In dire situations, people change for better or for worse. As stated in chapter 3, Jack said “I thought I might kill.” He was trying to survive by killing a pig to eat and be energized. He soon became obsessed with the thought of taking lives, and his sanity slowly began to drain away. Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel by William Golding. It displays the realistic situation of a group of boys stranded on a desert island to embody abstract ideas about humans’ inherent savagery and the dangers of mob mentality and totalitarian leadership. Since Jack is motivated by killing the pig, his decision to prioritize hunting creates anarchy by the end of the book.
Jack was extremely motivated by the freedom of being stranded on an island to do whatever he wanted to whomever he wanted, whenever he wanted. When Jack chanted “Kill the Pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.” in chapter 4, this gave Jack’s inner evil a bit of a breakthrough after his first kill (Golding, 52). This quote shows that Jack is proving himself insane because his mental state of civilization is slowky deteriorating every moment of b eing on the island with the other boys. Upon his true evil being further revealed (the first kill), Jack becomes more violent. He demands that Roger “Sharpen a stick at both ends.” (Chapter 8, Golding). They were to mount the pig’s head and leave it as an offering to the beast. In the final chapter of Lord of the Flies, they sharpened another stick. As it isn’t directly stated, we can infer that they intended on mounting Ralph’s head on the stick as another offering to the beast. The previous quote proves Jack is innately an evil human. His mental state is declining, and he’s beginning to embrace it fully.
When Jack chooses to let his sinister side out, this leads to chaos and death among the group of boys. Jack begins to become impatient with the other boys as he’s losing his grip on reality. “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that!” (Golding, page 181) The quote was spoken after Piggy was murdered by a boulder. Jack was trying to make a terrifying point, using Piggy as a perfect example. The evidence previously provided supports the claim that Jack is undoubtedly evil. After killing Piggy with a boulder, Jack had made the point of the historic “Join or Die” concept of life. Before Piggy was murdered, he tried to reason with Jack. In chapter 11, Piggy said “Which is better- to have rules and agree? Or to hunt and kill?” Piggy tried keeping things calm among himself and the boys until his final moments on Earth. The textual evidence recently quoted shows that Jack spriraled everyone and everything out of control on the island into destruction. Moments before his death, Piggy tries to show Jack that violence is never the answer.
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Over time, Jack’s true colors came out for the world to see- both the good and bad sides of him. As soon as the boys crashed onto the island, Jack displayed a slight bit of inner evil. He was instantly inclined to leadership, and displayed a sliver of jealousy and evil as soon as Ralph was elected as leader. Jack openly expressed his slight rage, “I’m not going to play any longer. Not with you.” ( Golding, Chapter 8).When Jack expressed his emotions as Ralph was the new leader, this anger boiled up and carried itself all throughout the book. Jack’s anger made way for destruction and anarchy among the boys. The narrator of Lord of the Flies emphasized the change over time psychologically among the boys. “Piggy’s arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig’s after is has been killed.” (Golding, 165). This was after Jack killed Piggy. This instance marked the insanity Jack with-held on the island. The recently stated quote shows that over time, people can change for better or for worse. Jack changed for worse. He changed into a monster for everyone to watch in fear. The longer the boys were on the island, the more savage they all became.
Since Jack was motivated by killing the pig, his decision to prioritize hunting soon leads to total chaos on the island. In Lord of the Flies, Jack instilled rage and insanity into himself, letting his mental state of being civilized slowly crumble on the island. The book Lord of the Flies was published after World War II. The imminent fight for power between Ralph and Jack can easily be compared to Adolf Hitler. They both (Jack and Hitler) gained their power in the same way. They both gave people what they wanted, and that brought brief happiness among the people. In reality, Lord of the Flies could be compared to many real-world events and situations.
References
- Allegorical Novel: Lord of the Flies
- Shmoop: Lord of the Flies
- GradeSaver: Lord of the Flies
- Britannica: Lord of the Flies
- Lord
