. His core set of beliefs remains fairly stagnant throughout the novel.

Piggy is one of two characters in the novel to undergo a dramatic transformation: that of their entire state of being, from living to dead. The other is Simon. William Golding’s description of Simon’s death is ambiguous, so it can be seen as accidental. In the case of Piggy, however, it is clear that Roger kills him with the giant boulder. The sacrifice of these two boys represents the symbolic end of faith and reason, respectively. Simon, whose mystical nature indicates that he represents religion or superstition, is the first to go. Piggy stands for intellect, science, and technology and is taken second. With both of these forces removed, the boys are left with primal instincts.

One important change that Piggy undergoes is the symbolic maiming or blindness that occurs when his glasses are first broken, and then the remaining half is stolen. While the glasses represent technology, they also stand for his elevated status: he is Prometheus, the fire giver. The other children’s willingness to hurt him by depriving him of a necessary tool indicates their increasing cruelty. Piggy must cope with his disability, which grows extreme after Jack steals his last lens. The loss of sight also indicates a different type of loss: the loss of his intellectual insights into their situation. He had become a valued second-in-command because, as Ralph says, he could think.

Piggy’s final change is from adviser to teacher. Without him to rely on, Ralph must remember not what he said but how he thought. With Piggy’s death and disappearance, his transformation is complete. Only through his sacrifice could Ralph become whole. Piggy has transmitted to Ralph some of the analytical skills he requires to survive.

Piggy is portrayed as a physically weak yet intelligent boy who is a fierce supporter of Ralph and an adamant proponent of civilization. Piggy remains dedicated to civilization from the beginning to the end of the novel and his personality and perspective never really changes throughout the story. From the beginning of the story, Piggy tries to help organize the boys and establish a civilized society on the island. He continually criticizes and scolds the other boys for not following Ralph's directives and disobeying the conch. Piggy is diametrically opposed to Jack from the onset of the story and his negative feelings towards him do not change as the novel progresses. As the boys gradually descend into savagery and begin neglecting Ralph's orders in favor of following Jack, Piggy remains loyal to Ralph and does not waver in his support of civilization. Piggy never hunts and is utterly disgusted by the behavior of Jack and his hunters. However, one could argue that Piggy experiences a lapse of civility by participating in Simon's brutal death. Piggy also experiences denial by refusing to acknowledge his participation in Simon's death. Despite this brief moment of change in Piggy's personality, he remains supportive of Ralph and is still a proponent of civilization to the end. Tragically, Piggy dies trying to uphold the standards of civilization when Roger rolls a massive boulder towards him.

Throughout the novel Piggy is the intelligent, scientific voice of reason.  One of the remarkable things about Piggy is that he actually doesn't change. When he dies at the hands of one of the other boys, he dies the same ineffectual boy who suffers as the punchline of the other boys jokes.  He is larger and smarter than the other boys, but as their society grows more and concerned with brawn than brains he becomes obsolete.  In appearance he seems to be the oldest of the group (thin hair and glasses).  Once his glasses are destroyed, Piggy is literally blind and helpless, despite his constant referrals to "what grownups would do" Roger brutally kills him.

Ralph is, of course, a central character in Lord of the Flies. He has many recognisable leadership qualities but does not yet have enough life experience or maturity to best use these qualities.His natural leadership most probably stems from his background - his father is a naval officer.

Piggy is almost like Ralph's alter-ego and without Piggy, Ralph would not be able to lead the boys at all. While Ralph has the abilities, he needs Piggy to guide him and direct him. Refer to the e-notes guides and navigate to the characters' page where you will find all the characters and you will understand the link between Ralph and Piggy. As it says in the character analysis: 

He is the first to see the conch shell buried in the sand, though it is significant that it is Piggy who points out how it can be used as a signaling device.

Ralph is well-liked  and wants to build a mini civilization on the island but his overall inability to lead effectively does contribute to this novel's theme and the boys complete descent into savagery. Even Ralph, himself, will not escape the inevitable.

Ralph's position as the elected leader and obvious choice will gradually decline whlie Jack's rises. Most of the boys, except Piggy, will leave Ralph in favour of Jack's 'tribe.' It is inconceivable for Ralph at first that the boys would give in to base instincts. However, like Simon, Ralph does come to understand taht savagery exists within them all. He works very hard not to be overwhelmed by the so-called 'thrill' of barbarism.

When Ralph hunts a boar for the first time, he does feel the exhilaration of the kill. When he attends the feast, he is further swept along and even participates in the killing of Simon.

