Survival Of Fittest In Lord Of The Flies

“The survival of the fittest”, a theory brought forth by Charles Darwin representing that the weak will suffer and only the strong may survive. A theory that is heavily related with cruelty. Such cruelty occurred in the book Lord of the Flies where a group of children become stranded on an island after their plane crash. The book slowly splits into two paths, one leading to salvation and rescue while the second leads to the abandoning civilization and only desiring to survive for themselves. Jack, the main antagonist in Lord of the Flies, demonstrates the cruelty of the second path as he slowly corrodes the group into degenerates at his attempt to usurp power.

Jack creates chaos and disorder as well the tyrannical control over the stranded

choir group. This is shown when Jack on multiple occasions tries to go against Ralph causing distrust and instability in the group. An example of Jack’s dissatisfied with Ralph is when Jack says “He's not a hunter. He'd never have got us meat. He isn't perfect and we don't know anything about him.” This quote shows that Jack believes that Ralph he is a stranger and holds no importance or value to the group. Jack’s control over the choir group can be shown during Jack’s original arrival with them when Jack says ““Choir! Stand still!” Wearily obedient, the choir huddled into line and stood there swaying in the sun. None the less, some began to protest faintly” the choir followed Jack’s order without complaint and when the choir started to protest it wasn’t done in a large complaint, but faintly which reveals that the choir a fear Jack.
Jack slowly corrodes the group, using hunting and the terror of the mysterious monster.
“Kill the pig, cut her throat, spill the blood” is an example of how the group, especially the hunters, are becoming corroded, as the group finds entertainment in killing and seeing blood which shows the slowly regression back into the violent early hunters.

Jack corrodes the group using the beast as during the meal Jack screams “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” Jack didn’t care to first scout out or pursue who the beast was and ended up killing Simon, who just came to explain his discovery of the beast. In this incident Jack caused the group to cross the boundary line to savages who lack rational thinking because of they had murdered Simon.

Jack usurps power, as he slowly ascends himself, as the tyrannical dictator over the group

The slow ascension is expressed by Ralph and Piggy when they said “But he's, Jack Merridew!” This quote shows the slight and growing fear that the two have against Jack. Later in the story Jack creates a savage group that he controls using force. Jack’s usage of force and violence is shown when Samneric tells Ralph “You got to go because it’s not safe—” “—they made us. They hurt us—” “Who? Jack?” Jack now completely fallen into savagery, as he no longer holds respect for the rules of society.

Jack chose the path of the survival of the fittest, as he makes the weak suffer. The further the story develops, the further Jack causes the weak to suffer. As the end of the story Jack intentionally attempts to take Ralph’s life, a man he previously

worked together for the group’s rescue and survival.