Jack’s Development in Lord of the Flies In Lord of the Flies , Golding has used different methods to express the overall development of the characters such as Freud and Jung’s personality theories along with Maslow’s idea. Philosophers have come to realize that the conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them; their notions of good and evil are the result of the moral atmosphere they breathe (Jean Paul). As seen throughout the novel , Jack is the shadow that surround the boys and uses his id and impulses to satisfy his needs to fulfill his growth of self- actualization. Throughout the novel Jack has lived up to his archetype as an “shadow”. Jung’s shadow archetype represents when your dark side comes out and you …show more content…
lose all sense of morality (Dotzel np). In the beginning Jack begins to “help” Ralph establish order but in reality he breaks away forming his own group with the choir boys. He already had authority and control over the choir boys before he was even on the island. That was shown when the boys were voting for the chief: ‘All right. Who wants Jack for chief?’ With dreary obedience the choir raised their hands.’’(Golding 19). Jack already seems to have an act for violence before he even started hunting .“ ‘Jack’s in charge of the choir. They can be—what do you want them to be?’ ‘Hunters.’ ”(Golding 19). The shadow archetype focuses on the animal side of our personality that is the source of both creative and destructive energies ( Mcleod, Carl Jung ).Throughout the novel Jack’s animal side progresses as does his evil inside of him. According to Freud , he states that the id unconsciously strives to satisfy their need to gratify its own impulses (Henningfield ). Jack focuses on his leadership and becoming the main person the rely on for providing for the boys with his hunting.You begins to see that Jack has acquired an superiority complex. When Jack leaves with his hunters to hunt the pig ,he neglects to keep the fire going. It connects with Freud's theory because he does whatever he wants to do. When he decided to put the hunt before the chance of the boys getting rescued. “ ‘You could have had everyone when the shelters were finished. But you had to hunt...You didn't ought to have let that fire out. You said you'd keep the smoke going…’ ”(Golding 75). As the quote goes on Jack explains about the pleasure he had hunting with the choir boys. In addition , Jack beings to pursue his need for power when he begins to question Ralph’s leadership by speaking out of turn Jack's face swam near him. "And you shut up! Who are you, anyway? Sitting there telling people what to do. You can't hunt, you can't sing—" "I'm chief. I was chosen." "Why should choosing make any difference? Just giving orders that don't make any sense—" (Golding 98 ). Jack ignores the rules of the conch and speaks out of turn to challenge Ralph’s authority.At this point he doesn’t care how he gets his power but needs to achieve his goal.
Jack acts impulsively to get what he want and that is power and …show more content…
authority. According to Maslow, people are motivated to achieve certain needs.(McLeod, Maslow) Jack is in the category of esteem and self-actualization.
Esteem needs revolve around dominance , respect from others,status, independence ; and that is what Jack craves.(Mcleod, Maslow) With the overrule of Ralph he has acquired all those things. In self- actualization needs people find a meaning of life and is important to them but to gain that people follow different directions (Mcleod).Jack follow his path to power and the path he took lead him towards savagery.In his growth to obtain the power his motivation helped him .Jacks motivation has evolved from authority to power to just the need to kill. In the beginning , he continually challenges Ralph for control by drawing as much attention to himself as possible. He relishes the power he’s got and withholds meat and distributes it as he pleases. Yet as the novel progresses he has evolved into a savage and loses his human nature.With the sacrifice of the pig he “ laughs hysterically at her death as he proceeds to decapitate her”( Dotzel) his savagery has reached it’s peak. All of the intensely descriptive violences of Jack show that he indeed had human nature because he had the capacity to become evil.(Mcleod,Carl Jung). This proved that all human beings can succumb of their inner demons such as the beast represent throughout the
novel. In conclusion, Jack was developed into the evil and antagonist of the novel. He was a power hungry boy that turned into a cold blooded killer that let his human nature overcome him.In the end he fulfilled his needs and got his leadersip but at the price of losing himself. Works Cited Dotzel, Becky. "Archetypes in Lord of the Flies." Study.com. n.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. Henningfeld, Diane Andrews. "An overview of Lord of the Flies." an Essay for Exploring Novels. Gale, 1998. Rpt. in Literature Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 2016. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Apr. 2016. "Jean Paul Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 11 May 2016. Mcleod, Saul. "Carl Jung." Carl Jung. Simple Psychology, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016 Mcleod, Saul. "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs." Simply Psychology. Simply Psychology, 17 Sept. 2007. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.
The Lord of the Flies is a gruesome story about young boys stranded on an island, who underwent a transformation from polite British choir boys to savage hooligans. One of the main difficulties the boys face during their adventures upon the island, is their method of government, they either follow the path of Ralph, the democratic leader whose main focus is to escape the despairing island; or Jack a power-hungry monarchical leader who won't ever take no for an answer. The two boys are constantly bickering and arguing over who deserves the leader-position. We all understand Ralph wants to be leader so that he can ensure that the boys will return back home, but in Jack's case, it is a constant mystery to us about why he wants power over the other children. But we do get much small hints from the author, William Golding, that Jack's biggest fear among the other children on the island is public humiliation. This becomes more and more evident the farther on into the book, and his fear seems to be what persuades him to reach for a powerful position.
