By the time that Ralph and Piggy confront Jack’s tribe, Jack had assumed total control over his boys. He gave the boys meat and talked about killing the beast, so the boys felt like they wanted to be part of the tribe. He told the boys a complete lie as an attempt to make them dislike Ralph; “Ralph thinks you’re cowards, running away from the beast and the boar.” (Golding 143). However, Jack also scared the boys into staying in the tribe by beating Wilfred, showing his aggression and intent to hurt people who didn’t do what he wanted.
While the hunters and rest of the boys were doing various activities, Jack wanted to go off into the forest and hunt a pig by himself. Though they would eat the meat, Jack viewed hunting as a sport and display of power. " Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife." (Goulding 164). Robert volunteered to act as the pig from their hunt as the boys told and demonstrated their parts of the story.
This quote demonstrates how Jack is willing to use violence and bloodshed to assert his authority and control over the other boys. Another reason why Jack Merridew is a memorable character is because of his descent into savagery. At the beginning of the novel, he is a civilized and well-mannered choirboy, but as the story progresses, he becomes more savage and animalistic. This descent into savagery is seen in the following quote: "He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling" (Golding, 126).
At this point in the story all the boys look as Jack as their leader but Ralph takes full blame for their savagery actings. Ralph bravely takes the blame for their actions showing his leadership role as taking the blame for their failures and
His authority makes it so people are scared to stand up to him. This makes Jack, not a leader by example, but a leader by fear. He represents anarchy. He is a dictator, and will bully people to get his way, even though his way may not be the right thing to
Jack often used bullying and tormentation to instill fear in his companions, which hints toward the idea that he valued a strong and powerful reputation far more than morality and innocence,
Not with you.’ Most of the boys were looking down now, at the grass or their feet. Jack cleared his throat again. ‘I am not going to be part of Ralph’s lot.’ He looked along the right-hand logs, numbering the hunters that had been a choir.
He represents savagery and corruption in the book, by the way his civility is canceled out by the bloodlust of hunting. Jack learns that ruling by fear is much more effective than leading through consensus. He also learns to use his aggression and rank of hunter to give and withhold when it benefits him for example, giving meat to Ralph after a hunter. Jack’s craving for hunting leads him to forget about being rescued. “Jack had to think for a moment before he could remember what rescue was.
They want to do different things than he wants to do, for example, he wants to hunt meat but the other boys want to make fires. He and a few other boys leave the group and make their own. The boys have been left alone for quite a while now and they are getting into fights and getting mad at each other. Jack's tribe is now back with the other tribe but they start to fight again. Jack only wants to hunt and kill and has painted his face with war paint.
“And about the beast. When we kill we’ll leave some of the kill for it (133).” This quote supports the idea that Jack wants to try and be friendly with the beast in hope that the beast does not disturb them. When Jack says this he is stating that everyone in the tribe will do as he says because he is the leader and they will follow him. Since he is the leader, they will not question him so the boys will set their beliefs around the beast.
There is a character in the Lord of the Flies, it is call Jack. In the book Jack, Piggy, Larvae, they fight for the leader's position, everyone wants to be able to speak with condescends that symbolize power. Jack is a natural leader who knows what he wants. He deliberately defied the rules set by Larvae, neglected his duty, only to hunt for pleasure. He lured hearts to him with delicious food and a sense of security.
He does not want to help out on the island to benefit them, he would rather go hunting trying to kill pigs. Jack declared himself as chief and lead the hunters. When he came across a pig he wanted to kill it but he held back because he had no hunting skills. His ambition to kill a pig built up in him that he did not take orders from anyone anymore and moved on. He created his own tribe just so he could hunt for “meat.”
Jack’s hunters follow his every demand and now the tribe has inherited a part of evil in as followed by the quote, “Boys armed with sticks” (Golding 157). Jack has trained his tribe to be armed at all times and he even refers to the boys as “hunters.” Hunting with his followers gives him a rush of adrenaline and he thrives off the power. Jack uses his surroundings as an advantage to him in order to control, which corrupts innocence. In response, Woodward adds, “This is evil, an action, like Jack’s, so reprehensible that we cannot imagine a punishment for it” (Woodward 60).
Jack has a persistence for getting food, yet his way of thinking is more of a savage behaviour. Also in chapter three “Jack himself [shrinks] at [the] cry with a hiss of indrawn breath; and for a minute became less a hunter than a furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle
Jack has changed greatly, over the course of William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies. Crashing onto an island without adults and having to survive put a strain on all of the boys, but Jack’s personality altered the most due to this experience. He went from living as an ambitious choir boy, to being a vicious, brutal, beast. Many things changed Jack on the island, but most of all, he created the monster he became.