How Does Jack Change In Lord Of The Flies

In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of boys crash on a deserted island after being supposedly attacked. This results in the boys attempting to create their own society and surviving until someone can rescue them. In this novel, William Golding conveys the theme that there is a conflict between the human nature of savagery and the rules and customs of a civilization that are meant to contain and minimize it through the changes within the characters and the effect of the setting on the characters.

The struggle of man’s innate behavior and what man tries to change that behavior into is demonstrated through the changes the characters experience throughout the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Jack is introduced as a leader of

stand still!” (Golding 20) This introduction of Jack portrays him as one who has seen power within his own society of the boys and understands civilization. However, as Jack takes on the role of hunting, he “bend[s] down double” on all fours and stalks the pigs much like a predatory cat. He sniffs the ground and chases pigs similar to the way an animal would (Golding 48). This way of moving has a stark contrast to the orderly boy he was described as in the first chapter. This change in Jack’s nature demonstrates how he has gone from a civilized boy to an animal-like savage in which the inherent evil and nature of man has won against the society that restrained it. Another example of the characters changing is when the chief of the group, Ralph, gives his serious speech of how the boys should be behaving. He describes how they are supposed to be collecting water in shells for them to drink, but now “the shells are dry” and the people are now drinking straight from the stream. He also mentions that they had originally designated an area with some “rocks right along beyond the bathing pool as a lavatory,” but now they seem to be going anywhere. Finally, Ralph

When Ralph and Piggy, the two boys that assemble the group meet, the effect the island has on Ralph is visible. Soon after they reach the edge of the island and onto the beach, Ralph begins to strip his clothes (Golding 10). This action of Ralph’s can be seen as an effect of the island. Before Ralph does this, he realizes that the island has no adults, so the action of removing his clothes is a form of him embracing his freedom. The rules of the society he once had in Britain which told him to wear clothes and kept him civilized have now been lifted because he is now on an island where there is no society, or higher power such as adults, to tell him what to do. This being Ralph’s first action demonstrates how the isolation of the island has given him a sense of freedom to then free his inside. In this case, the clothes represent the rules of society that kept him civil, which have now been thrown away because the island has distanced him from those restrictions. The stripping represents Ralph abandoning society and coming to his inner self. The island also has an effect on Jack. In the novel, Jack is shown to slowly change into a savage, as can be seen in the scene described before when he is hunting. Similarly, Jack is also shown to be deeply affected by the island just before he goes out on the hunt in