During a time of war, a british plane carrying a group of schoolboys is shot down over the Pacific, killing all adults and leaving the group of boys stranded on an island. One of the two leaders of the group, Jack, is the perfect character to portray humanity changing from civilized to savage. Jack is power-hungry, violent, and savage. In the beginning of the book, Jack is innocent and carelessly follows the leader, Ralph.
This only further proves my point that jack represents savagery in this novel. Due to Jacks overwhelming desire to hunt a pig he along with a small group of boys go into the jungle to try their luck. Because of Jacks carelessness, though the fire is extinguished and they lost a chance of being rescued. We also learn in this chapter that the fire symbolizes the hope they share a group, when the fire went out so did their hope, but when they relight it they regain some of their hope. Piggy being the “fat nerd” of the group his thoughts and beliefs are immediately shot down, its only when Ralph tells them to do the suggested task do they listen.
Jack’s unwillingness to abide by Ralph’s rules creates chaos and strips morality from the group. This leads to death and a dark realization that war can only result in mutual loss. Jack resents Ralph’s power and the rules while also disregarding what is asked of him, creating tension between themselves. Jack constantly tries to turn the others against Ralph and undermine his opinion. When Jack does not do what is asked of him, it sparks conflict as shown in this quote:
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.
At the beginning of the story, Jack is civilized and wants to be rescued like the other boys. He is assigned to be the lead hunter, but when he sees his first pig, he cannot kill it. Eventually, he is a savage and he has no problem killing pigs and in some cases, other boys. “At once the crowd surged after him, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.
In William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies, Jack represents the savagery and viciousness within every human. Throughout the novel Jack becomes more and more vicious towards the boys, and it all started with hunting. When Jack couldn’t kill his first pig he became obsessed with hunting wich drove him a bit mad, causing him to become more vicious. Vicious is defined as deliberately cruel or violent. Jack can’t control his emotions and when he’s angry, he becomes quite vicious towards the other boys.
Jack was corrupt, starving for power, and ruthless. But he didn’t always show it. In the beginning of the book, he was simply rude and uncaring. He was upset at not being elected leader, but was happy leading the hunters. Gradually, as order fell and Ralph’s control decreased, Jack gained more power.
He loves and craves the feeling of being in charge. Jack takes action and gathers all the choir boys and goes hunting for food. As the boys are looking through the woods them come upon a small pig. Jack pulls out a knife and right before he about to kill it he hesitates and the pig gets away. To many of the boys that action showed them that Jack is week and isn't brave enough to kill the pig, Jack makes multiple excuses so he wouldn't look weak.
Is Jack the next Hitler, does he grow in both power and cruelty as Hitler once has? Jack was called out as leader of the savages and he quickly gained control over them and power of their will. Jack and the savages did several actions of murder, and tortured many throughout the entire story of the book. Jack may also resemble Hitler when Jack had lead his boys in the hot weather wearing all black cloak and letting the boys suffocate and dehydrate, to the point where Simon had fainted from the heat. In this essay, Jack will be proven to show a resemblance of Hitler through evidence, speculations, and allusions to how he compares to Hitler.
Several different circumstances converge and lead to the first murder on the island. The multiple factors that caused the death to occur were Jack, the beast, the storm, the dancing, and Simon’s constant wandering off alone. Without these factors the first murder on the island would have been very different, but either way Simon would have eventually been killed. To start off, Jack was one of the main factors that lead to the murder. Jack’s madness and cruelty affected the other boys’ minds and caused them to think that it is okay to participate in atrocious activities.
First, Jack disregarded all of his important duties in order to prove his strength when he finally killed his first animal. He knew that it would be more beneficial to keep a fire going as a ship passed by, and it had been explicitly demanded of him by the members of his tribe, especially Ralph. However, finally conquering his fear was all that he could think about, while avidly exclaiming, “I cut the pig’s throat” (Golding 52). His hubris during this moment made it clear that his wish for approval and respect is much greater than his desire to escape from the island, or his original skepticism to lose his innocence by shedding blood. Also, at the beginning of the novel when Jack is introduced, he taunts Piggy, immediately, saying, “Shut up, fatty” (Golding 15).
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.
Jack, much like the id, strives to take control and overpower those around him, taking any means necessary to achieve what he wants. “Ralph made a step forward and Jack smacked Piggy’s head.” (Golding 71). Jack’s violent encounter with Piggy was unnecessary and cruel, only proving that he is an impulsive and violent character who craves to be in control, getting upset when something doesn’t go his way. Ralph maintains that Jack is powerful and intimidating, frequently neglecting the rules in order to satisfy his own
Jack’s development and characteristics support his role as the id which represents the nature of wickedness on the island. The id represents the part of one that is ruled by instincts and desire. It is typically accompanied by violent, rebellious, and selfish behavior(von Unwerth). These three adjectives are commonly associated with Jack. Throughout Lord of the Flies, Jack is constantly “disobeying, ignoring, and finally abrogating the rules that have been established for the benefit, and possible rescue of all”(Bufkin).
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.
