Dewal Nath
Ms. Shah
English 8
5/12/17
Something which has no body, no soul, and no emotions can’t do anything, right? If used by the right person, something without a physical body or a brain can bring a civilization such as ours to its knees. Jack Merridew is the young, arrogant boy who stars as the antagonist in The Lord of the Flies. He feels the need to control and command everyone on the island. He shows that there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and that if you’re not careful you may become a weapon for other people. The book’s author, William Golding shows that a normal human being can change for the worse when put in situations such as this. Jack changes from a boy who wanted to help the group to a deceitful savage
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The beast was the perfect opportunity for Jack to turn the boys against Ralph and take over. In the start of the book Jack brushes off the idea of there being a beast or ghost on the island and at their assembly says, “Fear can’t hurt you any more than a dream” (Golding, 82). This line shows that he thinks they are overreacting and the beast is merely a dream. He is very dismissive of the thought that there is a beast on the island, but he doesn’t know that the beast, whether it’s real or not, would become his ally in the downfall of their group. When he says this line, he is met with disapproval and the littluns along with the few biguns who believe there is a beast disagree with him. He notices how deeply they believe in the beast or another presence being there on the island with them and takes advantage of that. After this scene, he changes and slowly starts fueling their fear. When the Lord of the Flies is talking to Simon he says, “We are going to have fun on this island! So don’t try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else” (Golding, 144). In this line, the Lord of the Flies tells Simon that the boys will have fun on the Island and the dark force which is the Lord of the Flies will have power over them. The Lord of the Flies says that Simon will never be able to stop him or the boys. What the Lord of the Flies said sounds very familiar to what Jack says. The Lord of the Flies and Jack seem to have the same intentions. Jack manages to convince the boys to side with him most of the time because Jack harnesses the influence and deceptiveness of the beast. The beast is the only way Jack can make people favor him and it’s the only way he can recruit people to his group. Throughout the story, we see Jack using hunting as an excuse, distraction, and a way to gain support. We see him using the beast to support his claim that
Our first aspect of Fear in the novel comes into play with the Beast. This fictional character becomes the center of the boys problems on the island and brings a long chaos and death. Simon is murdered due to the befuddlement of Simon being mistaken as the beast when in fact he was the jesus like figure and his death was a representation of sacrifice. The beast was not something tangible it was simply the boys because the beast was themselves. Our biggest demons in life rest within oneself, and on the island the beast was just a justification for the boys to blame their wrong doings on. William Golding refers to this using the role of simon by stating: “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are" (158)?
Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, has four very important dynamic characters. A dynamic character is a character that develops and grows during the course of the story. Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon are four dynamic characters in Lord of the Flies that adapt to their new lifestyles in different ways. Jack is a very important dynamic character in Lord of the Flies because he goes through the most changes during the novel. While on the island, Jack has many life experiences that change him forever. Jack never thought he would live his life the way he is living his life in the island. Jack’s authoritative figure, savage-like/instinctual behavior, and violence are three qualities that make Jack a dynamic character.
In Lord of the Flies, a group of boys are stranded on a deserted island. It starts out fine, until one of the boys, Jack, becomes jealous that he isn’t in charge. He forms a separate tribe. One night they start a war type of dance, chanting and screaming. They mistake Simon for the beast and kill him screaming “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Goulding 138) After the boys realize they had killed Simon, they realized that who else would give them hope that they could survive, and keep the peace around the island. After Simon died Jack started to gain more power, because Ralph had lost a valuable member of his
How Ralph and Jack Change William Golding wrote the story "Lord of the flies". It is about a large group of schoolboys whose plane has crashed. They get stranded on a desert island. The story is about their survival and how they run their everyday lives. The two main characters Jack and Ralph are both from upper class
William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The Flies’ tells the story of a group of English boys isolated on a desert island, left to attempt to retain civilisation. In the novel, Golding shows one of the boys, Jack, to change significantly. At the beginning of the book, Jack’s character desires power and although he does not immediately get it, he retains the values of civilized behaviour. However, as the story proceeds, his character becomes more savage, leaving behind the values of society. Jack uses fear of the beast to control the other boys and he changes to become the book’s representation of savagery, violence and domination. He is first taken over with an obsession to hunt, which leads to a change in his physical appearance This change of character is significant as he leads the other boys into savagery, representing Golding’s views of there being a bad and unforgiving nature to every human.
Jack Merridew is the devil-like figure in the story, Lord of the Flies. Jack is wicked in nature having no feelings for any living creature. His appearance and behavior intimidates the others from their first encounter. The leading savage, Jack leans more towards hunting and killing and is the main reason behind the splitting of the boys. It has been said that Jack represents the evilness of human nature; but in the end, Jack is almost a hero. With his totalitarian leadership, he was able to organize the group of boys into a useful and productive society
In the novel, Lord of the Flies, Jack is the character that experiences the most change. Jack begins the novel as a somewhat arrogant choirboy, who cries when he is not elected leader of the island. Jack is gradually transformed into a vicious killer who has no respect for human life. Through a series of stages, such as leading the choir, leading the hunting tribe, wearing the mask, killing Simon, separating from the group and intentionally killing Piggy, Jack degenerates from a normal, arrogant school boy into a savage beast.
