How Did Jack Merridew Change In Lord Of The Flies

495 Words2 Pages

Lord of The Flies is a novel written by William Goulding that could be about many topics such as the inner darkness in everyone, power struggles, roots of wars, and spiritual references. The characters represented different theories and real-life events, and they embodied them. Jack Merridew happened to represent evil inside of humans and the power struggles between governments. Jack demonstrated how people willingly give into evil and leave humanity behind. He wasn't the good little boy but a savage who killed and hunted. Jack Merridew underwent a huge change in his mentality and went from being a head choir-boy to ruthless savage with little humanity. "He snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk. Next time there would …show more content…

He stabbed his knife into a nearby tree in a fit of anger and promised the pig would be killed next time. "He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness." (Goulding 89). When Jack masked his face with various items on the island, it revealed a more animalistic side of Jack as if the mask was its own person. He became the leader of the hunters and lead them in the hunt for a pig. When they killed the pig, they brought it back to the meeting grounds for the others to see "He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up. "I went on. I thought, by myself—" The madness came into his eyes again. "I thought I might kill." (Goulding 70). While the hunters and rest of the boys were doing various activities, Jack wanted to go off into the forest and hunt a pig by himself. Though they would eat the meat, Jack viewed hunting as a sport and display of power. "Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife." (Goulding 164). Robert volunteered to act as the pig from their hunt as the boys told and demonstrated their parts of the story. They