By Abdullah Al Muktadir

8/2/2019 By Abdullah Al Muktadir

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By Abdullah Al Muktadir

William Golding, in Lord of the Flies, seems to sort his characters into confident characters and

the characters who suffer from negligence. He has Ralph, Jack, Roger, the naval officer as thepersons who do not want to hesitate. On the other hand, Piggy, Simon, the boy with thebirthmark, the ‘littluns’, like Percival Madison, cannot be confident, important or dominant.

They continue passivity and whenever they’ve got to do something different, these neglectedboys feel outcast. They need to think a lot lest anyone else get ready to oppose theirs. Piggy often

fails to convince the other boys and has to remain neglected. Simon needs to walk alone throughhis private world and dare not relate the significance of those moments to the boys around him.

The ‘littluns’ share negligence and aloofness with Piggy and Simon. Even, they hardly have

names.

Piggy:

The novel, on its very opening page, quotes

‘Wait a minute!’ and ‘I can’t move with all these creeper things.’

This voice is from a fat boy who gets no real name throughout the novel. Rather Ralph starts

calling him ‘Piggy’. Like other boys, Ralph never feels the necessity of looking for the realname. Piggy cries for importance and attention. In the meetings, he is crazy for the conch, always

waiting for the opportunity to speak to the boys. But the active boys including Ralph seem to be

bored with Piggy always saying ‘I got the conch! Ralph, they ought to shut up.’ Ralph startsignoring Piggy though later he begins feeling otherwise. It is Ralph who alone recognizes

Piggy’s superior intelligence. Their relationship, if it is after all considered a fine friendship,deals with giving importance, being together and paying back the love one gets. Piggy’s obedient

love is given back at last when Ralph ‘wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’sheart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.’

Simon:

Claire Rosenfield, in the essay, ’‘Men of Smaller Growth’: A Psychological Analysis of William

Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1961)’, says, ‘At the moment of Simon’s death, nature speaks; a

cloud bursts…both Simon and the dead man, beast and beast, are washed into the sea and

disappear.’

So Simon is the most romantic and the most absurd boy in the island who has something special

in himself for dealing with the nature around him. His private moments contain the deepestthoughts and the biggest truth. He, in these moments, being completely out of the common

believes, finds something most authentic and least avoidable. Simon alone knows that the ‘beast

from air’ is no other than a dead parachute-man. Instinctively, he gets wise and his sensitive

mind leads him to a hallucination which actually makes the readers aware the ‘Lord of the Files’or ‘mankind’s essential illness’, symbolized by the ‘pig’s head on a stick.’ Simon seems to be the



spokesman for the novelist as he, in his private moments, sorts out the reality from common

prejudice. Thus he seems to be a preacher to the boys. But like any prophet, he is misunderstood,suffers from negligence and at last he is killed being neglected. Even, Piggy neglect Simon’sdeath when Ralph finds himself guilty of the murder.

The ‘Littluns’:

In chapter three Golding writes,

‘The undoubted littluns, those aged about six, led a quite distinct, and at the same time intenselife of their own.’

The littluns ‘running like insects’ are kept aloof by every ‘biggun’ but Piggy. They hardly have

names and, most strikingly, the boy ‘with the mark on his face’ gets lost and nobody looks for him. Piggy has to shout saying, ‘Them kids. The liitle’uns. Who took notice of ‘em?’ Later, they

get involved with the savageness of Jack. They, naturally, starts to imitate the ‘bigguns’, and

their identity, the distinct life of their own, start getting lost.

Together:

Piggy, Simon and ‘the undoubted littuluns’ share their passivity with each other. Piggy always

tries to be an important speaker, often fails and has to remain almost passive. Simon becomes

‘inarticulate in his effort to’ speak to the boys saying that the beast is nothing else’… maybe it’sonly us.’ And the ‘liitluns’ can do nothing very mentionable for being called active. They all are

too negligible to contribute to making any important decision.

Negligence:

The word ‘negligence’ itself can be explained as ‘the failure to give sb/sth enough care or attention,’ according to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005). But this failure has less

effect on the person who fails. Rather this very failure badly affects the mental condition of the

person who has to suffer from this want of ‘attention’. It hampers any sort of relationship.

Negligence, sometimes, makes the neglected people feel that they are no good for anything.

They get disheartened and, in some cases, become subconsciously infertile.

If They Were Not Neglected:

If Piggy had the ability to convince the boys, they might not have gone savages. Piggy could

have been able to make a list of the ‘liitluns’, make everyone aware of the rules and regulationsinherited from the adult world.

If Simon were patiently understood, the boys would have been aware of the real beast which is

not from air, which does not need any queer gift like a pig-head. Rather they would have beenconscious of their internal conflict. If Simon were noticed carefully, he would have survived. He

might have shown something more awakening, something essential and, after all, good for all of

them.



If the ‘littluns’ were not neglected, they might have been able to remain innocent. If they were

not ignored at all, they could have been able to spread that innocence so forcefully

that……………….

What should I say? Or should I Dream more?

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By Abdullah Al Muktadir