Jack's Power In Lord Of The Flies

The most outstanding example of this discrepancy, in my opinion, is Jack Merridew. Jack views himself as a sort of alpha, a chief among the boys. He believes that he has a right to be chief, beginning with his trivial ability to sing, but later includes his ability to hunt. “There was a moment’s struggle and the glimmering conch jigged up and down. Ralph leapt to his feet.

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.

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows the progression of absolute power, and how ambition can take over one's mind. Stranded on an island after their plane crashed, the boys create their own democracy with one absolute ruler, just like many other governments throughout history. The boys voted Ralph as their ruler, but Jack slowly starts to take some of Ralph’s power, and eventually usurps him as their chief. Lord of the Flies suggests that absolute power is corrupt, and that humans are overly ambitious in wanting to take power from the person who has the most of it. Just like any large group of people, the boys decide that they “ought to have a chief to decide things” (Golding 22).

In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, it explores the ideas of power and leadership. During the novel, Golding uses the characters Jack and Ralph to portray the fact that humans have a desire for both power and leadership. In the novel, Jack represents the need for power and Ralph symbolises leadership. The terms of power and leadership are far different from each other, “power” is defined as ‘the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events.’

As we can tell, the attempts of Piggy and Ralph fail to convince the speaker of this line, Jack, to give up on his ways and follow the rational plan laid before him. During this dialogue, Ralph argues with Jack about his rulings as the aforementioned character refuses to respect the rules of the assembly. This is because the only way to feel like they are still connected to society is to follow the leader’s rules and orders; similar to the grown-ups mentioned on the story.

Where would we be without acceptance in the world today? All of us would be living in a society where everyone was frightened of being different. Barbara Jordan’s quote, “We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves”, mirrors the thought that acceptance is crucial in today’s ever-changing world. The two pieces of text that will be analyzed and related to the aforementioned quote are Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, and Texas vs. Johnson: Majority Opinion, which was written by Justice William Brennan. In the novel by William Golding, a group of schoolboys experience a plane crash and find themselves on an island in the middle of nowhere.

"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.

When Jack, Ralph, and Simon go on their expedition they come across a tied up piglet and decide to kill so as Ralph and Simon hold it down, Jack was supposed to slit its throat to let all the blood spill out, but, he paused and the piglet got away. The literal reason for Jack not killing the piglet is that he cannot deal with seeing the piglets blood flush out all over the ground. "There came a pause, a hiatus, the pig continued to scream and the creepers to jerk, and the blade continued to flash at the end of a bony arm" (Golding 31). The concept for why he could not is because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because he could not handle the blood. When the pig gets away, Jack says that he was just choosing a place, decide where to stab him, this foreshadows the death of something when Jack finds the place.

Character Analysis: Jack What is Jack’s character definition in Lord of the Flies? What is his appearance, actions, behaviors, motivations, thoughts, and feelings in the book? He has many strengths, goals, and fears.

In J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan, Peter and hook fight for power over Neverland; in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Jack and Ralph fight power over the stranded group of kids; in George Orwell’s Animal Farm Napoleon and Snowball fight for leadership of the farm. Whether it being a farm or an island all the stories revolve around a protagonist and antagonist are fighting for power over a certain something. In the novel Peter Pan, Captain hook, the antagonist, and Peter, the protagonist, fight for control over neverland. Captain hook doesn’t want Peter to be the leader of Neverland because he would not be allowed to live there and he doesn’t like Peter’s way of thinking.

The desire for power is one of the strongest human drives. In Lord of The Flies by William Golding there is a constant struggle for power between the main characters, Ralph, Jack, and Piggy. Ralph has power because he was voted chief and uses his power in an ugly way. Jack is struggling to get out of Ralph's power and gain his own power. The boys’ struggle for power is an ugly struggle and the author uses this to demonstrate the ugly struggle for power that is human nature.

While the book develops further into the story, Jack and Ralph both start to change drastically in the way they handle the events that take place on the island. Jack's aggression and obsession with hunting increases and develops into the second part of the book. "He turned his left forearm for them all to see. On the outside was a rip; into much, but bloody," (Pg 114). Continuing to provide for the boys, Jack injures his arm.

This is what will happen when boys are left to their own devices. In the post World War Two novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of young children, all boys, are stranded on an island after a plane crash. At first, the boys relish in their carefree, happy, island environment, but eventually after many terrible events it turns into a hellish nightmare. Although it may seem that complete autonomy is a good idea for each individual’s lives, in actuality humankind needs a strong, but not absolute, government to help ensure the continuity of the human race.