Piggy embodies the voice of reason, the clear – sightedness, the social order, and scientific and intellectual aspects of civilization: ”Life is scientific, that''s what it is. In a year or two when the war''s over they''ll be traveling to Mars and back. I know there isn''t no beast.” (Lord of the Flies, 1969: 105). This is a proof of ”empirical disavowal of the beastie” (Virginia Tiger, 1974: 45), and this is an evidence of the intellectual hubris which must be punished. He stands outside the triangle the boys make when they congregate. This ironically shows the moralizing intellectuality of the liberal: ”this indicated that he wished to listen but would not speak; and Piggy intended it as a gesture of disapproval” (Lord of the Flies, 1969: 98). The fact that the others did not want him kept him away from becoming a savage and he was like an observer learning from the actions of others. It is an outsider perspective.
His death resembles with the slaughter of a pig for he is decapitated by a ”glancing blow from chin to knee” (Lord of the Flies, 1969: 222). Traveling through the air, with a grunt, he lands on the square red rock in the sea, a sacrificial table. And the monster that is the sea sucks his body which ”like a pig''s after it has been killed, twitched” (Lord of the Flies, 1969: 223). The emblematic name he was given is now more than obvious. His name suggests vulnerability, just like the pigs on the island. With his death is also destroyed the Head (the centre of reason) and, as the island society regresses, the bridge between rationality and irrationality is cut. He was killed because he was an alien, a ”pseudo – species” (Virginia Tiger, 1974: 63). His death marks the essential inadequacy of the rational, logical world.