Jack’s Personality in Lord of the Flies

In the story Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, published in 1954, there is a young man, named Jack. Jack is a that has crashed landed on a deserted island with other younger boys. Lord of the Flies takes place on an uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean. There are no older adults on the island to boss the kids around. there are much different symbolism the boy’s encounter while on there stay. for instance, Piggy’s glasses to create fire, pigs head (Lord of the flies), and the conch.

While these are big factors of the novel, Jack is also a major one.

At the start of the book, Jack is still trying to be civilized and wants to create rules. “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything.” Jake states in chapter 2.Then Jack begins to change slowly and develops a crazy and violent side. We see this when his hunting job starts to take over his mind and we are told Jack had a “compulsion to track down and kill things that were swallowing him up”. The word ‘compulsion’ suggests that this feeling is not something Jack has any control over. Throughout the novel, Jake kept getting more violent and his innocence was lost.

When Jack decided not to kill the pig in chapter 1 page 15 it made him more spontaneous for him or a crazy addiction to killing it next time he sees it. This is backed up by the idea that this feeling/action was ‘swallowing’ him up, it was a feeling or thought that was taking over his life. There’s a possibility that Jack became so obsessed as he felt like a failure and less masculine for failing to kill the pig in the first place and now wants to kill one to prove he is a man and he is the right person to become chief. In chapter 1 and going to chapter 2 pages 15 and 16, jack keeps saying that next time he is going to see the pig he is going to spill his blood and eat its meat. This makes Jack fascinating as it is difficult to understand how someone would want to kill something or be so infatuate on that unless he was going crazy in some type of way.

Jack’s first interaction with the other boys on the island is as leader of the choir and a boy that wants to be the leader of the boys. He maintains control of that same group of boys for most of the book, transforming them into hunters and killers. Jack mocks the use of first names, insisting he is called “Merridew” in chapter 1 on page 9, but it does not stick. Also In chapter 2 of Lord of the Flies, Jack’s true domineering nature starts to emerge, along with all his arrogance and desire for control. Piggy and Ralph are making strong efforts to establish a rules-based system of order, but Jack is not remotely interested. It’s obvious from the actions that he wants to be in sole charge of the other boys. From the start, he actively tries to undermine Ralph’s authority by interrupting his speeches in front of the other boys even tho he has the conch.

One of Jack’s most significant actions toward the beginning of the novel is his insistence on being in charge of the hunters. He decides to volunteer to maintain the signal fire on the top of the mountain. Jack does finally manage to kill a pig but all this seems to do is make him madder and dreadful. He leads a group of boys after they kill the pig and starts a war dance around the carcass chanting “Kill the pig, cut her throat, spill the blood” in chapter 9 page 84 and 84. This is quite a disturbing scene, the boys appear far too young for such crazy actions, they look like barbarians. The chant shows how savage they have become under Jack’s instructions. The words ‘cut’ and ‘spill’ are quite visceral and forceful and the boys are acting far more maturely and savagely than we’d expect them to. Then right after Jack takes is painting his face. The act of face painting is symbolic for the hunters, as it allows them to liberate themselves and rapidly descend into savagery. Also, a major point was when Ralph and Jack engage in a fight which neither wins before Piggy tries once more to address the tribe. Any sense of order or safety is permanently eroded when Roger, now sadistic, deliberately drops a boulder from his vantage point above, killing Piggy.

Jack is described by Golding as “tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness. Out of this face stared two light blue eyes, frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn, to anger.”Jack is the leading advocate of anarchy on the island. Jack is the leader of the savage tribe which hunts the pigs. Opposed to Ralph and Piggy on almost all matters, Jack represents the id of one’s personality— he supports the notion that one’s desires are most important and should be followed, regardless of reason or morals..Jack is charismatic and inclined to leadership. Unlike Ralph, he gets off on power and abuses his position above others—so, he’s basically an ’80s teen villain.

In a nutshell, Golding creates a fascinating character in Jack by making his personality develop from a reasonably pleasant boy to one who begins to challenge authority and eventually become the authority on the island. Jake has been a whole charter through the novel.

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