As Ralph has not completely descended into savagery, he is plunged into despair by his actions but this experience also gives him the strength of character so that by the end of the novel he can defend himself against Jack's tribe by using the very stick that has come to represent the baseness and lost innocence of the boys - he casts the head to the ground.

His ultimate rescue also adds a burden to him as he now understands that lost innocence can never be recaptured.  

The primary changes in Ralph are in maturity and learning to think on his feet. Ralph is basically an introspective, conservative person who believes strongly in the virtues of an orderly society. He thinks things over and considers all the angles before making a decision. Ralph understands that there are some limitations to his approach, but he mistakenly thinks that the defects are intellectual. Although he is sometimes unkind to Piggy, he admires him for his intelligence. Ralph is naturally a brave rather than a fearful person, so it does not occur to him that the other children—especially the younger ones—will be almost paralyzed by fear. As he is not a jealous person, neither can he anticipate that another boy will covet the leadership role that came to him so naturally.

When the children prove incapable of maintaining a cohesive society in the absence of adult supervision, Ralph not only loses his position of leadership but also is put on the defensive. Once he realizes the danger of physical violence, as evidenced by Piggy’s death, Ralph does a quick turnaround. He starts processing information very quickly, as he understands that his own life is at stake. He becomes an astute, cunning survivor.

Initially, Ralph is a hopeful boy, who naively believes that he can establish a civil society on the uninhabited tropical island. As the elected leader, Ralph attempts to install a set of rules and priorities, which he instinctively expects the boys to follow. Unfortunately, Jack begins to publicly disobey Ralph by dismissing his orders in favor of hunting. In addition to dealing with Jack's disobedience, the littluns begin lamenting about the enigmatic beast that inhabits the island. Ralph is initially hopeful that he can convince Jack and his hunters to follow his orders and believes that he can present a rational argument that will ease the littluns' minds. After the boys miss their opportunity for rescue because Samneric join Jack's hunting expedition, Ralph holds an assembly to discuss why the boys are not completing certain tasks and attempts to resolve the issue regarding the beast. Unfortunately, Jack interrupts the meeting, and the hunters leave the assembly before Ralph is done speaking. At this point in the novel, Ralph begins to lose hope and realizes that being the elected leader is a difficult job.

As the novel progresses, Jack becomes increasingly antagonistic, and the fear of the beast becomes the predominant issue after Samneric claim they've seen it. Ralph begins experiencing more and more difficulties as the leader and even contemplates giving up his title as chief. Ralph gradually begins to lose focus and also starts forgetting about the priorities he initially established. Ralph's arguments with Jack become increasingly heated, and Ralph struggles to maintain his authority. After Ralph believes he's seen the beast, he participates in Simon's brutal murder, and Jack establishes his own tribe of savages on the opposite side of the island. Ralph is aware that he no longer has any authority and fears Jack and his tribe of savages.

Toward the end of the novel, Roger ends up killing Piggy and Ralph is forced to run for his life as the savages chase after him. Fortunately, Ralph is saved when he runs out onto the beach and a British naval officer prevents the savages from killing him. By the end of the novel, Ralph realizes that humans are inherently wicked beings and has witnessed firsthand the extent of human depravity. He also understands the difficulties of being a leader and has gained valuable insight into the nature of fear, evil, and civilization.

Ralph begins as a rather naive boy. When they first land on the island, he cares about no one but himself. Power changes him, but not in negative ways.

He is elected leader only because he blows the conch, Which Piggy pointed out could be done. However, once leader, he takes the responsibility seriously. He institutes rules and order, trying to get the boys to build shelters, keep a fire going, and take turns speaking.

"[I]f we have a signal going, they'll come and take us off. And another thing. we ought to have more rules. Where the conch is, that's a meeting. The same up here as down here" (42).

Ralph also has to contend with threats to his power from Jack. This causes him to grow up fast. Jack is a harsher, more savage version of himself. He is a natural leader with a built-in base because of the hunters. Later, he will tear the tribe apart with his appealingly savage ways.

When the tribe breaks, Ralph tries to bring it back together. Unfortunately, he never had solid leadership skills even if he did develop some compassion. He tries to convince Jack that he is still in charge, when Jack and the hunters give them meat. It proves disastrous.

When Piggy is killed and Ralph runs, he sees an adult for the first time. He cries, knowing what they have become. He knows he could not prevent it.

The changes Ralph undergoes, from self-centered to group-centered, do not reflect the island as a whole.  He is never able to convince the other boys to be responsible.  They are all too happy to abandon the trappings of society.  If they had had a stronger leader (not Ralph the incompetent or Jack the savage), they might not have had a schism, a forest fire, or two murders.

