Corruption In Lord Of The Flies Essay

604 Words2 Pages

Without social constraints, Jack, the leader of the choir and hunters, quickly descends into corruption. When the boys first arrive on the island it is decided that Jack, Simon, and Ralph are to explore the island and to scope it out. As the three are marching through the jungle, they hear the the squeaking of a piglet. Just as Jack raises his arm to plunge his knife into the pig. Jack hesitated, “He raised his arm in the air. There came a pause, a hiatus, the pig continued to scream and the creepers to jerk, an the blade continued to flash at the end of a bony arm...The knew very well why he hadn’t: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into a living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (Golding 31). When Jack “pauses” before killing the …show more content…

Jack knows that to kill a defenseless piglet is not acceptably by social standards. The “enormity of the knife” is so daunting to Jack and he fears killing the pig. The “unbearable blood” of the pig puts terror into the heart of Jack. The thought of slashing into the flesh of a helpless animal and having it’s blood on his hands terrifies Jack. He is not yet the monster that he evolves to be when he later detaches himself from civilization and order. In a short amount of time, without the constraints of society, Jack went from fearing to kill a pig to not thinking twice about the act of murder. As the boys go with Jack to hunt, they come across a defenseless sow with piglets. They pursued her through the jungle until at last, the sow could no longer go on. The boys proceed to murdering her, “Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife...Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands” (Golding 135). When Jack is “on top” of the sow it is described as a man raping a women. The sow was helpless and unable to defend herself to stop Jack’s actions. This is what takes place when a person is being

Show More
Related

  • How Does Power Corrupt In Lord Of The Flies

    260 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Lord of the Flies the moral is teaching you that man can go mad no matter what age. The kids start trying to build a society after they crashed landed on an island. The way they choose their leader doomed them from the start, Ralph finds a shell and declares him the ruler. There’s a famous saying, “power makes man corrupt.” This holds true in this story. After arguments with other people in the tribe about his ruling situation a sort of revolution erupts. This leads to the boys going back to the savage days of survival-of-the-fittest. The ones with most power start taking in kids as slaves showing how getting the advantage of power made them enslave their own friends. The story isn’t set back in the 1800s either when slavery was tolerated,

    Read More

  • How Does Jack Change In Lord Of The Flies

    1303 Words  | 3 Pages

    “I’m not going to play any longer. Not with you.” (127). Jack leaves Ralph’s tribe because Ralph is a coward and he makes the rules. Jack’s leadership qualities comes back with a force and he makes his own tribe. Jack does like anyone telling him what to do and he is frustrated because of Ralph taking over him. Another reason to make his own tribe is that Ralph does not appreciate Jack hunting and he accuses him to let the fire out. His leadership skills become stronger but in a negative way. His behavior has changed because of hunting and by spending time on the island. Jack has become a sociopath. Even his hunting style has become more violent. After hunting a sow, he tortures the pig physically until the pig has a painful death. He also cuts the throat of the pig and places the head on the stick as a sacrifice. This action shows psychopathic tendency and how he was not able to kill the pig in his first attempt in hunting and now he abuses the pig and sacrifices the head. “He squirmed and looked down.”(160). When Stanley, a member of Jack’s tribe asks Jack about the death of Simon, Jack replies him by nervously saying no. This response by Jack portrays that Jack is trying to tell himself that he his not responsible for his own actions. During Simon’s murder, Jack was wearing a mask on his face and that makes him not responsible for Simon’s murder. During the end of the novel, Jack starts wearing his mask all the time because he does not want to be responsible for his own actions. ““He’s going to beat Wilfred.” “what for?” Robert shook his head doubtfully. “I don’t know. He didn’t say. He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up. He’s been”-he giggled excitedly-”he’s been tied for hours, waiting-”” (159). This quote from the novel clearly shows how Jack has been treating his tribe members. He is beating them for no reason by tieing them up for hours. Jack shows no emotion and he has become cold blooded. The

