Characters in different works of literature are placed in situations that bring out their true nature. Sometimes, being thrown into these scenarios, reveals a character's flaws. Two characters, Maria and Jack, become mentally unstable because of the positions that they find themselves in. Life-changing situations cause them both to lose their sanity.
In the story, “I Only Came to Use the Phone,” Maria is left alone in a sanatorium and reveals her weak and fragile mental state. This uncovers Maria's fatal flaw that will lead to her downfall. She becomes “crazy” because she never had much self-esteem. She has a problem settling down because she was married three times. This commitment issue greatly weakens her because of her many breakups. Finally, she marries a magician named Saturno who loves her more than anything. She changes when she is with Saturno. Maria quotes Vinicius de Moraes when asked by Saturno how long she will love him: “Love is eternal for as long as it lasts”(Marquez 80). When Maria becomes trapped in the mental asylum, she loses the steady presence of the man she loves. This breaks through her newly built self-esteem and leads to the demise of her mental health. When she is first in the sanatorium, Maria constantly asks, “Is there a telephone?”(Marquez 72). She is desperate to hold on to the life she had with him. Since the matrons of the sanatorium will not let her contact her husband, the bond that she has found with him is disconnected. She has only herself on whom to rely. The other inmates are completely insane and are useless to aid her in her escape. Maria is not strong enough to leave herself. When the doctor tells her that she is not able to call or leave because she is insane, sh...
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...and eventually hunts Ralph. This demonstrates the demise of innocence of Jack and his insanity begins to show as he kills the pig and dances around in a sort of victory dance. He no longer has any feelings for killing creatures. As he becomes more deranged, he becomes obsessed with blood. “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in.”(Golding 75). He constantly reenacts the scene. This madness takes over and Jack is no longer the innocent youth that he used to be.
Jack and Maria's lives are both changed in very drastic ways when they are thrown into new environments. Maria is trapped in an insane asylum when the secure life she finally had is threatened. Jack's island imprisonment has reduced him to a savage in his want for power. Both try to cope with their new surroundings, but the flaws already present in their character, have been brought to light.
Ralph joins Jack and the hunters in the hunt for the pig and gets caught up in the excitement of the kill. Prior to this, Ralph has been the voice of reason and common sense on the island. Now, he has let his urge to kill take over, and he is obviously excited and enjoying it.
The first impression of Jack suggests that he will be a power-hungry leader who wants to prove to the other kids that he can be a leader. After Jack’s failed attempt to kill the pig “He snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into the tree trunk. Next time there would be no mercy” (31). When Jack “snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into the tree trunk” was the release of his inner savage and anger when he didn’t kill the pig. The line “next
This is evident when Jack wants to put people in punishment if somebody breaks the rules (32). His desire to punish people shows his love of power and dominance. It also reveals that Jack could have been like one of the ambitious leaders in the past history. Another sign of becoming a savage in the society is showing an act of disrespectful to another neighbour, including Piggy. This reveals when Jack mocks Piggy by telling him, “Shut up, Fatty” (17). It also happens when Piggy condemns Jack for “[letting] the fire out”, although Jack makes a promise to “keep the smoke going” (75). However, he became so violent, so angry that he “smacked Piggy’s head” (75). Some of the uncivilized members of the society use their selfish desires, which is not aiming for the common good. For instance, Jack tells Ralph that he successfully “cut the pig’s throat” (73). He said, “There was lashing of blood…you should have seen it!” (73). This suggests that Jack is more concern about hunting rather than getting rescued. Jack, as a savage, uses his ambitious power to put people in punishment, his rude attitude to hurt people, and his way to care more about himself than others. This character greatly exemplifies a savage in the society, but another important symbol that makes a novel an allegory is the
Jack’s loss of innocence to savagery articulates the beginning of the breakdown of civilization. His subsequent fall into ruthlessness is established when he first spots a pig. Thought his first instinct is to draw his knife, he is unable to continue because of “the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood”. This displays the innocence that once existed in Jack. This shows that Jack is civilized enough to be unable to harm the pig. However, after returning from their successful hunt, Jack and the boys chant, "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.” With his first butcher, Jack is trapped. Abruptly, the act of killing soon becomes an obsession and ulti...