At first Ralph celebrates when he realizes the absence of adults on the island. He exults in the sense of freedom he feels. As events transpire, he reaches the point when he desperately desires an adult presence to establish order and assume responsibility. Ironically, Ralph's disintegration mirrors that of adults who feel in control and then find themselves overwhelmed. Ralph's world on the island spins out of control, just as the world outside--run by supposedly powerful and capable adults--has also spun out of control, bringing the same results: savagery, destruction, and death.

As he goes throughout the novel, Ralph begins to be more and more concerned with personal hygiene, for starters. He notices himself and the other boys getting filthier by the day, and this stresses him out to the point where he can't concentrate. When his tribe decides to go meet Jack's tribe, he wants them to clean up as well as they can first, to put that noticeable difference between the clean boys and the savages.

Ralph relies more and more heavily on Piggy as the novel progresses, too. Ralph finds that he can't stay focused on his plan of keeping the fire lit unless Piggy is there to remind him of it. When Piggy dies, he is forced to think on his own, and he has a hard time doing it.

Ralph's leadership as Chief changes as well. He loses confidence when Jack's group breaks off of the main group, and he begins to fear making demands because he worries it will drive off the rest of the boys, or it won't work and his ineptitude as a leader will be obvious. He even begins to fear blowing the conch, in case no one comes.

The protagonist of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is Ralph, and he changes significantly throughout the novel because he learns and witnesses evil firsthand, even in himself. Let’s explore this in more detail.

Ralph is a practical boy and a good leader. When he discovers that he and the other boys are alone on the island, he immediately sets out to get food, build shelters, and organize the others into a kind of community. He wants to keep everyone as safe as possible.

But it is not long before Ralph’s leadership is challenged by Jack, who quickly turns savage and draws the other boys to him. Ralph wants to remain committed to civilization, but eventually he participates in a boar hunt and feels the thrill of savagery deep within him. Ralph goes to Jack’s feast in hopes of keeping the other boys under control, but he finds himself actually participating in the wild excitement. The feast ends in tragedy, however, when Simon is killed.

Ralph has learned now how easy it is to give in to temptation and fall into evil. He has felt it within himself, and for a while after Simon’s death, he nearly despairs. Yet Ralph is able to conquer that despair and recommit to good by casting down the idol. He ends the novel weeping at the feet of the boys’ rescuer, overcome by all he has experienced but likely much more mature because of it.

Ralph is fair-haired, an Everyman. He can talk to all of the other boys and they all naturally like him. He's an easy choice, and he also comes with the advantage of being associated with the conch and democracy. That's why he gets elected in the first place:

There was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch. The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was set apart.

Yet, as the novel goes on, Ralph feels the pressure of leadership. He can't focus his thoughts the same way as he could:

“Stop it! Stop it!”His voice struck a silence among them.“Smoke.”A strange thing happened in his head. Something flittered there in front of his mind like a bat’s wing, obscuring his idea.

As the novel continues, Golding shows Ralph mentally struggling to cope - there are little clues everywhere:

Then there were his nails— Ralph turned his hand over and examined them. They were bitten down to the quick though he could not remember when he had restarted this habit nor any time when he indulged it.“Be sucking my thumb next—”He looked round, furtively. Apparently no one had heard.

Particularly after Piggy dies, Ralph entirely loses his control over the island. What Ralph really loses, I'd argue, as the novel continunes is clarity of thought.

Chapter 10 is where Ralph begins to change his opinion about the beast. This occurs after Simon is killed in the previous chapter during the boys' frenzy. Ralph tells Piggy that they committed murder because he realizes that it was a savage frenzy that caused them to fall upon Simon and kill him.  He knows that they had all let the evil inside of each of them take control of themselves for that moment.  He tells Piggy that he is afraid "Of us," he says.  He is starting to understand that the real beast on the island is that evil in each of them and that the only way to defeat the beast is to keep that evil inside.  He also realizes that doing that is becoming progressively more difficult and that some of the boys are more savage than some of the others.  By the end of the story, Ralph has come to fully realize that there is no physical beast and he knows what Simon realized earlier that the real source of evil was that inner savagery..

In the beginning of Lord of the Flies, Jack is introduced in chapter one as being a very powerful leader of the choir. His authority over the boys is evident by the way the boys are still wearing their wool uniforms, even though the tropical beach setting would be more conducive to less restrictive clothing. They do not remove their togs until he tells them they are allowed to do so. Even when Simon faints, the boys do not break form and sit down until Jack gives them permission to do so. Jack uses his power to maintain the order and expectations of the proper, civilized school to which they were accustomed. 

