Imagine the thought of being on a plane that crashes on a deserted island. You are overwhelmed, but at the same time grateful there are other survivors. Naturally, everyone agrees that they must band together, but that doesn't last long because conflicts arise. Of course, stressful situations can tend to cause people to act differently. Philip Zimbardo a professor and psychologist says " There are times when external circumstances can overwhelm us, and we do things we never thought. If you're not aware that this can happen, you can be seduced by evil." and " That human behavior is more influence by things outside of us than inside. The ' situation' is the external environment." In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding writes …show more content…
During Jack's slow transformation from normal, well-behaved school boy to a wild animal, he begins to do things that facilitate his transformation. First, a tremendously important moment of change transpires when Jack paints his face. "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." (Golding, 63) At this moment, Jack appears different. "He knelt, holding the shell of water, a rounded patch of sunlight fell on his face and a brightness appeared in the depths of the water. He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself, but at an awesome stranger." (Golding, 63) With this in mind, Jack is no longer Jack, but instead a fearless hunter who must kill a pig. So then he goes hunting and he leaves the fire which burns out. This behavior of disobeying rules is the beginning of the new Jack. Finally, he kills the pig, which eventually leads to his ridculously barbaric behavior. For example, he hits piggy when he gets mad and he breaks free from the civilized group to create his own fanatic tribe. This all leads to the senseless beating of Simon, and the stealing of Piggy's glasses. At the conclusion of the novel, Jack is definitely a stranger to everyone. His wild animal characteristics allow Jack to control his tribe by fear. He forces Sam and Eric to join his tribe and orders the death of Ralph. All this takes place towards the end of the novel when Piggy is killed by the hunters. Jack, who feels nothing says "See? See? That's what you'll get! I meant that! There isn't a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone-" (Golding, 181) He fights Ralph with the intent to kill. "Viciously with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph." (Golding, 181) Since Ralph got away, Jack
is far too much for them. They are in fear of him as they obey his
How Ralph and Jack Change William Golding wrote the story "Lord of the flies". It is about a large group of schoolboys whose plane has crashed. They get stranded on a desert island. The story is about their survival and how they run their everyday lives. The two main characters Jack and Ralph are both from upper class
Golding's motives for choosing the island setting for the novel, Lord of the Flies was to have the characters isolated, where the laws of their governments could not reach them. The boys on the island represented a microcosm of world society. Golding chose children because they have not yet been fully conditioned by society to understand right from wrong, and thus are guided by their instinct and what is inherent within them. Golding uses a great deal of symbolism throughout the novel. Different characters provide different symbols. Jack is a symbol of savagery and anarchy. Golding relates the inherent evil with Jack to the evil and cruelty of the larger world, which we all share.
Jack Merridew is the devil-like figure in the story, Lord of the Flies. Jack is wicked in nature having no feelings for any living creature. His appearance and behavior intimidates the others from their first encounter. The leading savage, Jack leans more towards hunting and killing and is the main reason behind the splitting of the boys. It has been said that Jack represents the evilness of human nature; but in the end, Jack is almost a hero. With his totalitarian leadership, he was able to organize the group of boys into a useful and productive society
The portrayal of the pig demonstrates his rationality of being a chaotic savage. He tends to cover up his actions with reasoning that only deems to be true through the eyes of insanity. “He rubbed the charcoal stick between the patches of red and white on his face [...] A rounded patch of sunlight fell on his face and a brightness appeared in the depths of the water. He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger. He split the water and leapt to his feet, laughing excitedly.”(Golding 63). There is no room for civilization on the island, and Jack takes advantage of this opportunity. Jack, compels himself to distance himself from social normalities through the exterior of the world. The paint on Jack’s face represents his cover up to society and to make himself believe that he is doing the right thing. Consequently speaking, Jack desperately desires confirmation of his actions from one of his peers. However, none of his peers condone of these certain actions, so, he relies on the tangible aspects of life to give him a sense of comfortability. “All that makes sense to him is his own need to control others and impose himself, and hunting, because it is a kind of power assertion” (Lord of the Flies, Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations). On the island, Jack’s role is the leader of the hunting party. Although, this seems
On the dystopian island of Lord of the Flies, authored by William Golding, one can observe the boy's’ descent into madness. When a group of young children were abandoned on an island without adult supervision, chaos rampaged. This loss civility is most clearly demonstrated by Jack and his effect on others. The text illustrates how quickly he succumbed to the savagery, the way his thirst for power and his dire situation brought him to barbarity, and how the boys followed suit, losing all their humanity.
Jack’s totalitarian ideals meant that due to his wild rampage of death and destruction, his bloodlust made him descend into savagery. His eventual fall into savagery begins with the sighting of a wild pig. He is fascinated but cannot bring himself to kill it due to “the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood”. This shows his innocence at the start of the novel, but his lust for blood soon overcomes the battle against his inner self. “He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.” When he first killed the pig, Jack is ecstatic. Killing becomes an obsession to him. “His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them
Jack has always been an ill-natued boy even from the start of the book when he told Piggy to "Shut up, Fatty." (p.23). Dispite Jack’s unpleasent personality, his lack of courage and his conscience preventing him from killing the first pig they encountered. "They knew very well why he hadn’t; because of the enormity of the knife decending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood." (p.34)
Jack and the hunters show that mankind are inheritantly evil, if left alone to take care of themselves, fear will turn tem into the savage roots of the ancestors. This is shown near the end of the novel with the killing of piggy and the hunting of Ralph. Though at first Jack felt guilty for killing Simon, because he was still civilised, however as time goes on it turns into a thirst for blood, to kill anything that stands in his way to become the leader of the island.
