What Does The Mask Symbolize In Lord Of The Flies

At the beginning of the novel, Jack is pretty confident and would never be caught without his formal gown. He wore a black gown with a special hat for his choir. Here in the story, he maintained his usual self and had some sort of connection with civilization. When he was assigned the role as to lead the hunters, he caught his first pig and couldn't bring himself to stab it. This shows that he is still holding onto the order or his old life.

The mental degradation of Jack, his hunters, and several other boys helps to demonstrate how civilization is only a veneer masking man 's inborn savagery. Originating as an angelic choir boy, one might struggle to believe that Jack Merridew is the first boy to begin the slippery slope into savagery. It all starts when Jack, in an attempt to have a successful hunt, applies red and white clay to his face. This fateful application becomes a mask with which Jack hides all of his fears and insecurities behind, and in doing so, Jack takes the first step in becoming a savage. As time progresses, increasing acts of terror (such as torturing a mother pig and slaughtering one of their fellow boys) push Jack further from humanity until he is a complete

At this moment, on the outside, Jack seems put together and proud of his accomplishment, but he didn’t enjoy killing the sow in the slightest. He exclaimed that “[he] cut the pig’s throat,” but then “twitched as he said it.” (Golding 69). Jack’s body manner tells the reader what Jack’s isn’t saying out loud. He knows he should not have killed the sow but he enjoys the praise too much.

Jack having no empathy for the animal and feeling fulfilled after killing the sow so brutally is not a normal feeling that a normal human being would experience. Usually hunting will generate some remorse but Jack feels pride and accomplishment after killing the sow which are not normal feelings. Although Jack possesses aggression on his own involving hunting, there were factors that fueled it along the way. One of the first few times Jack hunted, he had nearly killed a piglet, but at the last second it had gotten away, leaving Jack frustrated and angry. “Jack, knife in hand, reflexively hesitating long enough on the downward stroke to allow a trapped piglet to escape.

Jack becomes obsessed with hunting and leads the choir boys into his obsession. Jack was always a relatively cruel character, when Simon, a choir boy, faints Jack seems annoyed by Simon’s fragile health rather than concerned. Jack becomes crueller over time, when Jack attempts to kill the pig for the first time he is unable to. After his blunder he becomes obsessed with proving himself until he is able to brutally murder a nursing sow. After the first hunt Jack gives everyone a piece of pork except Piggy.

Inside his own tribe, Jack does not have to adhere to the rules of Ralph’s society, allowing himself to grow as a person and find who he truly is. As he remakes himself, he physically changes his appearance so that he can be the character that he wants. Jack feels resentment towards a society with order, and as a result, he chooses to create a society with almost no

Near the end of their time on the island, Piggy, Sam, and Eric are the only ones left with Ralph, and Jack, who appears as “a chief now in truth; and he made stabbing motions with his spear” (Golding 168). Jack starts to get violent, and what was fun when they first got to the island become attempts to kill. At this point, Jack has fully taken over, and the only thing left for him to do is kill Ralph. Lord of the Flies exemplifies how when one person has all of the power, there is always somebody else that wants it more than that person. Ralph is not against Jack, nor does he want to fight with him for the chief position, but ambition and violence overtakes Jack, and he turns into a dangerous savage.

We see another example of this when Jack is still on his same hunt when he hears noises coming from all around in the forest. " Jack himself shrank at this cry with a hiss of indrawn breath, and for a minute became less a hunter than a furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle of trees. Page (51). The way that Jack is described as an "ape-like" thing shows that Jack is becoming less of a hunter and more like a wild animal that is hunting for its next

In William Golding novel “Lord of the Flies” Golding juxtaposes Jack’s island and Simon’s to illustrate that when man is faced with a certain environment, he will chose to either make the best of what he has by staying positively calm or look at it in a negative aspect. Golding’s novel transpires when a bunch of kids plane was shot down. The boys all survive and land on an uninhabited island. The boys do not have an adult figure as their authority. The boys are split into two separate camps.

To begin with, Jack’s quick embracement of savagery is represented through his hair which shows that he let his power lust get in the way of his friendship. The first time the reader meets him, Jack is described as having red hair, although it was covered by a cap, “Inside the floating cloak he was tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap” (20). Jack’s red hair symbolizes his evil natural desires and the cap

He goes to share his hunting story to Ralph and a boy named Piggy. On page 69, the narrator shares, “I cut the pig’s throat,’ said Jack, proudly, and yet twitched as he said it.” This quotation shows us that civilization is lost when the urge to kill takes over because it shows the stage where Jack is proudly killing animals, but still feeling a little bit uncomfortable with it. In this example, Jack proudly shares that he has killed, but still twitches after saying he did. Jack is still hanging onto the little bit of civilization that is left on their island.

Every child comes into this world as a selfish, manipulative, cruel and stubborn being. It is the parents and society that teaches children how to function in a civilized world, and societal laws that keeps them under control. William Golding wrote this novel in the early years of the cold war and the atomic age. In William Golding's classic novel Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Jack, a young savage who looks to lead a group of stranded kids on an island with no food, no rules, and no adults. The effect freedom has on Jack has turned him into a savage because he does not have to listen to anyone since there are no adults on the island.

Everyone has this underlying darkness within them that is hidden away deep inside the nooks and crannies of their hearts. Golding demonstrates this through the use of his major characters, Ralph and Jack. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, the author William Golding utilizes character development to suggest the idea that when individuals are separated from civilization, dark forces will arise and threaten unity and harmony. Golding presents the protagonist, Ralph, who is decently intelligent and completely civilized, to demonstrate how once individuals are pulled away from civilization, the dark forces within them will arise and change how they are for the time being.

After a few days of hunting Jack became obsessed with this activity, and it was all he ever wanted to do. This fixation on hunting caused Jack to turn into a savage. He turned into a barbarian and didn’t show mercy to anyone, especially the animals. Goldings writes, "He [Jack] began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling" (pg. 58). This shows, Jack losing the civility he once had, his laughing uncontrollably becoming snarling.

Lord Of The Flies Jaedyn Clavelle Per 3 Lit comp 1. Imagine you're on an Island stranded, filled with fear trying to survive. Do you feel you could stay calm and handle it in way an “adult” would or could the fear bring out the inner beast which hides deep down inside all of us. The novella Lord of The Flies by George Orwell, tells a story about a group of british boys who crash a plane on an inhabited island. These kids have to work together with the help of a leader to govern themselves yet they find the results to be disastrous.