Jack From Lord Of The Flies Jack Character Analysis

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the wilderness forces a group of young, abandoned boys to turn against each other. The boys are left on the island after a plane crash. When the boys first come to the realization that they are alone and trapped, they are not sure of what to do. One boy in particular, Merridew (later called Jack), is determined to get power from the current leader, Ralph. Influenced by new leader, the boys become irrational. Conflicts rises between the crowd following Jack and the boys following Ralph. They discover that living on this dangerous island is not going to be as light and fun as they expected. They need to eat, but also get rescued. Jack is a selfish boy who as time passes by becomes untamable. Jack is

This causes Ralph to start to question why he is still trying to fight against Jack. Jack is in charge and hurts the group physically and mentally, forcing the littluns to do what he says: “We’ll hunt. I'm going to be chief,” (118). He has finally become the leader. He knows he can take the power from Ralph, and does so. His original idea of fun turns into death and destruction and he gets his revenge, “We’ll raid them and take fire… We’ll put paint on and sneak up” (121). He raids Ralph and his few followers left, trying to tear them apart. He is a dictator and now has his tribe call him “chief”, whereas they used to call Ralph chief. This is a sign of the beast and evil in him because he turns the children on Ralph and makes him feel guilty. Due to Jack leading the boys getting excited over a pig, they kill an innocent boy named Simon, the only boy who actually realizes that the beast is really inside all of them. He also takes Piggy’s glasses, which symbolizes taking knowledge away from Ralph and even kills Piggy: “the rock struck Piggy… the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments”(163). The same rock happens to destroy Piggy and the conch- the only sources of authority, order, and knowledge Ralph had left. When he is on his own, Ralph has more trouble devising a plan to rescue himself and the