How Is Jack Changing In Lord Of The Flies

581 Words3 Pages

Sophia Laffler
Ms. Dougard
Honors English 100
6 March 2023

Change for the worse

Children always have someone making sure they have a well-rounded life. Whether it be a parent or a teacher children are used to a higher power in their lives. At the beginning of William Golding’s novel Lord of the flies, Jack Meridew was infuriated by not being elected chief of the group while Ralph was. From this event, Jack gradually becomes a cruel, vicious leader of a new tribe that he started without Ralph. As he started being a leader of his new tribe he developed an unhealthy obsession with killing animals and even Piggy and Simon. These events show that Jack’s strive for power changes him for the worse.
Since the beginning of the novel, Jack has always been jealous of how Ralph was chosen as chief and not him. Jack’s jealousy over Ralph could be seen when he assures Ralph saying “Where’s the man with the trumpet……examined Ralph with interest.”(Golding 20). As the person that Jack is he needs to have full control to be sane in his nature. Before the plane crash, Jack was used to being the leader of his choir so when Ralph became chief of the group, Jack couldn’t stand to have this be. Jack sees Ralph as someone who caused his reign of leadership to end so now …show more content…

We see this when Jack starts chanting “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!( Golding 152) Jack feels high from the blood that is spilled when the killing of living things starts to happen. He enjoys the dominance and power he has over living things and finds the idea that he is able to end their life when he feels like it comforting. This kind of power over living has gotten way out of hand throughout the book since Jack went from killing just animals to killing Piggy and Simon. Jack never realizes that his hunting has gotten to the point where he is hypnotized into thinking that this is one of the only ways that he could feel