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Lord of the flies book review essay
Lord of the flies critical analysis
How is jack an important character in lord of the flies
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The Tyrant William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group of English boys whose plane recently crashed onto a stranded island when trying to escape World War II. Stranded on the island with no adult presence, the boys revert to using savage primitive ways to survive on the island. They do this because of Jack, leader of the choir boys, and strikes fear into the children on the island. Jack is eager for absolute power, and he doesn’t care what he must do to gain power over the boys. He becomes a tyrant. Furthermore, Jack’s desire for absolute power over the boys corrupts him. Jack refuses to listen to the rules, he only does what he wants when he wants. As soon as the boys arrive on the island and are deciding who to pick as their leader, Jack tries to assume power. He tries to convince the boys that he should be the one they pick, and demands the boys to choose him as their leader because …show more content…
As Jack returns from his hunt, he feels as if the other boys on the island should praise him for this fresh kill. He throws the slab of meat he just killed at Simon and says “I painted my face—I stole up. Now you eat—all of you” (63). After this, the boys all eat. They fear what Jack might do to them if they don’t eat. After this, Jack realizes the amount of respect he has been gaining from the boys on the island and decides that he is the one who needs to be in power as soon as possible. When the boys assemble, Piggy has the conch and tells the boys they are falling apart and need to stick together. In the middle of His speech, Jack interrupts, saying: “Shut up! Who are you, anyway? Sitting there telling people what to do. You can't hunt, you can't sing—" (78). Once again, Jack doesn’t care about the rules on the island and does as he pleases. He believes what he does is always right, Jack tells Piggy that he’s
The island boys ultimately choose Jack as “Chief” for his confidence, self-assertiveness, and charisma. His certainty convinces the stranded boys that they can conquer the “beasties” that lurk in the jungle. Jack tells Ralph, “ ‘Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong – we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat!’ ” (Golding 92) Jack proves to be a self-assured and strong hunter, telling them that he will
As soon as they realise what must be done to survive on the island, jack has the desire to kill a pig for meat. This is the first sign of his savagery. Soon his urge to kill a pig turns into the desire to kill and hunt other living
Noticeability of this from the boys on the island increases, mostly with Piggy, Ralph, Simon, and Samneric. Ruthlessness depicted through Jack begins to stand out to them. Piggy quotes, “I been in bed so much I done some thinking. I know about people. I know about me. And him. He can't hurt you; but if you stand out of the way he'd hurt the next thing. And that's me”
Upon the arrival of the boys to the island Jack immediately found himself in the center of a power struggle. Although the conflict was brief, there was still a very obvious confrontation between Jack and Ralph. Once the boys had assembled themselves there was an election to see who was to be chief. Despite the fact that Ralph was voted leader, the desire to be in command never left Jack. Jack already had some leadership skills, being head choirboy at his old school, and he continuously challenged Ralph. The greatest source of conflict between Jack and Ralph was the debate over the necessity of maintaining a fire. Ralph felt that it was necessary to keep it burning at all times while Jack believed that hunting pigs and getting meat was much more essential.
Jack fails to realize that the boys need security, stability, and order on the island Jack was a leader of the choir before the boys landed on the island. These boys, who were in the choir, still want to follow Jack; however, they have no discipline at all. The only thing that is on Jack’s mind is hunting. He doesn’t care about anything else, except capturing and kill the pigs for some food.
Jack hated Piggy because he was always on Ralph’s side. The rule at meetings was a boy could only speak if he had the conch shell. While Piggy was talking, Jack interrupted him and tried to take away the shell. Ralph yelled out “The rules! You’re breaking the rules!”
While Jack and Ralph are exploring the island, they encounter a piglet which Jack supposedly attempts to kill. After gaining the courage to kill the baby pig, Jack rectifies the situation by saying "I was just waiting for a moment to decide where to stab him (Golding 31)." This event clearly illustrates that along with inherent evil, "man is [also] capable of being good and kind, and has to choice and free will to choose which one he will become."(Ridley 97) Jack's mercy is short-lived, however, and when they encounter another pig, Jack and his hunters are relentless.
The portrayal of the pig demonstrates his rationality of being a chaotic savage. He tends to cover up his actions with reasoning that only deems to be true through the eyes of insanity. “He rubbed the charcoal stick between the patches of red and white on his face [...] A rounded patch of sunlight fell on his face and a brightness appeared in the depths of the water. He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger. He split the water and leapt to his feet, laughing excitedly.”(Golding 63). There is no room for civilization on the island, and Jack takes advantage of this opportunity. Jack, compels himself to distance himself from social normalities through the exterior of the world. The paint on Jack’s face represents his cover up to society and to make himself believe that he is doing the right thing. Consequently speaking, Jack desperately desires confirmation of his actions from one of his peers. However, none of his peers condone of these certain actions, so, he relies on the tangible aspects of life to give him a sense of comfortability. “All that makes sense to him is his own need to control others and impose himself, and hunting, because it is a kind of power assertion” (Lord of the Flies, Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations). On the island, Jack’s role is the leader of the hunting party. Although, this seems
As the story progresses it shows how the boys change from disciplined school boys to savages. Jack is the first to show the transition. When Jack, Simon and Ralph go exploring for the first time, they come across a piglet caught in a curtain of creepers. Jack couldn't kill it "because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood (31)." From that moment on, Jack felt he needed to prove to himself to the others that he's strong, brave and isn't afraid to kill. When Jack says, "Next Time (31)" it's foreshadowing his future of savage hunting.
