In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, many young boys became stranded on a deserted island without any grownups. In the beginning, Ralph, the leader, warns everyone about the importance of having a fire with smoke in order for ships to find them. Not everyone agrees with his philosophy though; some think finding food is a more urgent matter. These boys create their own tribe led by a young boy named Jack. Through the development of Jack Merridew’s characterization, the author shows that humans will succumb to their animalistic ways when they do not have a set government.
Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, is a novel that tells the story of a plane full of English schoolboys, evacuating the ongoing war, crashing near an island, leaving them marooned. With there being no adults or supervision the boys are left to fend and survive on their own. A boy by the name of Ralph is picked as their chief and he organizes fire and shelter. Another boy by the name of Jack, who is leader of the choir boys that were on the plane takes that group hunting. Over the during of the novel, the hunters become savage especially under the influence of jack. Whilst Ralph tries to keep his group civilized the savagery from the boys breaks through ending in a climax where all hell breaks loose on the island. Throughout the
One of the first things the boys decide is that they need a chief. While deciding on who should be chief one of the boys says “ ‘Let him [Ralph] be chief with the trumpet thing’ “ (Golding 22). In any modern society, including the one the boys came from, there is a person designated as the head or leader. The boys collectively electing Ralph as a leader shows their ability to make decisions together. Additionally, it shows their desire to make the unfortunate situation of being stranded work as well as possible. After the election of Ralph as the leader of the island, he decides it 's necessary for the rest of the boys to have a specific role to fill in order to help society run as smooth as possible. Seeing a boy named Jack, who is the leader of a choir, would be good fit for a leader Ralph decides to allow him to decide what he wants to be in charge of “ ‘Jacks in charge of the choir. They can be-- what do you want them to be? ‘Hunters’ “ (23). Once again the boys have done as they know, and what they know is a society set up to be as efficient as possible. Each boy having a role will help the island work smoothly and help to keep order. Now that the boys have established the basic duties of
When babies are first born into the world, they have no knowledge. Humans are born into the world as savages, naked and clueless. These babies eventually grow up, covered by clothes and clouded by materialism. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, after being freed from the mask of materialistic things, we can clearly see a character shift in all the boys. These well mannered, cultured and civilized boys transform into primitive beings. Golding shows that the removal of the cover of materialistic items exposes their inner selves exposed to be the savage like babies they were born as.
The other boys, tempted away from civility by the more natural urges the island and Jack present, abandon Ralph, thus abandoning the ways they’d been taught to act in a British society. ‘He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.’ (Golding 64) Jack teaches them how to hunt the pigs and displays aggressive behaviors they then partake in, exposing a dark side inside of not only the boys, but all of us. This shows a kind of nurture, but a sinister one developed in nature. ‘In his famous Bobo doll experiment, (Albert) Bandura demonstrated that children could learn aggressive behaviors simply by observing another person acting aggressively.’ (Cherry 13) Jack remains at the forefront of his band of savages as their leader after being previously rejected from Ralph’s society. ‘Even the choir applauded; and the freckles on Jack’s face disappeared under a blush of mortification.’(Golding 23) Jack is the obvious choice for leader in the way he conducts himself and how he had the arrogance of one who leads,
"Jack represents evil and violence, the dark side of human nature." Out of all the characters in Lord of the Flies, Jack is the characters that sticks as having the strongest personality. Jack is ambitious. He has numerous examples of this throughout the book: Lord of the Flies. Jack is always the person that challenges everyone about their choices, but doesn't make good choices himself. He challenges authority, doesn't care who he hurts to achieve his goal, and doesn't follow the rules of society. Jack doesn’t care about what other people think of him as long as he accomplishes his goals.
Jealous, immature, aggressive, hostile, emotionless. Are these things you would look for in a leader? The majority would say no, but it worked on the island for one reason. In the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Jack led by intimidation and controlled by fear. He was corrupted by his own need for power. Jack’s conflicts with humanity and himself heavily contributed to his corruption and the downfall of the society on the island.