    Read More

  • Lord Of The Flies Jack Bully

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    The portrayal of the pig demonstrates his rationality of being a chaotic savage. He tends to cover up his actions with reasoning that only deems to be true through the eyes of insanity. “He rubbed the charcoal stick between the patches of red and white on his face [...] A rounded patch of sunlight fell on his face and a brightness appeared in the depths of the water. He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger. He split the water and leapt to his feet, laughing excitedly.”(Golding 63). There is no room for civilization on the island, and Jack takes advantage of this opportunity. Jack, compels himself to distance himself from social normalities through the exterior of the world. The paint on Jack’s face represents his cover up to society and to make himself believe that he is doing the right thing. Consequently speaking, Jack desperately desires confirmation of his actions from one of his peers. However, none of his peers condone of these certain actions, so, he relies on the tangible aspects of life to give him a sense of comfortability. “All that makes sense to him is his own need to control others and impose himself, and hunting, because it is a kind of power assertion” (Lord of the Flies, Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations). On the island, Jack’s role is the leader of the hunting party. Although, this seems

    Read More

  • Cruelty And Violence In Lord Of The Flies Essay

    1055 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imagine flying on a plane and crash landing on an unknown island with a select group of people. How would humans deal as a result of this horrific situation? Is cruelty and violence the only solution when it comes down to it? In Lord of the Flies, William Golding explores the relationship between children in a similar conflict and shows how savagery takes over civilization. Lord of the Flies proves to show that the natural human instincts of cruelty and savagery will take over instead of logic and reasoning. William shows how Jack, the perpetrator in the book, uses cruelty and fear for social and political gain to ultimately take over, while on the other hand shows how Ralph falters and loses power without using cruelty and fear. In Lord of

    Read More

  • Ecstatism In Lord Of The Flies

    179 Words  | 1 Pages

    Jack’s totalitarian ideals meant that due to his wild rampage of death and destruction, his bloodlust made him descend into savagery. His eventual fall into savagery begins with the sighting of a wild pig. He is fascinated but cannot bring himself to kill it due to “the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood”. This shows his innocence at the start of the novel, but his lust for blood soon overcomes the battle against his inner self. “He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.” When he first killed the pig, Jack is ecstatic. Killing becomes an obsession to him. “His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them

    Read More

  • Lord Of The Flies Literary Analysis Essay

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been stranded alone together on an island with no adults. During the novel the diverse group of boys struggle to create structure within a society that they constructed by themselves. Golding uses many unique literary devices including characterization, imagery, symbolism and many more. The three main characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are each representative of the three main literary devices, ethos, logos, and pathos. Beyond the characterization the novel stands out because of Golding’s dramatic use of objective symbolism, throughout the novel he uses symbols like the conch, fire, and Piggy’s glasses to represent how power has evolved and to show how civilized or uncivilized the boys are acting. It is almost inarguable that the entire novel is one big allegory in itself, the way that Golding portrays the development of savagery among the boys is a clear representation of how society was changing during the time the novel was published. Golding is writing during

    Read More

  • Deviance In Lord Of The Flies

    297 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the film Lord of The Flies, after a plane crash the survivors found themselves living on a deserted island which brought out certain societal norms with deviant behaviors formed in the different groups of the adolescents. Deviance is something different from what is considered to be normal or morally correct. The societal norms of the island were maintaining the same appearance and also having an aggressive attitude. Furthermore, there was more of a focus on long term survival as opposed to getting rescued. The societal norms started when, the hunters came back from a successful hunt bringing a dead pig to dinner. Once they arrived, they smacked Piggy in the head and broke a lens on his glasses. The reasoning behind this was, he was considered deviant from their group because he was not like them. He was not like them because of his physical appearance.

    Read More

  • Jack's Power In Lord Of The Flies

    457 Words  | 1 Pages

    This sadistic nature is shown in the chant the savage tribe made “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.”, this chant is obviously one of a senseless hunter why has lost touch with the miracle of life itself, or when “Jack held up the head [of a dead pig] and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end of the stick”, this action can be viewed as a sadistic sacrifice. (Lowry 69/136) This borderline satanic act that Jack commits can give the reader some insight on how deeply sadistic Jack actually

    Read More

  • Corruption In Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

    1667 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us” (Golding 80). Referencing the savagery of human nature, this statement is one with great accuracy. While reading Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, many themes and problems presented themselves. The book really highlighted the use of power, and the types of people using it. People in society, whether they want power or not, can use their authority without the best intentions, corrupting themselves and others into inhumanity. For example, Jack uses his urge for authority, and eventually his control, to create an extremely savage tribe of boys, by pushing his own wants and laws onto them. This type of power can demoralize many people, including the ultimate

    Read More

  • Lord of the Flies essay

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jack fails to realize that the boys need security, stability, and order on the island Jack was a leader of the choir before the boys landed on the island. These boys, who were in the choir, still want to follow Jack; however, they have no discipline at all. The only thing that is on Jack’s mind is hunting. He doesn’t care about anything else, except capturing and kill the pigs for some food.