There are may other things that Piggy did to attempt to bring order to the island just like a grown-up. When Jack was busy hunting pigs and dancing about in the blood that engulfed him, Piggy just wanted people to listen to him. He yearned for someone to listen to his ideas without asking questions: when he suggested moving the fire to the beach, he just wanted a ship passing by to see them. Piggy mimicked adults, he did not run about in a savage nature, he was good.
After the election, Ralph tells Jack he can still be in charge of the choir and should choose a job for them to take on. Jack immediately says they should be hunters. Though the boys’ strictly fruit diet was making them sick, and the meat Jack and his hunters got was a relief to them all, Jack’s focus on hunting became too fixated and caused much of the destruction of civilized behavior on the island. One of the biggest incidents of hunting coming in the way of rescue was when the boys on the beach saw a boat on the horizon—their first means of rescue—and the boys in charge of keeping the signal fire alive left their post in order to hunt with Jack. It is the hunters’ first successful kill, and they are excited when Ralph angrily confronts Jack about letting rescue slip away for a pig. Jack, who is in the mindset that hunting is the priority, is “vaguely irritated by this irrelevance” and doesn’t seem to understand Ralph’s anger (p. 69). Jack’s mindset also infects the other boys of the island, and they become caught up in hunting as well: so much so that it becomes dangerous. The hunters create a disturbing chant and dance that excites them for hunting. Each of the four times that the chant is recited, it becomes more violent. The first time the boys kill a pig, the chant is “‘Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood’” (p. 69). It is repeated during the re-enactment of the pig hunt when Maurice pretends to be the pig: “‘Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in’” (p. 75). Later, when Robert is the pig, the chant changes slightly: “‘Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in’” (p. 114). The chant takes a turn when Jack's tribe gathers in a circle for their dance at the feast. Instead of referring to the pig, they now say “‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood’”(p. 152). This is when Simon is brutally murdered by the group and when the chant is last used. The boys
Throughout the entirety of the story Jack had difficulty with accepting his role as just a hunter, he wanted to be chief. “Jack and Ralph smiled at each other with shy liking. The rest began to talk eagerly”(?) in this scene the group of boys were voting for who should lead them, Ralph was chosen without complaint from Jack because he was perfectly content with being given a bit of power. This scene in particular highlights that in the beginning of the novel Jack didn't care for leading the group as long as he got some power. In spite of Jack’s reluctance to step forward in the first meeting he soon became unmotivated to follow Ralph’s orders and rules. Jack refuses to bid by Ralph’s laws because he does not agree with many of his survival tactics, which is shown here: “"I'm not going to play any longer. Not with you" (127). This shows that Jack is beginning to chose his savage instincts by going off on his own because he does not agree with the rules. Finally, when the boys are rescued from the island the soldier asks who's the leader and Ralph declares that he is, which Jack began to deny: “A little boy who wore the remains of an extraordinary black cap on his red hair and who carried the remains of a pair of spectacles at his waist, started forward, then changed his mind and stood still.”(?) this shows that even through everything that occurred in the duration of this novel Jack has accepted what he has
“Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?”(259) That’s what young Piggy wants everyone to realize in order to make the right choice. The book Lord of the Flies suggests that humans are naturally savage through a tale of young civilized boys, who turn into uncontrollable savages. This effectively describes the theme of the novel because the facts state that humans are the flaw itself, and therefore are naturally savage. There is also the fact that no matter how much authority there is, there are always humans who disobey it and cause chaos wherever they go and whatever they do. The final argument presented is the fact that when humans reach a certain point of limitation, they fall into chaos in a desperate attempt
What really got to Jack was the fact that Piggy wasn’t scared of him in the way the others were. He could bend the other to his beck and call but, ig Piggy didn't want to do something that Jack told him, he would pathetically stand up for himself. He
Technology can be conveyed as a necessary evil in our life today. It’s considered necessary because it can save lives, and make them easier. Yet it’s considered evil because it can destroy lives on a physical and mental aspect. The true question is does the good outway the bad? ‘Technology is a word used to collectively describe or portray the advancements, abilities, creations, undertaking, views, and knowledge of the human-kind”(https://www.academia.edu/346486/Technological_Advancements_and_Its_Impact_on_Humanity). Therefore it basically means that it progresses the human race. It connects us, conserves energy and produces goods, and it saves lives. How could it not be a good thing?