Examples Of Good And Evil In Lord Of The Flies

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The Good and Evil in Jack
Characters in books generally have only one stable and unchanging personality, but the way Jack is depicted in Lord of the Flies, by William Golding shows that both good and evil exists in everyone. Some people are naturally good, but what is considered ‘being good’? Wanting good things for others and helping achieve that bring out the good in people. Humans can also be bad and want the worst for others, but the best for only themselves. In the novel, Jack Merridew is demonstrated as a good human being by being able to lead and gain his choirs trust, but his actions further into the book establish him as a bad person as result of his actions and goals. William Golding determines that both good and evil exist side-by-side …show more content…

He appears in the novel by leading a party of boys, marching in two parallel lines. It is shown that Jack is focused on getting rescued and having the best for his choir and the other boys, and when he told his choir to stand still, “the choir huddled into line and stood there swaying in the sun.” (Golding, 20). In this moment Jack is portrayed as a trusted and good leader because of how the choir boys respected and listened to him. When the boys voted for the chief in the beginning, Golding said that “... the most obvious leader was Jack. But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch.” (Golding, 22). Although Ralph became the chief, Jack was given the leadership and authorization over the choir, known better as the ‘hunters’. Towards the middle of the book, Jack wanted to be leader but didn’t get voted so he said “I’m going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too” (Golding, 126), splitting from Ralph’s group to make his own. Jack came back later on with his hunters to where Ralph and the other boys were and said to them “We hunt and feast and have fun. If you want to join my tribe come and see us…” (Golding, 140). He had the most experience and the boys listened to him, no one questioned his …show more content…

There’s no doubt that as the story went on, Jack become more savage and mean. Ralph was voted leader but he let Jack take control over the hunters and the fire and Jack agreed but he really only cares about hunting and he forgot about the fire. The hunters and Jack walked to the top of the hill, with a pig on a stick chanting “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.” (Golding, 69). Ralph and Piggy were at the top of the mountain and as Jack arrived, both of the boys yelled at him for letting the fire out but Jack did not care at all, instead he was saying that it was no big deal, that they needed food and could easily re-start the fire using Piggy’s specs. From then on, Jack was just talking about how proud he was that he killed the pig, saying “I cut the pig’s throat,” (Golding, 69) proudly. This shows that Jack only cares for what he wants, not what is important to others, and to further celebrate the successful killing of the pig, the boys reenact the killing with Maurice being the pig. In chapter 10 of Lord of the Flies, Jack’s evil side is shown when he lies about killing Simon the night before. He’s the chief of the new group and he told the boys “... the beast might try to come in. You remember how he crawled--” (Golding, 160). Jack was hesitating and took a while to put together that sentence because he knew that they killed Simon but he didn’t want the rest of the boys to know so he

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