Hassan And Piggy Character Analysis

Hassan and Piggy play crucial roles that majorly contribute to the the plot development, even though neither are the protagonist in the stories. Although Hassan and Piggy have different strengths and weaknesses, they have similarities in regards to the role they play in the plot of each story. It is evident that Hassan and Piggy are intelligent boys. Hassan easily solves riddles, and also points out the flawed logic in Amir’s first story. “‘Well,’ he said, ‘if I may ask. why did the man kill his wife? In fact, why did he ever have to feel sad to shed tears? Couldn’t he have just smelled an onion?’’ (34). Hassan’s ability to logically point …show more content…
Because of his lack of a formal education, he does not have a large vocabulary. For example, Amir taunts him for not knowing what a word is while they are children. “One time, I was reading him a Mullah Nasruddin story and he stopped me. ‘What does that word mean?’ “Which one?’ ‘Imbecile.’” (28). He does not have a large vocabulary because he is illiterate and does not go to school. Instead, Hassan relies on Amir for the little education he gets. Piggy, on the other hand, is the stereotypical nerd. His specs represent his intelligence and the scientific discovery of humans. For example, the boys use Piggy’s specs to start the fire, “The flame, nearly invisible at first in that bright sunlight, enveloped a small twig, grew, was enriched with color and reached up to a branch which exploded with a sharp crack…’My specs!’ howled Piggy. ‘Give me my specs!’” He acts as the advisor and adult figure throughout the story. At one point, Piggy intelligently remarks what the boys should have built from the start: “‘’The first thing we ought to have made was shelters down there by the beach.’” …show more content…
On the contrary, Hassan’s devotion to Amir is shown as a baby (insert quote about first words!) So, Hassan is undeniably more loyal than Piggy is, but they do share a common loyalty for their companion.
Piggy and Hassan are both victims. Hassan is a victim of poverty, which is symbolized by his cleft lip. His ethnicity contributes to his upbringing of poverty. It also contributes to the harassment he faces. Rather than standing up for himself, he only stands up for Amir, his and Amir’s tormenter, when Assef is bullying them both. Thirdly, Hassan is a victim of gunfire, which is the way he is killed: “‘Hassan protested again. So they took him to the street… and ordered him to kneel.. and shot him in the back of the head.’” (219). Piggy is also killed, but