Content Warning: The source material features depictions of violence and mental illness. Additionally, the source material cites offensive terms for people who have mental illnesses, which is replicated in this guide only in direct quotes of the source material.

The Best Minds incorporates numerous intertextual references, including the symbol of Piggy’s brain. A character from William Golding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies, Piggy represents logic and reason. Stranded on a desert island with a group of other boys, his presence maintains a semblance of order. However, Piggy is killed when another boy, Roger, rolls a boulder on top of him. In Golding’s novel, his death symbolizes the overthrow of reason and order by chaos.

Rosen’s memoir describes Michael’s fascination with Lord of the Flies as a boy. Recounting the plot to Jonathan, he emphasizes with horror that the “red stuff” left on the rock after Piggy’s death is the character’s brains. This incident foreshadows Michael’s fate later in the narrative when his own brain becomes figuratively “broken.” Like Piggy, Michael also embodies logic and reason until mental illness introduces disorder into his thought processes.