ipl-logo

Jack As A Leader In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

633 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Symbolism in William Golding's Lord of the flies

Why elect a leader if you’re not going to follow their rules? In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the majority of the book takes place without adults. This leaves the boys stranded with no supervision of help from anyone but themselves. Without adults or resources, they must start from scratch to build their society. Even though many may see Jack as a strong leader, he prevents the boys from creating a perfect society and getting off the island efficiently. Throughout the book, Jack disobeys many of Ralph's rules. Take the conch for example; The rule on the island is that the one who holds the conch is the one to speak. As the boys hold a meeting, Jack rudely interrupts the boys without the possession of the conch. Jack retaliates, “ “who cares?” Ralph summoned his wits. “Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got!” But Jack was shouting against him. “Bullocks to the rules! We’re strong-we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down!” (p. 91) This shows that Jack has no interest in following Ralphs rules on creating a perfect society. He believes that you must hunt to survive and conquer the island itself. Instead he wishes to make and follow his …show more content…

After Jack holds a vote to have Ralph ejected, and fails, Jack states, “I’m going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too.” (p. 127) This quote shows that his ideas of hunting and killing are more important than trying to get off the island. It also shows that he is brave enough to go off alone. Knowing that Ralph can not hunt, Jack encourages people to join his pack to hunt for food and kill the beast. As Jack breaks away from the original group, Ralph is losing his best hunter and no longer has anyone to gather food. Now that Jack has left, the harder and longer it will take for the boys to maintain the fire and get rescued off the

Show More
Related
1998 Words | 8 Pages

When it came time to choose a Chief for the island, Jack believed there was no competition for leader of the tribe. Ralph believed in rules, his overall goal was to have the boys create a society similar to the one they had known before they crashed onto the island. He was constantly trying to get the boys to build shelter, gather food, and perform other jobs necessary for their survival. Every day Ralph was commanding the boys to keep the fire going. In Ralphs eyes this was the only way they were going to be rescued.

Read More
700 Words | 3 Pages

However, Ralph, when the only leader on the island, had the conch shell to keep a semblance of order. Although Ralph had the conch, Jack was able to keep order without it. The boys in Jack’s tribe, most of the Biguns on the island, obeyed his orders. If you did not obey,

Read More
977 Words | 4 Pages

Frequently, Jack attempts to turn the boys against Ralph, only caring for his own desires. For example, “He’s not a hunter. He’d never have got us meat. He isn’t a prefect and we don’t know anything about him. He just gives orders and expects people to obey him for nothing.

Read More
641 Words | 3 Pages

We’re strong – we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat - !” This shows how Jack did not care about the rules preferred freedom. At the end of the book, Ralph ended up losing the leadership of the boys to Jack because he lacked

Read More
496 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of young boys are trapped on an isolated island. There is no adults and the children are allow to do whatever they want to do. As the story progresses, it shows how the children became less human as time went by. At first, they were just normal, little boys. After a few years have gone past, the boys are very different than they were in the beginning.

Read More
891 Words | 4 Pages

Ralph says, “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak” (Golding 33). Ralph doesn’t want the complete power on the island. He wants the rest of the boys to have a role and wants everyone to work together. Ralph uses his power to create organization and keep all of the boys on the island safe. On the other hand, Jack cares too much about power, and uses it in a negative way.

Read More
842 Words | 4 Pages

(Pg 63). Jack has very high expectations for the people on the island especially the older kids. He expects them to listen and obey and when they don't they face punishments. This mentality and type of government representing a dictatorship Jack would like to run would've worked great on the island and would've gotten a lot more done than Ralph did. He doesn't take no for an answer and knows how to appeal to emotions to get stuff done even if he hurts someone's

Read More
818 Words | 4 Pages

Jack lost his sanity and civility and this changed him in more ways than imaginable. Jack was a natural leader when the boys first came onto the island, but as time continued he became a horrible dictator. On the first day on the island, Ralph and Jack competed for chief of the island. Ralph won. Jack was unhappy with this result, but it didn’t yet throw him into a spiral of craze and anger.

Read More
882 Words | 4 Pages

Ralph is trying to get everyone on the island organized and they each would have a role but Jack wants to take over the island and rule it. The dictator in Jack becomes dominant in his personality during the panic over the beast sighting on the mountain. In trying to get Ralph impeached, he uses his rhetorical skills to twist Ralph's words. In defense, he offers to the group a rationale that "He'd never have got us meat," asserting that hunting skills make for an effective leader.

Read More
573 Words | 3 Pages

This displays his control over their fear of the beast and this act uplifts Jack’s power status. Jack converts their fear into power and is able to win the view of the community. In the middle of the book, it is evident that both boys have different goals. This can be seen, when Ralph and Jack fight about which is more important, building protection/ shelter (Ralph’s opinion) or hunting for food (Jack’s opinion). The quote, “rules, rules, so many rules”, illustrates his approach to survival, which is to hunt for food, while having fun.

Read More
501 Words | 3 Pages

Ralph called the meeting to discuss discipline. Jack doesn’t care about that. Jack has bloodlust. What Jack meant when he said this was that he is basically the only man on the island. He is pretty much saying that he is superior to everyone else on the island.

Read More
1302 Words | 6 Pages

‘We want meat.’ ‘Well, we haven’t got any yet.” (50-51). This is just one of many occurrences that they have been against each other on something. Jack and his hunters are more about having “fun” on the island, on the other hand Ralph is determined to be rescued and get back to the rest of civilization.

Read More
773 Words | 4 Pages

Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding, an award winning Nobel Prize in Literature British author. William Golding was born on September 11, 1911, in Saint Columb Minor, Cornwall, England. Golding wrote Lord of the Flies that soon became published on September 17, 1954. In the story, two characters that have a lot of differences between each other are Ralph and Jack. Examples of some of their differences include the fact that Ralph is a leader, Jack wants to be in control of things, and they both have different goals they want to achieve on the island.

Read More
1408 Words | 6 Pages

As the story unravels, Jack started to take advantage, he saw the breaking point of Ralph and the rules, the boys did not want to work “I’ve been working with Simon. No one else. They’re off bathing”. When Jack acknowledged that, he took the chance to attract the boys ' attention to him by giving them what they want (84). They wanted a fun and drama, and hunting seemed to solve their misery on the dull island.

Read More
658 Words | 3 Pages

When Jack finally voices his abhor for the rules, he starts a downward slope for the rest of the boys to follow. “'Bollocks to the rules! … and beat and beat—!'” (Golding 91). Jack's disregard for the rules here foreshadows him abandoning Ralph's rules altogether and forming his own tribe. When Jack's new tribe finally establishes itself, he abandons many of the morals Ralph had.

Read More

More about Jack As A Leader In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

Open Document