Key Quote
“"What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?"”
Piggy · Chapter 5
Focus: “What”
Piggy's anguished questions articulate the novel's central inquiry — what separates humanity from savagery, and whether that separation is permanent or merely a thin, breakable veneer.
Technique 1 — TRIPARTITE RHETORICAL QUESTION / TAXONOMY OF DECLINE
Piggy offers three categories — 'humans,' 'animals,' 'savages' — arranged in descending order of civilisation. This taxonomy (system of classification) is also a narrative of decline: the boys have moved from humans (civilised) to animals (instinctive) to savages (deliberately cruel). Each step represents a further loss: reason, then restraint, then humanity itself.
The opening question — 'What are we?' — uses the interrogative 'What' rather than 'Who,' reducing the boys from persons ('who') to objects ('what'). This grammatical choice reflects the dehumanisation Piggy observes: the boys are no longer individuals with names and identities but a category to be classified. The shift from 'who' to 'what' IS the loss of humanity Piggy laments.
Key Words
RAD — REGRESS
Piggy's questions DIAGNOSE regression: he sees the trajectory and articulates it. But diagnosing regression does not prevent it — Piggy can describe what is happening but cannot stop it. His intellectual clarity is useless against the forces of violence and fear. This is Golding's bitter point: reason can SEE savagery coming but cannot prevent it. Understanding the disease does not cure it.
Key Words
Technique 2 — PIGGY AS RATIONALIST — THE LIMITS OF REASON
Piggy represents rationalism — the belief that reason can solve all problems. His glasses (which make fire) symbolise knowledge and science. But Golding repeatedly shows reason's limitations: Piggy can think clearly but cannot lead, cannot inspire, and cannot resist violence. Reason without charisma, without physical power, and without emotional appeal is ultimately ineffective against irrational forces.
Piggy's questions are the RIGHT questions — but the wrong FORMAT. An assembly is not a philosophy seminar; the boys need leadership, not analysis. Piggy's failure is the failure of the intellectual in politics: he thinks the world can be understood and therefore controlled, but understanding and control are not the same thing.
Key Words
Context (AO3)
THE ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECT
Piggy embodies the Enlightenment belief that reason, science, and education can perfect humanity. Golding tests this belief by placing Piggy — reason's representative — on an island where reason proves inadequate. The Enlightenment's optimism is weighed and found wanting.
GOLDING'S WAR EXPERIENCE
Golding served as a naval officer in D-Day and witnessed human cruelty firsthand. He later said: 'Before the war, I believed in the perfectibility of man; after the war, I knew better.' Piggy's questions echo Golding's own post-war questioning of Enlightenment faith.
Key Words
WOW — THE DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT (Horkheimer & Adorno)
Horkheimer and Adorno's *Dialectic of Enlightenment* argues that the Enlightenment project — using reason to liberate humanity from superstition and oppression — contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction. Reason, pushed to its extreme, becomes instrumental — a tool for domination rather than liberation. Piggy's glasses illustrate this dialectic perfectly: they represent reason and science (Enlightenment) but are used to make fire, which becomes Jack's source of power (domination). The instrument of liberation becomes the instrument of control. Piggy's helplessness without his glasses literalises the Enlightenment's vulnerability: reason, once appropriated by power, serves power rather than truth. Horkheimer and Adorno would read the island as a microcosm of Western civilisation's trajectory: beginning with the promise of rational order (Ralph's assemblies) and ending with the reality of rational violence (Jack's organised hunts). Reason does not fail — it is captured, co-opted, and turned against its original purposes.
Key Words