Jack Coming Of Age In Lord Of The Flies

First and foremost, characters in the novel The Lord of the Flies begin to Come of Age when they learn to cope with change. During World War II, the children are flown to surrounding countries to attend boarding school, in order to be safe from the war. In the process, the pilot loses control of the plane and the plane crashes. All of the adults on the plane die and the children must learn to fend for themselves; however, some minors did not maintain their humanity and they start to imagine the beast. The children were all neophytes, so they had little experience of being the in the position to abdicate someone, so they were in a quagmire. Jack in particular inherits traits of his surroundings causing him to go insane. Through the insanity,

he learns to Come of Age. Jack is a character that lacks deferential behaviors and breaks off from Ralph’s group because of his personality.

He has a history of being egregious and vengeful. Jack Comes of Age when decides to carry out an assembly to warn the children about the beast that he is imagining. Jack convinces himself that the beast is something that he can kill because of how deranged his behaviors become from being on the island for an extensive period of time. This causes him to exhibit feral behavior. He learns to Come of Age by calling the assembly to cope with the realization that the beast could have been more than a figurative character. Jack Comes of Age when he calls an assembly to protect all of the children from the beast he is imagining,“‘I’ve called an assembly,’ said Jack, ‘because of a lot of things. First, you know now, we’ve seen the beast. We crawled up. We were only a few feet away. The beast sat up and looked at us. I don’t know what it does. We don’t even know what it is—’ ‘The beast comes out of the sea—’ ‘Out of the dark—’ ‘Trees—’ ‘Quiet!’ shouted Jack. ‘You, listen. The beast is sitting up there, whatever it is—’” (Golding

125). Jack is going insane from being stranded on an island for so long. Combined with the craze of being on the island and his maverick behaviors, he starts to think that the beast is more than a figure of his imagination and calls an assembly in order to protect and kill the beast. Thus, he Comes of Age when he acquires the knowledge to cope with change. Additionally, Piggy is a character who does not feel the affects of the beast that linger inside everybody else. Piggy is a genial character and acts like an adult.

Piggy realizes that he has not felt the affects of the beast and a symbol for this is that his hair did not grow. All of the other boys hair grew predominantly, while Piggy stays the same. The growing of the hair symbolizes the beast growing inside the minors. Since, Piggy’s hair did not grow, he remained normal and is not affected by his surroundings. Piggy Comes of Age by keeping his humanity intact. “He is the only boy on the island whose hair never seemed to grow. The rest were shock-headed, but Piggy’s hair still lay in wisps over his head as though baldness were his natural state and this imperfect covering would soon go, like the velvet on a young stag’s antlers” (Golding 64). Piggy’s hair never grew throughout the entire book; however, the rest of the boy's hair lengthens. This symbolizes that the beast inside of Piggy never grows. Piggy Comes of Age by keeping his humanity intact during the period of time that he is stranded on the island. Lastly, Ralph realizes when he is on the island he feels the effects of being stranded. Ralph was abdicated as the leader of the group and he is constantly faces adversity when Jack breaks off from the group of

children. When this happens, he is consumed by the beast inside. In order to cope with the change, he turns to childish habits. Ralph starts to bite his nails and crave habits which he undertook at his home. He has the need to shower and he wants scissors to cut his hair. Ralph Comes of Age by realizing what he needs to resort to childish habits. “He pulled distastefully at his grey shirt and wondered whether he might undertake the adventure of fishing it. Sitting under what seemed an unusual heat, even for this island, Ralph planned his toilet. He would like to have a pair of scissors and cut this hair—he flung the mass back—cut this filthy hair right back to half an inch. He would like to have a bath, a proper wallow with soap. He passed his tongue experimentally over his teeth and decided that a toothbrush would come in handy too.” (Golding 107). Ralph Comes of Age when he copes with being on the island. He copes with this change by cleaning himself off and going back to childish habits. He needs something familiar in order to be sane on the island. Overall, Ralph, Piggy and Jack Come of Age when they are faced with changing circumstances.