Jack In Lord Of The Flies Essay

685 Words2 Pages

To begin, Jack’s role in the novel largely parallels that Cain’s in the Bible, suggesting the boys’ constant war with each other in reality personifies a war within themselves. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph, accompanied by Piggy, finds a conch lying on the beach. Intrigued, Ralph blows into it to summon the boys who survived the plane crash on the island to a meeting. Jack marches his choir to join Ralph on the platform, and the boys decide to vote in a chief. They dismiss Piggy because of his thick build, asthma, and glasses. Trying to decide between Ralph and Jack, the boys note “the most obvious leader was Jack. But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and...there …show more content…

Much like the reason the boys chose Ralph as chief, vague reasons and physical characteristics of the offerings decide the victor. In addition, both Jack and Cain begin to resent their opposite, both resulting in a series of events that end with each broken and despairing. Towards the end of the novel, Jack’s pernicious quest for power results in two separate groups of boys; the hunters, made up of the stronger “litt’uns” and older boys lead by Jack, and the fire-keepers, made up of the weak “litt’uns” as well as Samneric, Piggy, and Ralph, illustrating the enmity Jack and Ralph have towards each other.. Now with a majority to back him up, Jack brings his hunters to Castle Rock and instructs the boys to let no one in-especially Ralph- while he goes hunting. On the beach, Ralph’s group discusses how to get Piggy’s glasses, stolen the night before by the hunters, back as they are the only way the boys can make fire. Ralph adjudicates the tribe will go to Castle Rock to demand the glasses back, but Eric fearfully replies, “ ‘He'll be painted’ “, hiding behind a mask of paint that liberates Jack from shame or any unpleasant human emotion

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