Today, all modern civilizations no matter who or what controls them have laws, whether written or unspoken, these rules guide us. However when away from civilization and these rules, people can start to forget them, and become uncivilized. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, there is a group of boys that have been stranded on a deserted island, very far away from civilization where they don’t have any other human contact besides themselves. One of the boys, Jack, is especially susceptible to this process of decivilization. Through his characterization of Jack, William Golding demonstrates that without rules or consequences, people become uncivilized.
When Jack first arrives on the island he is still molded by the laws of civilization
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The initial rules and laws not being enforced make Jack think he can do whatever he wants in an absence of punishment. At the beginning of the story, on the beach when the boys are trying to set up shelter, Ralph tells Jack that simply hunting is not acceptable and is not benefiting the tribe. Jack reacts poorly to this criticism and simply does not listen. “‘We want meat’… ‘We need shelters.’ Suddenly Jack shouted in a rage. `Are you accusing—?’”(51). Jack's mind is descending into darkness, it is hyper-fixated on one thing, meat. This is the first time we see Jack’s lust for blood evolve. He now has the intention and perhaps the instinct to kill. After the first successful hunt, the hunters came back to the beach and started to exclaim to everyone how they killed the pig, seeming perhaps quite happy: “‘There were lashings of blood,’ said Jack, laughing”(69) Jack is laughing, he is laughing after he has killed a pig. He has now truly changed. Now he not only can and will kill a pig, but he also finds it amusing, even going as far as to laugh after killing one. After Jack and his followers have separated themselves from Ralph and his. Although he invites Ralph’s party to a dance the boys are having on the beach to celebrate the successful hunting his party has experienced. But Ralph starts to joke about causing harm to humans. “‘You could get someone to dress up as a pig and then he could act—you know’... ‘Use a littlun’” Now not only have we seen Jack be amused by the killing of the pig. He is now cracking jokes about killing other humans. Jack’s humanity and civility are now completely lost. He doesn’t see anything wrong with killing animals with his bare hands, he may soon be comfortable with killing