Clearly, making an argument that the pig symbolizes "lost" civilization to a Jewish teacher was a huge mistake.
/s
Also, it's been 35 years since I read LotF, but I'm pretty sure the pig carries meanings of primitivism, not civilization but hunter-gatherers, a time when man was completely dependent on a world of plants and animals he could not control or even influence much, the degeneration of bits of Bible study into animism, totem and taboo, and ritual sacrifice.
That's because you read the whole thing rather than skim reading for a facile hot take to make a good pull-quote. The kids turned feral. They also killed a pig. Obviously the pig was the porcine incarnation of civilization and when they killed it they lost their civilized ways.
Nevermind the facts and flavour of the rest of the text point in a different direction, some pseudo-deep metaphor between two contextless incidents is enough to form a thesis you can be proud of if you're at the level of a professional gossip monger. Job done, paper submitted.
Clearly, making an argument that the pig symbolizes "lost" civilization to a Jewish teacher was a huge mistake.
/s
Also, it's been 35 years since I read LotF, but I'm pretty sure the pig carries meanings of primitivism, not civilization but hunter-gatherers, a time when man was completely dependent on a world of plants and animals he could not control or even influence much, the degeneration of bits of Bible study into animism, totem and taboo, and ritual sacrifice.
That's because you read the whole thing rather than skim reading for a facile hot take to make a good pull-quote. The kids turned feral. They also killed a pig. Obviously the pig was the porcine incarnation of civilization and when they killed it they lost their civilized ways.
Nevermind the facts and flavour of the rest of the text point in a different direction, some pseudo-deep metaphor between two contextless incidents is enough to form a thesis you can be proud of if you're at the level of a professional gossip monger. Job done, paper submitted.