Jack Lord Of The Flies Character Analysis

The boys live a new life without adults and social norms. Roles in their makeshift society have been carried out but Jack’s self-imposed responsibility only aims to fulfill his personal agenda. Jack’s fervent character is aggressiveness masquerading as passion. This destructive behavior sends Jack to a faster decline to savagery in relation to his peers.

(*) Jack is a natural leader. He has a domineering, almost authoritarian approach to his leadership. In their first appearance in the book, the choir was a “sweaty march” (p.16) in “two parallel lines” (p.16). He was considered as “the most obvious leader” (p.17) but his “wearily obedient” (p.17) choir may suggest they followed him out of fear rather than respect for his headship. Jack claims he “ought to be chief” (p.19) just because he was a leader in the past.

He knows his power and he isn’t afraid to wield and brandish it. Even the boys outside of his singing chorale were aware or at least had an inkling of Jack’s capabilities. In the eyes of Ralph, Jack “knew his own mind” (p.18) and therefore doesn’t seem to be the type to follow rules. This would explain why Jack “cried excitedly” (p.33) about establishing rules; doing so would most likely catapult him into more opportunities to exercise power and assert his role as a leader.

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However, as shown in the chief election, Jack was distinctly a leader but he lacked the charisma, the “stillness… that marked him out” (p.19) and the tangible proof of power that Ralph had. The next best thing Jack had to being chief was the head of his choir, who were now hunters. Jack initiating himself as a hunter however, will only develop and open pathways to be more cunning, aggressive and violent. Coupled with his compulsive desire for power, his descent to savagery is faster because he only recognizes authority and power served by his own hands and he would stop at nothing to achieve