At the beginning of the narrative of Lord of the
Flies, of course, the boys are well-groomed; Ralph looks like the "golden
boy," the ideal look at the time of the novel's writing; he is tall, good-looking,
athletic, and charismatic. In contrast to Ralph, Piggy is a boy in a middle-aged man's
body. His hair is already thinning, he is myopic, and he is overweight and unathletic.
Piggy also suffers from asthma. Appearing rather abruptly, Jack, tall with red hair,
marches the other boys of the choir up to Ralph and Piggy. He wears the black cap and
cape of his occupation and looks the part of a
leader.
After a while, the little boys appear; one of them
has a mulberry mark on his face, and, like one marked in the Bible, he is cursed as he
quickly disappears and is never seen again. Percival and Johnny are the smallest of the
very young boys. Johnny has fair hair and "a natural
belligerence."
Simon is a middle-sized boy with dark hair
that often falls in his eyes, symbolizing that his "sights" are intuitive rather than
merely visual. He is kind and helpful, but an independent thinker
always.
After the boys have lived on the island, of course,
their hair becomes longer and disheveled, their clothes dirty and torn, and some things
have been discarded. It is interesting that one character, Roger, who keeps to
himself with "an inner intensity of avoidance," is not described physically at the
beginning of the narrative, but it is written that he is fascinated when he sees that
Jack has a mask on his face which disguises him. Quickly, Roger adopts the wearing of a
mask which can "liberate him from shame and self-consciousness" of the rules of
society. In one of the final chapters, Roger, then, releases the boulder that sends
Piggy to his death with "delirious abandonment."
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