Lord of the Flies

Jack:

Jack is described by Golding as "tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness. Out of this face stared two light blue eyes, frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn, to anger."

Jack is the leading advocate of anarchy on the island. Jack is the leader of the savage tribe which hunts the pigs. Opposed to Ralph and Piggy on almost all matters, Jack represents the id of one's personality-- he supports the notion that one's desires are most important and should be followed, regardless of reason or morals.

Jack is the kind of person which Golding believed everyone would eventually become if left alone to set one's own standards and live the way one naturally wanted. Golding believed that the natural state of humans is chaos and that man is inherently evil. When reason is abandoned, only the strong survive. Jack personifies this idea perfectly.

Piggy:

Piggy is described by Golding as short and very fat. It's no coincidence that Piggy's nickname is such; the overwhelming emotion Jack and his hunters have to "kill the pig" is an indirect and clever author metaphor to suggest the boys are also killing a part of Piggy. In fact, while Jack and his gang continue to kill more pigs, the logic and reason which Piggy symbolizes progressively diminishes with the pigs. Piggy's hair never grows, suggesting that he is not vulnerable to the progression of savagery the other boys seem to be drawn towards.

Piggy represents the law and order of the adult world. He is the superego, the part of man's personality which attempts to act according to an absolute set of standards. Throughout the novel, Piggy attempts to condition the island society to mirror the society they all lived in in England. Piggy's continual references to his auntie demonstrate this philosophy. He tries to pull Ralph towards the reason-oriented side of human nature.

Piggy is obsessed with the signal-fire. This is because he wants to return to England where adults are, but also because the fire is one of the only symbols of order on the island. When the fire goes out, Piggy mentally collapses.

Ralph:

Ralph is the main protagonist of the novel; he has fair hair and is very tall and thin. Jack is the only other character who is close in physical stature to Ralph. This is appropriate since these characters represent two competing philosophies of life on the island.

Golding uses Ralph do represent the perfect human-- someone who does good but isn't so out-of-touch that he can't relate to normal human temptations. This is the Ralph of the beginning of the novel. Later, however, Ralph grows distant from Piggy, the good side, and grows closer to Jack, the anarchical side of human nature.

In his way, Ralph represents the ego of the human personality. He must compromise both the id (the 'if it feels good do it' attitude of Jack) and the superego (the strict adherence to the logic and order of the adult world symbolized through Piggy).

After Piggy's death, Ralph finds it impossible to determine what action to take next. This goes along with Golding's view that if left alone, human nature will naturally be pulled to the id side of one's personality.

Roger:

Roger becomes a self-proclaimed