The primitive behavior Jack showcases are amplified as he continues to hunt for pigs and neglect the opportunities to get off the island. This behavior then begins to come in the form of human savagery as he tortures those in Ralph’s camp and kills Simon and Piggy. Ultimately, the murder of Simon and Piggy is the peak of the Jack’s savagery. To imagine a group of children ages 6-14 murder two children out of sport is chilling. The book describes the murder of the children without even identifying who it is by describing the victim like an animal or beast, “The sticks fell and the mouth of the new circle crunched and screamed.
In the book, “Grendel,” by John Gardner, Grendel is some sort of supernatural creature that kills the humans and eats them after he is done. So Hrothgar’s men fight to defend themselves against this supernatural creature. However, we see in the book that Grendel has feelings and emotions towards humans. Grendel states in the novel that he thinks Hrothgar’s men are animals and that they waste lives. However, the humans think otherwise, they think that Grendel is a supernatural monster that is here to kill them.
We’re going to hunt pigs to get meat for everybody” (36). Jack’s influence is once again shown in chapter 4, “ Then Maurice pretended to be the pig and ran squealing to the center and the hunters, circling still, pretended to beat him. As they danced, as they sang. ‘ Kill the pig. Cut her throat.
This is a major symbol as over and over the children say how the beast is a threat to them that they need to kill. When, in all reality, each of them is capable of having the beast is inside of them the whole time as Piggy explains in the following quote. “I know there isn 't no beast—not with claws and all that I mean—but I know there isn 't no fear either. Unless we get frightened of people." (Golding 64) Finally, this fear drives them to kill Simon and Piggy, and it drives them to attempt to kill Ralph.
But Simon intended to inform the boys of the imaginary beast as only being the instinctual savagery that exists within every human being. Throughout the novel, the boys’ believe in the beast grows stronger simultaneously with them growing more savage. The boys never get to know of Simons realizations. Earlier in the novel, the hunters spear a pigs head as sacrifice to the beast. Simon ends up having an imaginary dialogue with the pig head.
“He crawled forward and soon understood….the wind’s indignity.”(162). Simon was savagely killed by Jack and the other boys who had left the civilized state of mind behind. Simon was killed because he was mistaken for the beast when he was trying to tell the truth about the beast that they had been fearing all this time actually was. The beast was a symbol in the novel for the boys inner evil and primitivity. By killing Simon, the boys became what they were fearing.
"Rescue? Yes, of course! All the same, I 'd like to catch a pig first" He snatched up his spear and dashed it into the ground. The opaque, mad look came into his eyes again.” (Golding 53) The phrase “I’d like to catch a pig first” from the previous quote shows that Jack wants to catch a pig to possibly do things with it. Also, the word “catch” from the previous quote confirms that Jack wants to capture the pig.
“We all have good and evil inside us.It's what side we choose to follow that defines who we are”-J.K. Rowling William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies during a time of conflict and war. In response to all the conflict Golding wrote Lord of the Flies, a book about kids that crash landed on an island and how the isolation affects them. Golding wrote Lord of the Flies to tell that humans are corrupted to evil or forced to be good based by their surroundings. Jack a character in the book is an example of this. In the beginning of the book Jack is a cocky kid who says “ I ought to be chief,because I’m chapter chorister and head boy” ( Golding,22).
Jack was always determined to kill a pig and bring it back for a feast. After Ralph scolding him multiple times for only trying to kill a pig and mainly failing he formed his own tribe where people could have fun and eat
He is challenged by this devilish beast; “Aren’t you afraid of me"(143)? Because Simon understands that the true beast is the boys fear that turns them into savages, he simply shakes his head. As Simon returns from his hallucination he sees the man in the parachute that brought fear to the savages. Simon again tries to tell people the truth of the beastie, but falls short. Because the group of boys don’t understand fear, they sadly rip Simon up thinking he was the beast.