Dictatorship In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Jack’s Pack: A Dictatorship

Absolute power, every fine dictator has it, all hopefuls aspire for it. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Jack, the leader of the hunters, rapidly becomes a power-hungry, barbaric, and manipulative dictator. Different from Ralph, the mature leader of the group, Jack has an inclination to abuse his power and position. For a boy no older than 12 he leads the rebellion and evil of the boys’ mob without an inkling of remorse. Golding depicts him in this way because he symbolizes a dictator in Lord of the Flies.

Dictators love power, Jack is no exception. He is given power right from the start, he is “in charge of the choir” (Golding 23). Although Ralph shares his power for the benefit of the group, Jack is eager to utilize his power for what he wishes, which eventually splits up the group. “We don’t want you … three’s enough”, Jack has only had his new position for a small amount of time, yet he is already eager to assert himself over the others, whether or not it is a reasonable command (24). He does not just exploit his authority to control people, he sees that the boys “were shaken” by the “effects of his words”, this power is fear (161). Fear is a powerful tool for leaders to use. Jack acknowledges the power of fear he has over the boys, and he uses it to

his advantage to gain more attention and more control over the boys. Jack is greedy for power, in the same manner as a dictator, he governs with power for the sake of power.
We all desire power for different reasons, Jack uses power solely for his own benefit. When Jack finally becomes a “chief” he will not wield it to help the boys stay alive or tries to become rescued, he sits on his throne and uses his power to say “Give me a drink” (Golding 150). Instead of helping everyone with his power, similar to a principled leader, he behaves how he yearns to, without care of what the people he rules need, similar to a dictator. He will also manipulate rules with his power to benefit him. He does not have the conch, however he wishes to to speak, now, therefore “The conch doesn’t count on top of the mountain” (42).
Rules give Jack dominance over the boys, it is the only reason Jack was interested in them in the first place.

Even though Jack says “We’ve got to have rules and obey them”, his ideas of rules differ from the majority of people’s (Golding 42). He demands rules, seeing that they will give him power over the boys. Jack’s ideal government is the opposite of a democracy, autocracy, in a democracy the citizens have power in what happens in their country. Jack thinks that people being able to choose what occurs in their country will not “make any difference” (91). Taking away the people’s from the people causes the leadership to be autocratic, which establishes Jack as a

dictator.
Not only is he interested in dominating humans, he thrives off of dominating nature. It started with killing pigs for food, it soon escalates to a thrill chase. The terrified screams of the exhausted sow stricken with heat gives Jack strength to sit on top of the sow while “stabbing downward with his knife” until the pig was far from life, barely a pig anymore (Golding 135). Hunting is not merely an act of survival for Jack anymore, but an act of power. Soon he does not just dominate the animals, he starts to become one, his “dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling” (64). He enjoys killing animals, he feels powerful knowing he has “taken away its life like a long satisfying drink” (70). Jack has complete control over these defenseless animals, because of his ability to kill them, when he exercises his “authority” over them he is their dictator.