Golding uses the word pig in the beginning of the story to show a peaceful creature who shows the slow descent into savagery with the lack of civilization . In an article written by Hussein Tahiri, he writes about how at the loss of civilization, people can become more wild-like than normal, which can be seen throughout their actions. As Jack, Ralph, and Simon explore the forest, they see a pig stuck in the creepers. Jack raises a knife to kill it, but hesitates and the pig runs away. Ralph asks Jack why he did not kill the pig, to which Golding writes, “[he] knew very well why [Jack] hadn't; because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (Golding 31). All of the boys are still
Lastly, Jack is known as the rebel of the story who disagrees with the leaders, and is pure evil from middle to end. Although Jack is evil, his bad character trait ensures his survival and alliance with the boys. The first example of when Jack’s evilness is shown in the story is when Jack hunts the pig and puts its head on a stick, the line says “ Jack held the head up and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end of the stick which pierced through into the mouth. He stood back and the head hung there, a little blood dribbling down the stick” ( Golding, 150). This shows Jack’s evilness because instead of fearing the beast he is offering him the head of the pig that he just brutally murdered. This shows evilness because all throughout the story the littluns and even some of the biguns were fearful of the beast, yet Jack has influenced them to help him offer it to the beast. This also shows evilness because some of the
In my project, I depicted the symbolism of Jack and the pig in William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies. In the beginning, Jack names himself a hunter; this illustrates the savage side of human nature. As the novel continues, and the desire to hunt and kill increases, and Jack finds himself not only a hunter but also feeling like he is being hunted. This change represents how fear overpowers hope and fuels the dominance of savagery. In the end of the novel, Jack turns from hunting pigs to hunting Ralph. This futile pursuit exemplifies the double-sided spear of the id. Overall, the change in Jack’s character shows the never ending spiral of violence.
In the novel, Lord of the Flies, over a dozen boys are stranded on an island with no adults and to fend for themselves. One individual in Jack Merridew, a boy who is turned cruel and ruthless, is being charged with 1st degree murder for the deaths of two boys, Piggy and Simon. First degree murder is characterized as deaths that a person committed was the individual either plans and commits the murder conscience of their actions. Jack is guilty of first degree and should be charged with 1st murder degree murder because of his direct involvement in Simon’s death, his dictatorial of leadership leading to the other boys’ savage behavior, and his disregard for human life.
George R.R. Martin once said, “There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.” William Golding demonstrates that every person has savagery inside of him in his novel, Lord of the Flies. In this novel, Golding shows us that civilization is lost and savagery begins when the urge to kill takes hold of us. William Golding’s character development of Jack and motif of weapons help develop his point.
Leadership is an important ability for a person who likes to be the leader of a group. It involves not only personal ability, but also the popularity of this person in crowds. Leader is an important role that leads the group to a correct way and organizes everything for the whole group. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, several characters display aspects of leader ship, Jack is one such character. He promises his tribe with food, safety and freedom to gain power and influence which results in him becoming leader on the island.
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is a novel that revolves around the concept of civilization versus savagery. The boys argue about points that eventually split the boys amongst themselves. These disputes come up multiple times over the course of the novel. One of which being the fight over the leader of the boys. Some believed the leader should be Jack while others believed it should be Ralph. Ralph was the leader of the civilized group, and Jack was the leader of the savage and bloodthirsty hunting group. Important arguments between the civilized boys and savage boys come up in three important moments throughout the book: when the signal fire is allowed to go out and a boat passes by the island, when Jack leaves the civilized group to create his group of savages, and when the savages steal Piggy’s glasses to make their own fire.
What would happen if boys from a civilized culture were unexpectedly thrown together on an island? William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, provides a potential answer. Despite them trying to form leadership to keep everyone civil, the island’s environment changed them. The environment and situation caused them to change as they had to be responsible without adults, they all began to act like the animals they hunted, and they were able to commit murder.