    Read More

  • Jack Merridew's Decline in Lord of the Flies

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the beginning of the book a plane crashes onto an island and the only survivors are a group of boys in a school choir. Enter Jack: the leader of a small group of choir boys. They call a meeting and decide how things will be run and decide on the rules. Jack seems for them, saying “We’ll have rules!...Lots of rules and then when anyone breaks ‘em-“(33). They then vote on a leader. The candidates are Jack and Ralph, and Ralph won. Although he isn’t happy about it, Jack accepts his loss, and decides to try his hand at exploring. While exploring with Ralph and Simon, Jack comes across a wild pig. He draws his knife in order to kill it but finds that he can’t. Something deep inside him says that it’s wrong to kill, “They knew very well why he hadn’t: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh, because of the unbearable blood”. In his moment of hesitation the pig runs off, and he puts away the knife. Civilization won this time.

    Read More

  • The Lack Of Society In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jack and his hunting boys went off to try and kill a pig, and successfully did so. As Roger violently killed the pig, the blood poured all over Jack’s hands. Jack then “giggled and flicked them while the boys laughed at his reeking palms” (Golding 195). Jack enjoyed playing in the blood of the pig that he and the boys slayed. This shows how quickly Jack changed from a young, polite boy to a violent and sadistic savage. After Robert was used as a pig in the boys’ game of hunting, the boys thought that the game was extremely enjoyable and that they would do it again. After Robert was seriously injured, he says to the boys, “‘You want a real pig because you’ve got to kill him.’ ‘Use a littlun,’ said Jack, and everybody laughed” (Golding 165). In other words, Jack suggests that they should literally kill a littlun so that the boys can reenact what happened when they killed a pig. Before, Jack could not bring himself to even kill a pig. But after staying on the island, he was able to not only kill a pig, but he also even suggested on killing an innocent child for

    Read More

  • Lord Of The Flies; An Attempt To Trace The Defects Of Human Nature

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    As the story progresses it shows how the boys change from disciplined school boys to savages. Jack is the first to show the transition. When Jack, Simon and Ralph go exploring for the first time, they come across a piglet caught in a curtain of creepers. Jack couldn't kill it "because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood (31)." From that moment on, Jack felt he needed to prove to himself to the others that he's strong, brave and isn't afraid to kill. When Jack says, "Next Time…(31)" it's foreshadowing his future of savage hunting.

    Read More

  • 'Lord Of The Flies' By William Golding: Character Analysis

    518 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jack finds a pig while hunting, yet he cannot kill it, his reason being, “because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (31). Because of the strictly regulated society Jack has grown up in, he finds it disturbing to kill an animal, even if he must do it to have food. Later in the story, changes can be seen in the boys from when they first arrived on the island. During an assembly, the boys discuss how to track the “beast” living on the island, and Jack speaks without holding the conch. After being reprimanded for that he says, “Conch! Conch!...We don't need the conch anymore… It's time some people knew they've got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us” (101). Jack’s disregard for the conch shows his growing distaste for laws and civilization. He also challenges Ralph's authority by implying he should be in charge of decisions taken for the group. After some time, Ralph is only left with Piggy, Samneric, and some littluns on his side of the island. These boys realize everyone else has become savage.

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues In Lord Of The Flies

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    Experiments are like a vehicle's engine, if you push it to the limit it will blow up in your face. Psychological state of minds set foot to explore the capability that our wondrous minds produce. I will provide the information needed so a person like yourself can conduct a stable opinion and belief around these experiments, therefore answering the perceptible question of it being ethical or unethical. Similarities are brought to someone's mind when talking about ethical and unethical ways of being. Experiments like these are about surviving with the darkness that the heart and mind manufacture. I believe these experiments will show the side of our psychological ways.

    Read More

More about Corruption In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Open Document