Jack in Lord of the Flies
In William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies, a group of British schoolboys have crashed upon a desert island while being taken away from a war which is destroying the world. Forsaken and forlorn, what starts as a story from The Boxcar Children, ends up turning into anarchy, as the brutal primal instincts inside all of us envelop the boys. The leader of this anarchy is Jack, an ugly little child who unfolds to become a fascist, power hungry tool of the devil, the Lord of the Flies. Jack progresses through the story at an incredible pace. His evolution backwards into the core of human nature starts in the first chapter, and escalates up to a mighty crescendo, but he's stopped before he commits his ultimate act of violence. There are no parents to set limits on the island, and Jack seems to feel that adults are the only people worth paying any respect to, "...the fairheaded boy with the creamy shell on his knees [Ralph] did not seem to satisfy him." Without the boundaries set by adults to sustain them, Jack and all of the other children are prone to forgetting the enactments that have kept their world entact until now. As they forget these rules, they become set up for their raw human self-preservation to come out in them. Thi
Soon after this incident, we see that though Jack is evil at the beginning of the book, he's not evil enough without the beast. The mask lets him forget among other things such as his responsibilities, one of them being to keep the fire lit. Though they don't exactly think he should be leader, they admire him. For instance, in chapter three where there is a detailed description of Jack hunting, a number of transformations happen. As he begins the hunt, he has a sharp stick, yet when he can't find any pigs, and after it says ". In fact, the very first thing he does after putting it on is emit a bloodthirsty snarl, and strike the water. (This is opposed to the more rational and civilized Jack in chapter three who asked for a drink after the hunt. " The children were scared of it and Jack used fascism to his advantage. Since Jack was "the first to go" in a way, he became a leader for the boys who were influenced later in the book by the beast. This is his first push by the beast, for after the election, he is no longer known as Merridew, but just as Jack. He is becoming less of a child, and more of a hunter. He now has total militant control over the island. Jack is so ravenous for leadership, he becomes angry every time he isn't leading. Since the conch is a symbol of leadership, Jack's insufficient blowing technique means he's not as good a leader as Ralph is. There's the way the book describes his choirboys, "Their black caps of maintenance were slid over one ear like berets.
Common topics in this essay:
Ralph Jack,
Besides Jack's,
Ralph Planning,
Simon Christ-like,
Ralph Green,
Flies Jack,
Unfortunately Jack,
Ralph Ralph,
Simon Ralph,
Jack Ralph,
lord flies,
beast jack,
feast jack,
ralph jack,
lord flies jack,
jack able,
created kill,
piggy's glasses,
jack's boys,
it's beast,
jack angry,
night feast jack,
|
Acceptance Essays
