Read the printable resource and then consider the following questions

What is the symbolic meaning of Piggy’s death?

Piggy represents the rational basis of goodness and morality, the Freudian superego (or conscience). The conch represents order and harmony, a system for being together established when the boys first arrive on the island. If you hold the conch you have the right to be heard. If Piggy holds the conch, it doesn't matter if he's overweight and uncoordinated. So he defends it even when he and Ralph are being attacked by Jack's gang, holding it up and asking, "Which is better—to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?" In morality the tension exists between Hobbes’ state of nature, marked by violence, and a system of rational values, determined by the great moral philosophies of the world. With his death, the old order descends into savagery and innocence is lost.

Is this view of human nature realistic?

In Lord of the Flies two extremes of human nature are depicted to bring out the tension in all of us between the angelic (Piggy) and the demonic (Jack and his gang). Experiments such as the Milgram experiment or the Stanford Prison experiment remind us that it is easy to fall back in to savagery when the agreed basis for morality is forgotten or overridden by pressures from outside. Paul wrote “I do not do the thing I want, the very thing I hate is what I do” (Romans 7). This arguably seems to be true to our own experience: egoism (concern only for myself) fights altruism (concern for others).