Jack is a young boy with many faults, he is power hungry and quick to jealousy. He is responsible for many deaths, and was irresponsible when taking account of the needs of others. Although he has these many shortcomings, he was able to successfully lead the group of boys and gather food that was much needed for their survival. Jack is first introduced in William Goulding’s Lord ofthe Flies, when the main character, Ralph, blows into the conch shell to summon the survivors from the wreckage. He is described as a “tall, thin, and bony; and his hair was red beneath his black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness” (17). His first impression was that of a power hungry foreigner, and therefore, he was shunned by the boys because of theirjudgmental ways. This is the start of a series of events that started the downward spiral for Jack, who is misunderstood by others, and by himself.
Throughout the book, Jack is constantly having his authority and power stolen from him, such as when Ralph is elected as Chief. “Jack’s face disappeared under a blush of mortification. He started up, then changed his mind and sat down again while the air rang”, Jack feels a sense of complete loss. He has had all of his power and status taken from him in an instant. Jack begins of associate Ralph with evil, and gains an understanding of how when one want something, they can just take it, and wield it how they want, “Against his weapon, so indefinable and so effective, Jack was powerless and raged without knowing why” This weapon is Ralph’s power over Jack. This is the beginning of the downward spiral for Jack. He gains his sense of new political standards and feels the need to exercise them with what little power he has left.
So he does what any child would do, he tries to get his own group, just like Ralph, and rules over it with so that he can have a sense of accomplishment from beating Ralph. Jack did not come to the island barbaric, but rather the actions that occurred on the island caused him to leave in a different way. When Ralph creates the island, he assigns everyone tasks to help benefit the greater good of the group of boys. Eventually, as we see in chapter four, most of the children have abandoned these jobs because they are getting no immediate sense of satisfaction. They are so young and underdeveloped, that they do not have the capability to continue working on strenuous tasks for long periods of time. Most of the children are not reprimanded for abandoning their tasks, but Jack is treated differently when he chooses to leave his task to have fun and hunt, Ralph speaks to him in a tone that none of the other children are ever scolded with when they leave their job.
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“You let the fire go out. This repetition made Jack uneasy”. This is the reason Jack is angered by Ralph, he feels like Ralph is abusing his power as chief, and using it to attack and hurt him. Jack attempts to right his wrongs by rebuilding the fire, but Ralph is not forgiving as seen in this quote “Ralph‘s final word was an ungracious mutter. All right, Light the fire”, Jack feels that everyone else is being a hypocrite for yelling at him for leaving his job, when they had already left theirs. This decreases his morale and trust for the other boys, and sends him further down his spiral to becoming a barbaric ruler. All of these actions that were carried out against Jack, either purposefully of un» purposefully, pushed him father and farther into his head, wondering what he did to deserve this treatment from the other boys. Ralph begins to dislike the choir for having fun.
The other boys blame him for letting the fire go out Jack senses that his image is being ruined, so he tries to create a new one, as seen in chapter four. He paints his face, and becomes Jack the savage. He tries to redeem himself by hunting and providing for the rest of the group of boys, but when he tries to do this, he is shunned by Ralph another matter, Jack is overcome with the sense that Ralph is against him, and is trying to take all the power for himself. This is what pushes Jack down his final step of the spiral, and causes him to become a savage in order to receive the power that he feels that he deserves.
Overall, Ralph is instant, and the reason he becomes a savage by the end of the book is because of the way he has been treated throughout his stay on the island. He has been disrespected, ignored, pushed aside, and he has never been thanked for the good he has tried to being to the boys group He is always seen as a threat, and none of the boys respect him for who he is, which causes him to make the boys respect him out of fear for their lives. His reactions to the problems he faced changed his character from a normal boy, to a raging savage in the forest, Ralph may have come into the island a normal boy, but as he left the island, his innocence has been taken from him by the other boys, and by himself.
