Jack Merridew's Cruelty

Involuntary Manslaughter A child is born neither innocent nor evil. That is a title that shall be earned later in life based on their personal actions and choices. William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies follows a group of young british school boys aged five to twelve as they fend for their lives on a deserted island infested with a beast that lives within us all, evil. Upon arrival, the boys are innocent children only concerned with how they will get home. As time passes, the boys lose their purity and slowly become corrupt by mankind’s essential illness, evil. One of the older boys, named Jack Merridew, was only concerned with hunting from the moment the boys’ plane crash landed. Ralph, the official chief of the group insisted that they

They are meant to balance each other out, but if one fully takes charge, then things will start to go awry. An article regarding the viciousness of boys states that certain conditions cause cruelty to thrive, “Chaos is one, fear is another” (Golding, “Why”). Jack and the rest of the boys were stuck in a situation in which they feared for their lives. They had seen an unidentified figure stagger out of the woods, and the children in them assumed that it must be the beast, so the hunter in them took charge and attempted to save the rest of the boys. Likewise, Golding said, “When people are afraid they discover the violence within them and when they are afraid together they discover that the violence within them can be almost bottomless” (Golding, “Why”). Before this experience, the majority of boys had already expressed their fear the unidentified beast roaming the island, so meeting what they thought to be the beast face-to-face only increased that fear. When Simon walked out of the trees the tribe was performing a group dance and seemingly having a good time; however, upon the sight of the shadow, the group began to freak out. The pitch black night hindered the boy’s vision and prevented them from noticing that the shadow was in fact Simon. The boys then proceeded to beat up on Simon as a group, which maximized their strength and effectiveness. All the while, they had no idea that they were beating up on a member of their