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Savageness In Lord Of The Flies

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In the novel Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, it shows that the essence of man is evil and unacceptable. A group of boys get stranded on an island where they make the most of their situation, and ultimately turn on each other. One of the boys, named Jack, proves Golding’s point that the essence of man is terrible by behaving and acting like a savage. He and Ralph frequently intervene and try to assert dominance to become the leader of their tribe. Jack shows the essence of man is corrupt by his loss of innocence, his behavior like a dictator, and his uncivilized acts. One key trait that Jack shows is his loss of innocence. Jack is really caught up in hunting and killing animals; however, he sometimes forgets the main goal, which …show more content…

Jack shows numerous times that he can be considered a savage. When Jack goes hunting, Golding depicts how Jack gets ready, “Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw. He looked in the pool for his reflection, but his breathing troubled the mirror” (63). This shows he is willing to change and become a savage by changing the image of how he looks. He paints himself with red and black which portrays the devil in him. He also can use this tactic to lure the children away from Ralph. When the group accidently kills Simon, Jack and his group chanted, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152). Jack does not have the decency to find out what they are killing. All Jack knows is that this is suppose to be a beast and makes his group chant these words when they kill a specimen. After Roger killed Piggy and the conch, Jack gloating, “See? See? That’s what you get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone-” (Golding 181). Jack doesn’t even mind Piggy dying and Ralph all alone. This shows how evil Jack is because he didn’t remorse over Piggy’s death and even makes fun of his death and the destruction of the

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At the beginning of the book, Jack begins to turn savage. An example is shown when Piggy is arguing that since he is holding the conch, he should be talking and no one else should. Jack shouts to Piggy, “The conch doesn’t count on top of the mountain so you shut up” (Golding, 42). Jack rebels and disobeys the conch.

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Although this might have seemed like such a little thing to worry about, this caused Jack to feel like he was finally filling up his eagerness for power. As the book went on, he started to become more animalistic. One quote that revealed his feelings towards the conch was when it was destroyed. “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist”(181). Even though Roger was the one who killed Piggy, his death was intentional.

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Once they were introduced to stuff like hunting, their inner savage slowly arised. As the novel progressed, Jack looked at himself with the paint on and the author said, “He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger”(Golding 191). As soon as Jack looked at himself his inner savageness

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After Jack paints his face he in a sense mimics animals and their ability to hunt, he showś this by trying smell the pigś scent and walking on all fours. When Jack brings back the dead pig from chapter 4 we see his sense of civilization wain when he not only doesn't care about what Ralph ordered, but about the rules that he had previously had been the most excited about

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Jack has committed several crimes, including assault and voluntary murder. Examples of Jack committing assault occur on page 71, “This from Piggy, and the wails of agreement from some of the hunters drove Jack to violence. The bolting look came into his blue eyes. He took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach. Piggy sat down with a grunt.

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David Schwer McCallon-5 ERWC 4 October 2014 Activity #1 Lord of the Flies, written by, William Golding, is a story about a group of schoolboys struggling for survival after a plane crash has left them stranded on an island. As the struggling continues, tempers flare and the group splits on each other. One side has a boy named Jack as their leader, who’s

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538 Words | 3 Pages

See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone (and Piggy is dead)-”

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1212 Words | 5 Pages

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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1430 Words | 6 Pages

The novel, Lord Of The Flies, demonstrates that humans are essentially evil through the literary elements foreshadowing and symbolism, for that it is their nature when apart from civilization along with being in a state of fear, they will then unleash their true primitive selves. Through Jack's character, it is clearly evident that with the literary element foreshadowing, humans are essentially evil for that it is their true nature. William Golding’s article, “Why Boys Become Vicious” explains how humans are initially bad and how nurture affects the boys’ personality. It is stated that “when children go wrong” they can consistently “go wrong with a vengeance” and the amount of energy in children is more “powerful than any bomb” (Golding).

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818 Words | 4 Pages

After a few days of hunting Jack became obsessed with this activity, and it was all he ever wanted to do. This fixation on hunting caused Jack to turn into a savage. He turned into a barbarian and didn’t show mercy to anyone, especially the animals. Goldings writes, "He [Jack] began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling" (pg. 58). This shows, Jack losing the civility he once had, his laughing uncontrollably becoming snarling.

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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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And we 'll look for the snake too--"(Golding 44) Jack says he’ll hunt it he was unable to kill a pig and yet expects himself to be able to kill a beastie. Jack says this to make himself appear stronger than he is. "Serve you right if something did get you, you useless lot of cry-babies! But there is no animal--"(Golding 96)

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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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524 Words | 3 Pages

This quote demonstrates how Jack's behavior becomes more animalistic and savage as the story progresses, which makes him a memorable and intriguing

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Jack uses the boy’s animalistic need to kill, and shapes it into a fear driven mob. Eventually Jack’s leadership eventually achieves what Ralph and Piggy had attempted to do since the start of the book. Get Rescued. “We saw your smoke. What have you been doing?

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