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What is power? What can it do to us? William Golding’s Lord of the Flies portrayed many themes throughout the novel using its characters, including the usage of Jack to portray the fact that power can sometimes corrupt one to the point that it can change someone entirely. Jack, throughout the novel, has tried over and over to show power, exemplified in the last three chapters as he becomes the chief and becomes rather ruthless by hunting and trying to kill humans and animals. As William Golding shows in his novel Lord of the Flies through Jack, power is the deciding factor for behavior in life or death situations.
Jack, at first, when he doesn’t have power, does everything he can to get this power. In the beginning, Jack wants to make rules and lead, however, Ralph quickly shuts down this idea. “We’ll have rules!” he cried excitedly. “Lots of rules! Then when anyone breaks ‘em--”... “You’re hindering Ralph. You’re not letting him get to the most
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important thing.” (chapter 2, Page 33-34). Jack wants rules and power, but he is not getting it, which is bad. Jack not getting power makes him do things that get him power. "We want meat." "Well, we haven't got any yet. And we want shelters. Besides, the rest of your hunters came back hours ago. They've been swimming." "I went on," said Jack. "I let them go. I had to go on. I--" He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up. "I went on. I thought, by myself--" The madness came into his eyes again. "I thought I might--kill." (Chapter 3, Page 51) Jack, being so power-hungry would do anything in his power to try to get power, even kill innocent pigs. The lack of power for Jack leads to Jack doing everything in his power to get more power, to the point where he will kill. This corruption of power leads to the death and the hunt of innocent pigs and humans. Jack’s main goal is to keep killing innocent pigs and to kill anything in his path.
“Jack made a rush and stabbed at Ralph's chest with his spear. Ralph sensed the position of the weapon from the glimpse he caught of Jack's arm and put the thrust aside with his own butt. Then he brought the end round and caught Jack a stinger across the ear. They were chest to chest, breathing fiercely, pushing and glaring.” (Chapter 11, page 177). This explains that his power has corrupted him so much that he has resorted to attacking humans. He even resorted to making his own tribe for killing. “We'll hunt. I'm going to be chief." They nodded, and the crisis passed easily. …. " We'll raid them and take fire. There must be four of you; Henry and you, Robert and Maurice. We'll put on paint and sneak up; (Page 133 and 136 respectively). This shows Jack’s want to make a tribe for killing and be able to lead people into the savage life. Jack’s want for filling and leading others into the savage life has shown that power can change
one. William Golding has shown lots of themes in the book, however, one of the most prominent themes is power and humanity and he uses Jack to convey this message. He shows, through Jack, that power corruption is so powerful to the point that it can change someone completely and how it can corrupt anyone to the point of savagery. He also pushes the message to life as he made this book in WW2 when the power-hungry Germany did everything that they could to show power. Golding used Lord of the Flies to push his message, and Jack was a major character that Golding used to portray this theme and the power-hungry Germans at the time.
When Ralph blows the conch, Jack is introduced to the reader for the first time. He is represented as an audacious and selfish boy who likes to order others around when he says "I ought to be chief, because I'm chapter chorister and head boy"(Goldberg p.22). It also confirms his hunger for power and wanting control over everything. His choleric and petulant personality can be seen when he says "Shut up, Fatty."(p.23), also revealing that he is rude and inconsiderate of others. Despite his obnoxious personality, his conscious of civilization keeps him from killing the first pig they see. He even recommends that the boys should have rules to keep things in order.
The influence of power, or “power hungry”, has had a huge effect on many people who feel that they must be in charge. These people often have trouble being told no or being told that they can’t be in charge. People throughout history have done it in many ways. Our own government displays this when we elect a new president every four years. These candidates often tell the public what they want to hear and how they’ll make it a better place, when, in reality, they only mean half of it and they just want to be able to have the power of the president. In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the antagonist, Jack, shows throughout the book that he craves power and feels that he deserves it more than anybody else.
In Chapter 8 Jack says “He’s like Piggy. He says things like Piggy. He isn’t a proper chief.” He says this because Jack thinks his point of view is the right one, and it can only be the right one. This is similar to dictatorships in the past when people believe their right and anyone who doesn’t agree is the enemy. Later in the book Jack tries to get more followers by promising them psychological needs. Jack states “We’ve killed a pig and we’ve got meat. You can come and eat with us if you like.” Jack is trying to take away any of Ralph’s remaining supporters, so that Ralph is forced to follow him when all he has left is Piggy, Samneric, and a few clueless littluns. Later in this book Ralph is on his own a few hours after Piggy dies, he is considering joining Jack’s tribe because he will have food and protection. In the forest he thinks about the thought of eating fruit, and then remembering the feast and that maybe they would let him back. After that he realizes that the hunters killed Piggy and Simon, so they would kill him
In some of the novels that we read had characters that desire power that affect the people surrounding them. In some of the novel the novel we read like “Macbeth” and the book that I read “The Clockwork Orange” , The main character's desire for power were their downfall. In the book” Lord Of the Flies” Jack is the character that desire power. The characters desire for power were their downfall.
