I like when they put the pig's head on a spear to scare away the monster. Yeah, that's a good movie...
Man, that book scared me when I had to read it. Poor Piggy. I liked him and Simon a lot. Seriously, that book gave me chills.
IMHO, I saw it as a study of fascism vs. democracy. The "monster" was a phantom fear used to unite the group against a common cause, equivalent to the "Jewish Conspiracy" touted by Hitler to unite demoralized Germans after being so humiliated by the Allies after losing the Great War. Piggy represented the Jews, and his glasses - a useful implement for starting fire(war) - represented Jewish wealth the Nazis stole to fund their war machine.