There are many many boys in the story, some young and some in their teens. But no matter what they are all on this island together. The three main boys are Piggy, Ralph and Jack. All three of the boys try to be leaders and take charge.
Many boys find Piggy a nuscence and annoying. At the beginning some of the boys made fun of him because he was fat and called him "fatty". Piggy becomes very offended by this so they name him "Piggy" even though he does not like this name at all either. He wears glasses and without them he can not see. He also has asthma so he is not able to help much and do any physical work like the rest of the boys. Piggy is one of the older boys.
Ralph is the primary leader of the boys. When the boys first get there he finds a conch shell and blows into it to make a loud noise so that the boys would hear him and come towards the noise and gather around Ralph. Ralph makes a rule that the only person who can talk is the person who is holding the conch shell. Ralph thinks about how to go about setting up rules and structure for all of the boys. He assigns different groups of boys to have different jobs. Jack and the choir boys will hunt, some others will gather fruit, the older b boys will make shelters and two boys are assigned to keep a fire going on top of the mountain at all times.
Jack is one of the older boys also. He leads the choirboys who hunt. Jack likes to hunt and explore the island. After awhile Jack becomes selfish and greedy. He only wants to hunt for himself. Eventually he decides to make his own tribe so he and some of the other boys decide to form their own tribe on another part of the island. Ralph and Piggy do not like Jack and his tribe. They refer to jacks tribe and the "Savages". Because they paint their bodies and are wild.
In the beginning the boys are civil and organized but after time goes by the rules and structure that they once had fades away quickly.