Another of the most important symbols used to present the theme of the novel is the beast. In the imaginations of many of the boys, the beast is a tangible source of evil on the island. However, in reality, it represents the evil naturally present within everyone, which is causing life on the island to deteriorate. Simon begins to realize this even before his encounter with the Lord of the Flies, and during one argument over the existence of a beast, he attempts to share his insight with the others.
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Simon and Piggy are among a group of boys who become stranded on a deserted island. Left without any adults, the boys attempt to create an orderly society. However, as the novel progresses, the boys struggle to sustain civility. Slowly, Jack and his hunters begin to lose sight of being rescued and start to act more savagely, especially as fears about a beast on the island spread. As the conflict progresses, Jack and Ralph battle for power. The boys’ struggle with the physical obstacles of the island leads them to face a new unexpected challenge: human nature. One of the boys, Simon, soon discovers that the “beast” appears not to be something physical, but a flaw within all humans
In the book, Lord of the Flies, character Jack Merridew represents Id. From the beginning of the book, Jack has anger and savagery and also a slight childish character. One reason I think Jack is the Id is because he could care less about order or rules. For example in the novel Jack leaves the original group because he didn’t like the rules Ralph ordered. “He’s not a hunter. He’d never have got us meat. He isn’t a perfect and we don’t know anything about him. He just gives us orders and expects people to obey for nothing..” (Golding 126). Since Jack is the Id he comes with temper and wildness. All the other boys are younger and will tend to go with the person that seems more fun and where they will have to be less likely to follow rules.
As Jack hunts his “frustration seemed bolting and nearly mad” which shines in his slowly deranging eyes (Golding 67). In Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, stranded boys struggle to find order and civilization on an island with no other humans. After their plane crash lands, a few boys, such as Ralph and Piggy, are quick to set up standard rules. But, not everyone agrees that rules and rescue are what is most important. Jack, a boy who cares more about hunting, disrupts the goodness and order that remains in the boys. When a simulated hunting influenced and led by Jack goes awry, the boys kill Simon. The now deceased Simon is the purest and kindest of the boys. Jack leads the elimination of the only good left on their island. Whether it is his intention to kill him or not, Jack should be held responsible for Simon’s demise because he leads the group to kill him, regardless of his age.
Civilization is the force that keeps us all in line. We are taught from an early age that if we break a rule, we are punished. Why? Because that’s how society works. What would happen, though, if we took away society, civilization, and punishment. Would we keep up the rules that had been etched into us since birth and keep living in a civilized manner? In Lord of the Flies, Golding explores this scenario. In his opinion, a person would abandon all ideas of society and revert into a savage, relying on primal instincts to survive. The main character that goes through this is Jack. Throughout the book, Jack goes from being a civilized choir boy to a savage tyrant.
The most destructive force on the island is not a physical being, but rather a fear that lives within the boys. The three fears that were stated above, Jack’s fear of not being chief, Ralph’s fear of not surviving and the boys’ fear of the beast, has made the most impact in the book Lord of the Flies. Throughout the book, the boys have the power and the strength to overcome their fears and work together as a group but in the end, they choose not to by letting themselves accept their inner savageness. Fear is a very strong motivator, but it is up to the humans to use that for the benefit of others and themselves. Conclusively, it is either the fear controls the person or the person controls the fear.
On contrary from all the other boys on the island Simon, a Christ like figure in the novel, did not fear the ‘beastie’ or the unknown. “Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us” Simon explained. (p. 97) The fear of the unknown in the novel contributes to the boys’ terror of the beast, the beast is an imaginary figure which lays in all of the boys’ minds and haunts them. Golding uses the beast as a symbol of the evil that exists in every creature. "You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close close! I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are the way they are?" The sow head announced to Simon to be the “lord of the flies”. The “lord of the flies” is a figure of the devil, and brings out all the evil and fear in people. It wants you to fear it, but if you don’t believe in the “lord of the flies” nothing can happen to you. Therefore Simon didn’t fall into the trap, but the beast killed him, meaning the other boys on the island did. Simon discovered that the beast is in fact just a dead parachute man before he died and ran down to tell the boys about his finding. When Sim...
* Jack did not have the integrity to keep the Beast at bay. It slowly crept into him and later took full control once he put on the painted mask. He is the perpetrator of the two deaths that occur on the island and wishes to spend his time hunting (killing) instead of helping Ralph with being rescued.