Jack Lord Of The Flies Essay

Lord of The Flies by William Golding is a story about a group of kids of 12 – 6 who got stuck on an island and had to fend for and govern themselves. I will be analyzing jack, a boy of 12 years with a tall skinny build, red hair, blue eyes, and a freckled face. From the beginning jack wanted to be the leader of the boys on the island, but since ralph was elected the leader he had to follow ralphs orders. Jack was constantly rebelling against ralph and as the story moves on jack breaks off from ralph and forms his own tribe from people that didn’t want to work. Once his tribe was built he became a strict and cruel leader. throughout his journey to become the leader of the boys on the island jack demonstrates his leadership, courageousness, and

capacity for cruelty.

From the beginning of the story jack demonstrated that he is courageous.

For example, when ralph (leader of the kids stuck on the island) was assigning tasks to the other kid’s jack said that he and his choir boys would be the hunters and that “if there was a beast that they’d hunt and kill it”. later in the story he demonstrated his courage by going into the cave with ralph were they thought the beast was living in order to kill it and end the threat it posed. Another example of jack being brave is when he and most others after breaking off from ralph the elected chief and siding with jack the unofficial second chief decided to go up the mountain to look for the beast when it was already starting to get dark. Jacks courage and bravery helped him survive his time on the island and establish himself as one of the leaders of the

group.
Becoming one of the leaders of the group was easy for jack. From the first gathering jack commanded respect with the way he led his choir in two lines side by side through some bushes and into the gathering. Once they reached the gathering “jack shouted an order and they halted”. (20) He later shouted another order “choir! stand still!” (20) Just like that he was controlling the choir. It takes strong mind to function so well after a plane crash and a firm hand to then have to keep others in line while journeying in uncharted territory. Later in the story when jack is tired of the way ralph is running things he splits off and form his own tribe. By doing things that the kids wanted not what they needed to do he was able to win over almost all of ralphs group and turn them into his subordinates. By doing this he becomes the ruler of the tribe. However, in order to keep a hold on his tribe, he dishes out harsh punishments on those that disobey or oppose him. For example, sammeric a pair of little boys of a very young age side with ralph. When they were captured they were hurt and forced to join jack and his tribe. You see this when sammeric says “they made us. They hurt us.”
The previous example shows my next point, that jack is cruel.

From when jack first met piggy he immediately targeted him. Whenever piggy would try to speak jack would say something mean to him in order to put him down. For example, at one of the meetings in the first half of the story piggy was trying to calm the littleins and jack said “shut up you fat slug” (91) to piggy. Jack has been repeatedly mean to piggy ever since they first met. He wasn’t only mean to piggy though; jack was mean to anyone he didn’t like or felt were in his way. For example, when the littleuns were freaking out about the beastie and were having nightmares, jack told said “it serves you right if something did get you” and “you useless lot of crybabies. (83) Jack repeatedly demonstrates his cruelty, and it eventually becomes so bad he’s brutally hurting other kids to force them into his tribe. Samneric were two that had this brutality brought upon them. When they were captured jack began jabbing Samneric in the ribs with his spear. Even when they cried out he didn’t stop. Jack is a very twisted boy with barley any morals and who has no problem with hurting others to get them into

line.
As the story progresses jack forms his own tribe and in doing so shows his capability for leadership, cruelty, and courageousness. From the beginning of the book jack was a bully but by the end he became a cruel and irresponsible dictator. In the end ralph lost all his power, jack became the leader of the boys, and the struggle for power was meaningless, because they were rescued by the navy.