Skip to main content

What type of leader is Piggy in Lord Of The Flies?

It is a pity that Piggy's attempts at being a leader are largely unsuccessful firstly, because of his appearance - he is overweight and wears glasses, secondly, he suffers from asthma and thirdly, he had been made fun of from the outset when the boys heard his nickname. Especially Jack's derision towards him encouraged the other boys and they mocked him. No one could respect him after that and even his most sincere attempts were seen as snivelling gripes only.


As a leader, Piggy would have used a common-sense approach. He is clearly practical in his thinking. He is, for example, the one who, at the start, recognizes the practicality of the conch and suggests that Ralph use it to summon whoever else might be on the island. He also insists that it be respected and puts forward rules to that effect, as such, it becomes a symbol of order and discipline.


Since Piggy is orientated towards rules and discipline, he would have formed a more functional society than the one Ralph and Jack did. He most probably would have established a system of rewards and penalties for those who did and did not adhere to the rules.


Furthermore, Piggy would have created clear tasks for groups amongst the boys, as Ralph tried to do when he and Jack decided on who would be hunters and who not. In such a system, the boys would have had more purpose and their society would have had greater functionality. 


Piggy's style of leadership would have been outcomes-orientated for he focuses on what has to be done throughout the novel. He is the one who Ralph and Jack leave behind when they go off to establish whether they were on an island. It is also clear that Ralph recognises his intuitively caring nature when he also later suggests that he should be the one looking after the littluns when they go looking for the beast, although he also states that it would be best for practical reasons since Piggy is not healthy enough to accompany them. Piggy's leadership would probably have ensured a 'safety first' approach, especially with regard to the littluns. 


Piggy's 'old school' approach in which authority is respected, would have achieved a more disciplined society and there would have been greater order and control.


In the end, it is tragically ironic that both Piggy and the conch simultaneously cease to exist. His death and the destruction of the conch introduce a state of anarchy in which the boys become true savages and their innate brutality is given free rein. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more