When first arriving on the island, Jack seems like the typical twelve year old boy, until he is faced with the challenge of killing a pig. After he spares the pig, he becomes obsessed with going through with killing the pig next time so much so that it often puts the rest of the boys in danger. Jack slowly starts to become a symbol for violence. “You should have seen the blood.”(Page 70) Jack boasts about his successful attempt at finally killing the pig later in the book. After this incident, Jack appears more blood thirsty and savage as he slowly starts to take the role of an antagonist in the
This showed the connection he had to society, and the good he still had inside. Stated in the novel not long after, “The spear moved forward inch by inch and the terrified squealing became a high-pitched scream. Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands.” This shows how Jack lost a part of his innocence by thriving off of the thrill and rush he gets when he is in control of the pig’s life and choosing to end it’s life with pure enjoyment. When Jack starts to put paint on his face he is washing away his old self and developing a different personality. This is shown when the text states, “He looked in the pool for his reflection, but his breathing troubled the mirror” This excerpt clearly shows Jack is losing all the civilization in him when he puts the mask on because he is covering up his humanity and becoming a
One of the many ways that Jack experienced loss of innocence was when he turned to savagery. Jack and his tribe of hunters go to the woods to try to kill a pig to provide food for the tribe. They get back to their camp with a pig, and Jack says,”There were lashings of blood, said Jack, laughing and shuddering, you should have seen it!”(69). Jack is laughing about the pig and how they brutally killed it to Ralph and Piggy. Jack laughing about this inhumane act just shows that he doesn’t care about the lives of the animals, or even anyone else on the island, he just wants to hunt. Later in the novel, all the hunters got into a circle and was pretending to stab Robert. Robert pretends to be a pig, but everyone gets carried away and started to
In the beginning Jack couldn’t bear to kill the living piglet. At his first encounter with the one, he held his knife up, ready to stab it, then lingered. “They knew very well why he hadn’t: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into the living flesh; because of the unbearable blood.” (31). At this point in the story, they were still young boys; they did not have it in them to kill the pigs. Even the idea of being responsible for the death of a living, breathing life-form caused them shudder. As we find later in the book, an extreme opposite occurs. As a boat goes by and Ralph goes up the mountain to check on their signal fire, Jack comes back with his hunters and a dead pig. They chant and dance around it as Jack tells Ralph the exciting details of their kill. “‘There were lashings of blood.’ said Jack, laughing and shuddering in excitement ‘You should have seen it!’” (69). The contrasting attitude of Jack and the hunters shows a dramatic change in their
At this point in the novel, Jack still maintains most his humanity as he is too frightened to kill the pig. As his previous society condemned violence, Jack clings to its norms like a baby. With humanity still inside him, Jack is deeply haunted by the idea of massacring the swine for food. Yet, his mercy doesn’t last very long. Later, he tries to explain why he was out hunting so late: “‘I went on. I thought, by myself—’The madness [comes] into his eyes again. ‘I thought I might kill.’”(51). As Jack is getting closer and closer to killing a pig, he is slowly getting closer to losing all his humanity. Soon, all he can think about is being able to kill that pig; not for meat, but for the joy of the slaughter. Later in the chapter, Jack makes himself a mask to camouflage himself when hunting. However, it is clear that the only thing Jack is trying to camouflage is his true self: “He [begins] to dance and his laughter [becomes] a bloodthirsty snarling. He [capers] toward Bill, and the mask [is] a thing of its own, behind which Jack [hides], liberated from shame
Jack only cares about hunting and having fun. Hunting and having fun are two human instincts that everyone has. This attracts many boys to his tribe, but after a short period of time, the boys descend into savagery because they do not have the social stability that Ralph creates at his tribe. Ralph often grows impatient with Jack because all Jack cares about is hunting. Jack becomes so focused on killing a pig that it is all he can talk about. Ralph and Jack are having a conversation about building shelters when Jack completely misinterprets what Ralph is saying and thinks he is talking about killing a pig. Ralph says to Jack, “‘I was talking about smoke! Don’t you want to be rescued? All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!’ ‘But we want meat!’” This quote clearly deciphers that Jack cannot even focus on a simple
All three of these stories deal with characters who are tragically doomed to the routine of their lives. James Joyce uses different themes and motifs to connect these characters to one another, and all three have epiphanies, which are more forlorn than anything else.
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.
Ashamed of his mercy towards the animal, Jack “[snatches] his knife [and slams] it into a tree trunk” (pg. 31). His physical expression of embarrassment is a manifestation of his superiority complex; unable fulfill his duty as hunter or secure the position of chief, his bloodlust only deepens. With such a great desire to prove himself, Jack becomes evermore barbaric upon sampling the taste of control. As time progresses, Jack is adamant in pursuing the hunt despite opposition from Ralph. With no true concern for community, he justifies his bloodlust by claiming it for the good of the group: “We want meat ––” (pg. 51). Unlike Ralph who advocates building shelters, Jack has an overpowering desire to gratify his instincts and ego. This undermines his
While Jack and Ralph are exploring the island, they encounter a piglet which Jack supposedly attempts to kill. After gaining the courage to kill the baby pig, Jack rectifies the situation by saying "I was just waiting for a moment to decide where to stab him (Golding 31)." This event clearly illustrates that along with inherent evil, "man is [also] capable of being good and kind, and has to choice and free will to choose which one he will become."(Ridley 97) Jack's mercy is short-lived, however, and when they encounter another pig, Jack and his hunters are relentless.
to start off, the author uses the theme loss of innocence to develop the characters change to losing their innocence , from being good and educated children to savage boys on the island. One of the main characters to have lost their innocence is Jack. Jack loses his innocence when he kills a pig for the first time. This shows that he is no longer civilized and is moving towards savagery. This is the first time he's ever killed a pig, which now gives him the power that comes from the killing, to further more kill, without feeling the guilt of taking away a innocent life. As the novel progresses, he now wants to kill more than he needs to satisfy his grieve to kill or spill blood, contrast to before when he wasn't able to kill because of his