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
After being marooned on an unknown, uninhabited island and desperate to survive, the characters in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies are pushed to the limits of their humanity, and no one is safe from the atrocities from within, not even the seemingly innocent littluns. In an environment where civilization does not exist, the boys of the story attempt to form a society among themselves. Among the group of boys is a young boy who stands out from the rest. Jack Merridew, the leader of the choir boys, strives to take the role of leader of the boys, and he appears to be completely competent. In the beginning, Jack seems to be innocent and civilized. Jack is the cultured leader of the boys’ choir. Although the reader’s first impression of Jack Merridew may be one of an innocent leader eager to be rescued, his true, truculent nature manifests with the development of the novel, and the reader is gripped by Jack’s true schismatic, belligerent, and iconoclastic nature.
Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, has four very important dynamic characters. A dynamic character is a character that develops and grows during the course of the story. Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon are four dynamic characters in Lord of the Flies that adapt to their new lifestyles in different ways. Jack is a very important dynamic character in Lord of the Flies because he goes through the most changes during the novel. While on the island, Jack has many life experiences that change him forever. Jack never thought he would live his life the way he is living his life in the island. Jack’s authoritative figure, savage-like/instinctual behavior, and violence are three qualities that make Jack a dynamic character.
A plane abruptly crashes into an abandoned island, risking the passengers in the plane. Luckily, the boys in the plane survive this devastating event. These boys, isolated from the supervision of adults, cooperate for rescue. A particular boy, encouraged that he can lead the boys successfully, instructs the others. Unfortunately, this responsible boy disguises himself with a mask, which brings a major transformation. For this boy, Jack, a major character in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, his desire for power is greater than his hope for rescue. By Jack putting on the mask, Golding displays a responsible British boy, who focuses on survival, transform to an irresponsible, aggressive human being who is consumed by violence.
As Jack hunts his “frustration seemed bolting and nearly mad” which shines in his slowly deranging eyes (Golding 67). In Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, stranded boys struggle to find order and civilization on an island with no other humans. After their plane crash lands, a few boys, such as Ralph and Piggy, are quick to set up standard rules. But, not everyone agrees that rules and rescue are what is most important. Jack, a boy who cares more about hunting, disrupts the goodness and order that remains in the boys. When a simulated hunting influenced and led by Jack goes awry, the boys kill Simon. The now deceased Simon is the purest and kindest of the boys. Jack leads the elimination of the only good left on their island. Whether it is his intention to kill him or not, Jack should be held responsible for Simon’s demise because he leads the group to kill him, regardless of his age.
In the novel, Lord of the Flies, Jack is the character that experiences the most change. Jack begins the novel as a somewhat arrogant choirboy, who cries when he is not elected leader of the island. Jack is gradually transformed into a vicious killer who has no respect for human life. Through a series of stages, such as leading the choir, leading the hunting tribe, wearing the mask, killing Simon, separating from the group and intentionally killing Piggy, Jack degenerates from a normal, arrogant school boy into a savage beast.
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.
William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The Flies’ tells the story of a group of English boys isolated on a desert island, left to attempt to retain civilisation. In the novel, Golding shows one of the boys, Jack, to change significantly. At the beginning of the book, Jack’s character desires power and although he does not immediately get it, he retains the values of civilized behaviour. However, as the story proceeds, his character becomes more savage, leaving behind the values of society. Jack uses fear of the beast to control the other boys and he changes to become the book’s representation of savagery, violence and domination. He is first taken over with an obsession to hunt, which leads to a change in his physical appearance This change of character is significant as he leads the other boys into savagery, representing Golding’s views of there being a bad and unforgiving nature to every human.
he is nevertheless a killer. Jack tries his best to do what is best for the
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 impulsivity in Jack’s commands, usually fire back on him and he is immediately self conscious about not being taken seriously and acts off of those actions with no remorse. While on the island, Jack, who has had trouble with asserting his dominance in a confident way, lacks stability in himself when he fails to succeed trivial tasks. “He licked his lips and turned his head at an angle, so that his gaze avoided the embarrassment of linking with another’s eye”(Golding 127). Jack, has challenged Ralph’s authority as a leader by assembling a vote to see whom believes who should be leader of the tribe. Neither the Biguns or Littluns reflected approval towards Jack’s tyrannical party, which immediately confounds Jack’s expectations as leader.
In the midst of World War 2, a group of English schoolboys find themselves stranded on a deserted island after their evacuation plane is shot down. With no adult survivors, the boys try to maintain civility by forming a government and electing a leader while they wait for rescue. Conflict immediately arises as Ralph, our protagonist is pitted against another boy named Jack in a fight for power.
Although there are many interpretations of Golding’s Lord of the Flies, one of the most important is one that involves an examination of Freudian ideas. The main characters personify Sigmund Freud’s theory of the divisions of the human mind; thus, Jack, Ralph, Piggy and Simon are metaphors for the id, ego, and the super-ego of Freudian psychology, respectively. The inclusion of psychological concepts in this literary work distinguish it as a commentary on human nature, beyond labels of “adventure” or “coming of age” novel. Many readers are left in shock upon reading Golding’s masterpiece because of the children’s loss of innocence, but most fail to consider
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.