Jack, William Golding’s antagonist in Lord of the Flies, reveals through his experience on the island that it is an individual’s assertiveness, manipulative abilities, and charisma which dictate who commandeers power and privilege over others, and that possessing these traits often negatively impacts the lives of the people leaders seek to control.
He took these situations as opportunity’s to gain power and control. Throughout the novel we come to see that while Ralph is the rational side of humanity, Jack demonstrates the dark side side of human nature.
The desire to have power on the island creates the corruption of power within all who crave it, leading to their transformation to become evil human beings. In the novel, the boys arrive on an island without any guidance and the lack of civilization which makes it impossible for them to survive for a long time. To ensure the boy's safety and survival, the boys have to choose a chief who can keep order within the boys. Jack, the strongest character in the novel, believes that he is the most eligible to be the chief because he is the “chapter chorister and head boy”(34) of the choir boys. Jack already has power and he wants to become even powerful to point that he can control all the boys on the island. However, when voting for the chief, the
In Lord of the Flies, Jack is a symbol for the desire for power, in which plans to use it to treat the other boys as objects for his own amusement and gratify his own desires. Jack’s thirst for power is highlighted in his characterisation, particularly through dialogue, like in the beginning of the novel when voting for chief, Jack simply states “I ought to be chief”, emphasizing his arrogance and plain desire for dominance. This is further demonstrated when the boys are discussing about the beast in one of the meetings, and Jack, although he doesn't believe in the beast, is willing to use its possible existence as a source of power over the littluns, proven though Jack’s use of dialogue in “-not only the littluns, but my hunters sometimes-talk of a thing, a dark thing, a beast, some sort of animal”. The dialogue illustrates the way that Jack allowed himself to exploit others’ weaknesses and commit evil acts in the attempt to attain dominance, proving that intrinsic evil is brought out by one’s desire for power. Thus, in the presence thirst for power, evil is an inescapable consequence of human
Jack shouted “Who cares?” Ralph exclaims “Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got!” ( pg 91) Ralph was the one who tried to keep everyone together and Jack did every thing to turn the other boys away from Ralph. There were times when Ralph almost when to the dark side.
Power is very dangerous, as shown in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The novel explores the use of power in both the hands of good and evil and for success and for failure. Also, how some characters respond to having power. An examination of William Golding’s LOTF will show how fear is powerful and how the characters use that to their advantage. Also, the power shifts between the characters and the aftermath of that.
Jack was also at play in all this not just Ralph. Jack was an arrogant boy, but also tried to be civil and keep everything together, hunt, and, survive in the beginning. But then realized that getting saved might not be an opportunity for them. For example Jack split up his choir and hunted. Also kept the fire going but then left the fire unattended to go catch a pig with all of the group, Jack fought with Ralph because he was the leader and Jack wasn't. Then Ralph was “telling everyone what to do”. He was trying to keep everything together. Jack thought he should have been leader, so Jack left the group and started his own tribe.
What was wrong with Ralph too was that jack ignores everything and try’s to do his own thing the whole time instead of working together with everyone. All Jack wants is his
Lord of the Flies is a novel about power. This is because of the conflict between Ralph and Jack for leadership of the boys. Ralph symbolizes civilization and democracy. Jack symbolizes savagery and dictatorship. For instance, in the begin...
Characters have played a large role in setting the theme of abusive power; they gain power over a group of individuals and misguide them. One obvious example from Lord Of the Flies was Jack. Towards the beginning of the novel, when the “elections” for the leader of the group took place Jack tried to get power. “‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I’m the chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp’” (Golding 22). After losing the election to Ralph, he became the head of the hunters. Here he abused the miniscule powers given to him over the small group of boys formerly known as the “choir”. Jack’s influence possibly corrupted the minds of the young boys and made them into cold blooded killers going from killing pigs for food to harming humans for enjoyment. “The circle moved round. Robert squealed in mock terror then in real pain… Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife.” (Golding 114). The significance of this was that it was the first major point that lead to the collapse of society on the island. Jack thought that Ralph did not appreciate what he was doing for the group by gett...
When Ralph first came to the island he didn’t want to be the leader. He had no idea what to do, unlike Jack who knew. However throughout the book and when Ralph realises that he won’t be chief anymore he wants it more than ever. Ralph has a lot of arguments with Jack because they are opposites; they have nothing in common except the fact of wanting power. However they both fight each other so they can control everyone and as soon as one of them is able to have the power they know that they can control one