In other words, all the boys; who idolized Jack, are turning savage but Piggy. At this point in the novel, Piggy is the only one who still continues to grasp the concept of having an adequate society and government among the boys is a must need to survive. But evil once again has its told, as the group of boys travel up to Castle Rock, a nefarious boy by the name of Roger, maneuvers a boulder off the mountain and terminates the conch, along with its one and only proponent; “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt, traveled through the air sideways from the rock, turning over as he went… Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his his back across the square red rock in the sea. His head opened and stuff came out and turned red” (181). With the macabre death of Piggy and elimination of the conch, the boys have concluded their system date and have turned savage. Jack’s empowerment is also complete, the next day, they will would hunt Ralph like a pig they have done times before. Civilization has been cast away for good and the boys have create an eerie palpable milieu on the
The whole entire story could've had an entire different outcome if Jack didn’t have so many personality blemishes. Jack seems like he has something wrong with him as far as handling his emotions go. He is always very mean to Piggy and was the first to thirst for blood.
When Ralph blows the conch, Jack is introduced to the reader for the first time. He is represented as an audacious and selfish boy who likes to order others around when he says "I ought to be chief, because I'm chapter chorister and head boy"(Goldberg p.22). It also confirms his hunger for power and wanting control over everything. His choleric and petulant personality can be seen when he says "Shut up, Fatty."(p.23), also revealing that he is rude and inconsiderate of others. Despite his obnoxious personality, his conscious of civilization keeps him from killing the first pig they see. He even recommends that the boys should have rules to keep things in order.
Jack’s negative effects on others are shown when “Maurice pretended to be the pig and ran squealing into the center, and the hunters, circling still, pretended to beat him” (75). This quote displays Jack’s evil influence because he has made perfectly normal British boys act like mindless savages and participate in this sadistic ritual. The hunters seem to regress to more prehistoric times as they enjoy performing this act. Jack also changes the boys’ behavior when, “The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd surged after it, 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” (153). This quote is essential because it conveys that Jack has altered the boys’ minds to such a degree, that they are blinded by their bloodlust and can’t even tell that the “beast” that they are mutilating is really Simon. It also shows how delirious Jack has made these once civilized children. As you can see, Jack is not a necessarily evil person, but he creates evil
Jack has done his best to manipulate the boys into acting like wild beasts. For example, today they got Ralph to go along with their pig hunting. He was acting like one of them. I wonder what they did to get him to act like this. I think he was just under a lot of pressure, and he finally cracked, but I know they won’t get me to act like that. Even Simon was acting a little different; he isn’t afraid anymore. He decided to go all alone across the island, just to tell Piggy what the littluns were doing. I think he went by himself so no one would find out about his spot, and so he could prove that he’s more tough than anyone thinks. That’s right Simon has a spot, a spot where he goes when he needs time to think. A spot where he can be alone and not get bothered by anyone. However, if I were him I would be terrified to go all the way across the island all by myself. After all I am only eight, so it’s pretty understandable that I would act like a little kid. On top of that, Ralph decided to go with Jack up a mountain in the dark. Why would he make a ridiculous choice like that? I think he wanted to prove himself to the littluns and try to get his reign back. But I could be wrong, maybe he just wanted to go on an adventure in the dark. Maybe they have a spot that no one else knows about, like Simon. These people are changing too much, too fast. I’m not even sure I like these new people with the
but himself and how he can benefit. Jack simply wants to hunt and have a good time. He makes fun of Piggy, humiliating him, making him feel small and unworthy. "You would, would you? Fatty and Jack smacked Piggy's head" (Golding 78). Jack is a lost boy who begins to discover the evil within him. When he proposes to the group that he should be the new chief, they do not respond in his favor, and Jack runs away, hurt and rejected. He swallows his hurt ego and throws all of his energy into the only thing he seems to know how to do - hunting. He puts on face paint and hides his conscience. This changes him into a savage, evil, The colorful mask allows Jack to forget everything he was taught back in England. "The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness" (Golding 69). As the plot progresses he becomes less and less attached to any societal norms. Near the end of the novel, he feels no shame about the deaths of Simon and Piggy, or his attempt to kill Ralph. & nbsp; Another difference found is that Ralph symbolizes innocence, whereas Jack symbolizes experience and the inner shadow that Golding believes Ralph, Piggy and Simon represent the good side of the boys. Simon is pure, and the only one who realizes what the beast really is. Piggy is the voice of reason and stands for the world the boys once knew- adults, discipline, rules and civilization. As chief, Ralph knows right from wrong. When everyone followed Jack except for Piggy, Samneric and himself, he did not just give up and follow what he knew was wrong, he tried to reason with the rest of the boys and tried to talk some sense into them. At the end of the novel though, he too realizes that man is not a kind creature by nature. "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man' followed, regardless of reason or morals. "