By the last chapter of the book, Jack is no longer using his authority to maintain the expectations of civilization. Instead, he is ruling by force and using his power to encourage savagery in its most evident form: the pre-meditated, ruthless murder of Ralph. The authoritarian nature of Jack's personality is consistent throughout the novel. However, it is the motivation of his character that changes drastically. Jack changes from being a leader that upholds the conventions of society to being a leader that actively destroys the conventions of civilized society.

At the beginning of the novel, Jack is an enthusiastic boy who is more than happy to help the others explore the island and gather firewood. As the novel progresses, Jack becomes increasingly jealous of Ralph's role as leader of the group. Jack also becomes obsessed with hunting. After Jack kills his first pig, he becomes increasingly savage and confrontational. He begins to openly challenge Ralph and attempts to usurp power. After Jack fails to usurp power, he invites the boys to join his tribe of hunters on the other side of the island. The majority of the boys follow Jack, and he becomes their tyrannical chief. Jack encourages violence, promotes the idea of a beast, and manipulates the boys' fears. Jack then murders Simon and even commands his savages to hunt Ralph like a pig. Jack quickly descends into savagery shortly after crash landing on the island and becomes a barbaric psychopath. 

The beauty and the tragedy of Piggy's character is that he doesn't change.  The boys overall become uncivilized.  Jack and the choir boys descend all the way into violent savagery.  Ralph struggles, not knowing how to behave. 

Piggy, though - he is the same uptight, rules obsessed, serious boy when he dies as he was when Ralph first met him in Chapter 1.  The beauty is that Piggy presents hope for human kind.  For every violent Jack, there is a Piggy, determined to uphold justice and decency.  Even scared, Piggy stays true to the dream:   'Ralph -- remember what we came for. The fire. My specs.'

The tragedy is that Piggy can't understand the savagery in others.  He underestimates those who have abandoned the rules he lives by.  Even after Jack and Ralph have begun fighting, Piggy holds firm to the sense of "right" - not understanding that this has already gone from the island:

"Piggy lifts the shell and says, “Which is better—to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is? . . . Which is better—to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill? ."

This is when Roger hits him with the rock.  Piggy is killed because he doesn't understand violence. 

Ralph's final thoughts highlight Piggy's importance as a static character:

"Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."

At the start of the novel, Ralph has two outstanding traits that change during his experiences on the island.  The first thing we notice is that he is a little conceited toward Piggy.  Ralph seems to instantly determine that Piggy is socially inferior to him, and he acts superior to the asthmatic, overweight boy. We see this as Piggy talks quite a bit when they first meet, but Ralph tries "to be offhand and not too obviously uninterested" as he walks away (8). He won't bother to ask Piggy's name, and laughs at him when the socially awkward boy admits his unflattering nickname. Ralph even tells the other boys the nickname, betraying Piggy's secret.  

Ralph also has a great deal of confidence at first, not only in himself, but in the societal rules that adults have taught him and the other boys.  Ralph has no doubt that if they make rules and he leads they boys, they will form a civilized society that can work towards getting rescued. He believes in the adult ways and strives to emulate them.

However, as Jack and his tribe work to undermine the rules and Ralph himself, the young leader finds his self confidence slipping.  In chapter five, after Jack has completely disrupted and dissolved the meeting, Ralph tells Piggy and Simon, "'I ought to give up being chief...We're all drifting and things are going rotten.  At home there was always a grownup'" (93-94). 

At this same time, Ralph is learning to appreciate Piggy's helpful intelligence and honest friendship.  While preparing mentally for the meeting to set everyone straight and enforce the rules, Ralph admits to himself that he doesn't have the brains that Piggy does.  He realizes that his friend, "for all his ludicrous body," has the ability to logic things out like an adult (78). His hard life on the island has caused his childish conceit to melt away into a more adult set of social values.

The trouble is, no matter how they try to reason with Jack's tribe in an adult manner, the hunters continue in their downward spiral into savagery.  When Roger murders Piggy, shattering the conch, the last vestiges of Ralph's confidence in the adult system shatter with him. As the savages stage a full-on hunt to kill him, Ralph hides "among the shadows and [feels] his isolation bitterly" (185). He wrestles with his confusion about why things fell apart and how they can hate him so much. He determines that it's "'cos' I had some sense'" (186). The jaded young would-be leader faces the fact that the adult world is flawed too; creating a logical set of rules is not enough to control the evil that lurks in some people's hearts, nor the beast, or fear, that causes others to lose their moral values. 

In the end, as the Naval officer stands over him unfeelingly, Ralph weeps "for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy" (202).  Ralph will be forever changed, and in his heart he realizes that his return to the adult world is truly not a rescue at all.