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How Is Jack Merridew Ruthless In Lord Of The Flies

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Jack Merridew is one of the main characters in the novel, Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding. Jack came across as a natural leader partially because of his attitude, stature, and desires to have fun. Jack’s regular behavior and cruel nature says about who he is as a human being. Since Jack does come across as a natural leader, he lacks the ability to be one, and rather acts as a dictator. This dictatorship that Jack is trying to create causes himself to act merciless and unforgiving towards others. However in this case, and out of all of the words to choose from, the best word that entirely sums up Jack’s personality is ruthless. Jack is ruthless because of his normal behavior throughout the book and how it revolves around the environment that he’s faced with, as well as the people he …show more content…

Jack’s cruel nature starts to show as he begins to lose control of his temper along with him being pretentious: “ ‘I cut the pig’s throat,’ Jack said, proudly … ‘There was lashings of blood,’ said Jack, laughing” (Golding 69). Although Jack is feeling proud of himself, there are still some qualities in need of assessment. For one, Jack is one of the only children on the island that would do that. Others may have killed the pig but Jack was vicious enough to cut the pig’s throat. This explains that Jack had the guts to murder an animal, which also implies that he is just a little heartless. Looking deeper into the quote, we see that after Jack tells Ralph about how he killed the pig, the author states that Jack is laughing. The act of laughing means that one is enjoying something or that they find something amusing. In this section of the book, Jack finds killing a pig fun and amusing, and how there were “lashings of blood”. Jack could have taken a different route in killing the pig, but he just had to kill it this way. Jack’s behavior shows that he is just flat out

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In a communist country you have the one leader who is in control of multiple other sub leaders, or taskmasters, who control the whole country Simon says in the book Lord of the flies, “...maybe there is a beast. ... What I mean is, maybe it's only us.”(89) He has started to realize that the people's own thoughts are the monster they have been fearing. William golding may have been referencing man's lust for power. Jack is the first to show this lust and as the book goes on he seeks to set himself up as a ruler over everybody else.

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The story Lord of the Flies contains strong characters with various events that give them life. Jack, one of the main characters in the story, represents this thoroughly. During the story, Ralph and Piggy run into a choir group lead by a boy named Jack. Jack, like Ralph, show leader like qualities and they run against each other for the title of leader of the island. Jack loss the title to Ralph but they come to an agreement to make Jack chief of the island.

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Jealous, immature, aggressive, hostile, emotionless. Are these things you would look for in a leader? The majority would say no, but it worked on the island for one reason. In the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Jack led by intimidation and controlled by fear. He was corrupted by his own need for power.

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Lord of the Flies Character Case Study Jack Merridew is a 13 year old male who experienced a traumatic plane crash, resulting in being marooned on an island for perhaps 2 months with a group of his peers similar in age. He is a former choirmaster and head boy in his school, and hereby therefore he has experience in leadership and control. His current physical health status is concluded as decent, considering the circumstances. Merridew's hobbies on the island included hunting and killing pigs, and singing/chanting. While marooned, Jack let the possibility of being rescued slip his mind, and instead focused his goals on surviving, hunting, and doing whatever they wanted.

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Jack did not succeed in hunting down the pig but said that he will kill it next time. Jack did not kill the pig because he was afraid of the blood from the pig. He was embarrassed that he could not do it and he wanted to show people that he is a hunter and he is strong enough to do it. In the novel it says, "Kill the pig! Cut her throat!

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Jack’s pursuit of power on the island has transformed him from an innocent choirboy to a ruthless authoritarian figure. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of boys become abandoned on an uninhabited island after a plane crash. When on the island, the boys decide to elect a leader and choose Ralph, angering Jack, who starts his descent into becoming a power-craving, blood-thirsty, ruthless young man. Jack's pursuit of power changes who he is on the island tremendously. This is evidenced by his descent into brutality, loss of moral compass, and alienation from social norms.

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(181) This quote displays that Jack has no sympathy for Piggy when he is killed. He let his inner evil show and hurt many others because of his desire for meat and

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Russian novelist and historian once said,”The battle line between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.” In William Golding’s novel Lord of the flies, Jack, the supposedly good former choirmaster and student leader, is a representative of evil and violence when tempted by savagery and greed. Jack has the major authority and develops a higher status compared to other characters in the novel. He is a born leader who carries out his concerns over various problems, however the abusive use of power leads him towards the evil path. Golding has effectively used figurative devices such as a beast metaphor, colour symbolism , controlling tone, imagery of Jack’s appearance and environment to demonstrate his desire of power and devolving character.

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Those were his first words that came out of Jack's mouth after Piggy was murdered showing that he had no sentimental value to him. He knew it was wrong to kill Piggy but all he cares about is himself. As stated in the research of “What’s going on in the teenage brain“ they seem to blame the brain for the consequences adolescents make “While adolescents might tend to be more moody and impulsive — and we now have some reason to believe that this might be reflecting a ‘normal’ part of brain development”.(healthychildren.org) This is practically an excuse that adolescent do not know what they’re doing due to their brains not being “fully developed”(healthychildren.org). Jack knew exactly what he was doing, he even admitted when he said “That’s what you’ll get!”(ch11 Golding) Before that Jack has always wanted the chief position very desperately, knowing his selfishness, brutal self, he would have done anything for it.

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Jack has changed greatly, over the course of William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies. Crashing onto an island without adults and having to survive put a strain on all of the boys, but Jack’s personality altered the most due to this experience. He went from living as an ambitious choir boy, to being a vicious, brutal, beast. Many things changed Jack on the island, but most of all, he created the monster he became.

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He does not want to help out on the island to benefit them, he would rather go hunting trying to kill pigs. Jack declared himself as chief and lead the hunters. When he came across a pig he wanted to kill it but he held back because he had no hunting skills. His ambition to kill a pig built up in him that he did not take orders from anyone anymore and moved on. He created his own tribe just so he could hunt for “meat.”

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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.

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Human behaviors are easy to be changed by the experiences and environment. As the time passes by, the changed behaviors can be worse or better than before. However, most people become worse because of the specific experiences in their life time. In Lord of the Flies, the changes of behavior are occurred obviously in the characters of Jack, Roger, and Ralph.

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Lastly, Jack is known as the rebel of the story who disagrees with the leaders, and is pure evil from middle to end. Although Jack is evil, his bad character trait ensures his survival and alliance with the boys. The first example of when Jack’s evilness is shown in the story is when Jack hunts the pig and puts its head on a stick, the line says “ Jack held the head up and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end of the stick which pierced through into the mouth. He stood back and the head hung there, a little blood dribbling down the stick” ( Golding, 150). This shows Jack’s evilness because instead of fearing the beast he is offering him the head of the pig that he just brutally murdered.

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Jack Merridew is a complex character in William Golding's novel "Lord of the Flies," and his actions and behavior make him a memorable character in the story. This essay will examine why Jack Merridew is a memorable character in the novel, using quotes and explanations to support the points. Firstly, Jack Merridew is a memorable character because of his ambition for power and his thirst for control. As soon as he arrives on the island, he wants to be the leader of the boys, and he goes to great lengths to achieve this goal.

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