Jack represents the dark side of human nature, that is evil and violence. The “Beastie” is a threat to the boys and strike fear in them. This means it is important for a leader to convince their people that they have the right to feel fear. In this type of situation, a great leader like Jack has to manage two important goals. First, Jack needs the boys to believe him.
This displays his control over their fear of the beast and this act uplifts Jack’s power status. Jack converts their fear into power and is able to win the view of the community. In the middle of the book, it is evident that both boys have different goals. This can be seen, when Ralph and Jack fight about which is more important, building protection/ shelter (Ralph’s opinion) or hunting for food (Jack’s opinion). The quote, “rules, rules, so many rules”, illustrates his approach to survival, which is to hunt for food, while having fun.
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. Jack is a naive head choir boy before he arrives at the island; by being stranded, Jack begins to adapt to the new environment and takes on characteristics of an animal. After Ralph tells Jack everyone's names and asks what his name is, Jack states, “Kids’ names, why should I be Jack? I’m Merridew” (Golding 21). In other
Jack shows numerous times that he can be considered a savage. When Jack goes hunting, Golding depicts how Jack gets ready, “Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw. He looked in the pool for his reflection, but his breathing troubled the mirror” (63). This shows he is willing to change and become a savage by changing the image of how he looks.
You been rude about his hunters’ (142). The discrepancy between Jack’s opinion of himself and his associates shows yet again when Ralph forces the reality upon Jack. Jack’s hunters were, indeed, no more than boys armed with sticks, and their yield rate (54) testified against their capabilities. Jack doesn’t realize that he really was the only one hunting, and the others’ presences were mostly trivial, which gave him a false sense of empowerment, continuously building his conflicting ideas between his “important” role as a hunter, and the reality that meat wasn’t an absolute necessity. What types of images are used in conjunctions with the character?
In the beginning of the story, a littlun explained to the group that he saw the “beast” in “snake – thing” shape, gradually, it turned out that the “beast” does not exist and the “beast” exist within themselves. The boys who stranded on the island joined Jack’s tribe even though they unanimously elected Ralph as the leader. They joined Jack’s tribe because of their fears toward the “beast”. Jack has used their fears as a tool to manipulate them to
Ralph, in correlation with his insistence on being found and building shelter, decides to build a signal fire and places some of the boys to attend to it. This is juxtaposed with Jack wanting to hunt yet again. Jack takes the boys and uses them to assist in killing the pig, but, coincidentally, a ship passes the island while Jack has the boys that were responsible for keeping the fire going (Golding 68). This once again shows evidence of Jack’s insistence on the need to hold power. He feels that orders from Ralph don 't apply to him.
As Jack’s moral character deteriorates, it brings his savagery to the surface, allowing the remnants of civilization to be forgotten. In the beginning of the novel, a group of young boys find themselves alone, without any adults, on an island after
The other boys join in on this attempt to kill Ralph as well. By this time in the novel all signs of civilisation are now gone. Jack was the new leader and most powerful boy on the island however, did Jack deserve the respect he was being shown? Although Jack had turned into a complete savage, Ralph had not. Even though Ralph was not completely civilised as he was when he first landed on the island, he kept some of the morals and standards that he had when he first arrived.
He is cruel, aggressive, and relentless, and he will stop at nothing to become a dictator over his tribe. After him and his followers split off from Piggy and Ralph, his dominant traits become overbearing, resulting in the death of other boys on the island. One day, after a turbulent storm begins to sweep the island, Jack calls together his tribe. They notice a beast in the distance, who they think the storm scared out of hiding, and they surround it, chanting, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat!