Savageness In Lord Of The Flies

In the novel Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, it shows that the essence of man is evil and unacceptable. A group of boys get stranded on an island where they make the most of their situation, and ultimately turn on each other. One of the boys, named Jack, proves Golding’s point that the essence of man is terrible by behaving and acting like a savage. He and Ralph frequently intervene and try to assert dominance to become the leader of their tribe. Jack shows the essence of man is corrupt by his loss of innocence, his behavior like a dictator, and his uncivilized acts. One key trait that Jack shows is his loss of innocence. Jack is really caught up in hunting and killing animals; however, he sometimes forgets the main goal, which

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. He paints himself with red and black which portrays the devil in him. He also can use this tactic to lure the children away from Ralph. When the group accidently kills Simon, Jack and his group chanted, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152). Jack does not have the decency to find out what they are killing. All Jack knows is that this is suppose to be a beast and makes his group chant these words when they kill a specimen. After Roger killed Piggy and the conch, Jack gloating, “See? See? That’s what you get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone-” (Golding 181). Jack doesn’t even mind Piggy dying and Ralph all alone. This shows how evil Jack is because he didn’t remorse over Piggy’s death and even makes fun of his death and the destruction of the