Jack Merridew Character Analysis

Jack kills Piggy and breaks the conch “The breaking of the conch and the deaths of Piggy and

In our society we have our system for power set up making the understanding of who is in charge easy; However, when the boys are stranded on an island they are forced to come up with their own system, causing rivalries and corrupting rights and values. Before being stranded on an island Jack was an innocent, well-behaved child, however, when thrown into a foreign place with no society and no system of power it is very easy to destroy all of your innocence when obtaining most power. Jack was a hunter and was in charge of all the hunter, he eventually made his own tribe and almost everyone followed him, giving him a mass amount of control. Golding shows that Jack uses his power in ways only beneficial to him, easily seen when the remainder of Ralphs tribe approach Jacks and see him, “ painted up and wearing garland around his neck” (54). Jack uses his power to idolize himself and make the other

Shortly after Jack’s rebellion and the forming of a new tribe, his violence transitions from insults to murder. Instantly, After the death and murder of Piggy and the destruction of the conch, Jack tells Ralph, “there isn’t a tribe for [him] any more” and proceeds to claim that “[he’s] chief”. Jack’s reaction to another individual's deaths shows the evil that resides within him as he no longer cares about human life, only power. He wanted to break the conch, because that’s what inforced the rules and was like magnet pulling the boys to Ralph’s tribe. Jack would do anything to get rid of it, even at the life of another. Piggy’s death signified the things Jack

He often compares Piggy to pigs and tells everyone how irrelevant and silly he is. When Piggy gets the conch and tells how he has a right to speak just like everyone, Jack shuts him up with rude comments about his intelligence and appearance. As a result, he punches Piggy leading to the fall and break of his glasses. ‘You would, would you? Fatty! … He went crouching and feeling over the rocks but Simon, who got there first, found them for him. Passions beat about Simon on the mountaintop with awful wings.” [Page: 75] Jack snatches the conch from Piggy and starts to talk about his own ideas and opinions to the assembly. When Piggy finds Ralph alone, he explains how he thinks Jack doesn’t like him. He says how he spends most of his time thinking about it. As Jack respects Ralph and his ideas as a chief, he won’t hurt him. They also understand each other and appreciate their ideas and help. However, certain times, Jack hates Ralph too when he listens to Piggy’s ideas and try to follow according to it. Once if Ralph is out of Jack’s way, the next person he will want to kill is Piggy. “He [Jack] hates me. I dunno why. If he could do what he wanted-you’re all right, he respects you. Besides-you’d hit him…. ‘I been in bed so much I

Many of the boys as it has been told have lost their morals as well as some of the boys try to maintain who they were before. How Piggy and Jack have changed throughout the novel will be discussed. Piggy announced, “‘I got this to say. acting like a crowd of kids.’ The booing rose and died again as Piggy lifted the white, magic shell” (Golding 180). Piggy was so attached to his auntie at the beginning of the novel that he would think about what she had told him and what she would expect. Now, Piggy wants to be respected and state his ideas without knowing what his auntie would say. Now, it is time to discuss and recognize the ways that Jack has changed, even though he sticks with some of his qualities there is also a major change throughout the novel. Jack stated, ‘“All the same you need an army一for hunting. Hunting pigs一”’(Golding 32). When Jack is first introduced to us he is leading a group of choirboys but as the novel progresses, he refers to himself as a hunter but is still looking to be given leadership and power. Some of the boys have changed drastically while others have changed in the simplest of ways, Piggy has definitely lost his innocence that he carried through the beginning while Jack maintained his drive for leadership but has also gone from a choir leader to a hunter.

Piggy has an external conflict with jack in the novel. Jack is bully’s piggy; therefore, piggy has a controversy standing up for something’s he would like to say. For example, piggy states “ I

The thing is, the situation the boys are in is a life or death situation and it seems that only Ralph and Piggy are the ones that realize this. When jack left the group the rest of his understanding of survival where all lost except for hunting . Throughout, the story Jack becomes more and more power hungry, but now that he has gone wicked all he can think about is revenge toward his rival leader Ralph. “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—”(Golding, 159). From killing other striving animals, physically hurting piggy, and to tieing up wilfred to beat him. Jack is wicked in every way shape or form. Jack took advantage of his new position as leader on his group and went bloodthirsty. Then the monstrous red thing bounded across the neck and he flung himself flat while the tribe shrieked. The rock struck piggy a glancing blow from the chin the the knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt, traveled through the air sideways from the rock, turning over as he went (jack signals the boys to roll the boulder to go pummel the boys and ends up killing piggy) (Golding, 181).

Jack Merridew is a character in Lord of the Flies who always fights against Ralph about who should be in charge. Jack is described as a tall, thin, ugly boy with light blue eyes that seem to turn angry at any moment. When Ralph first sees Jack, he also notices a group of choir boys behind him. Jack is the leader of the choir, and enjoys being in control. If he is not in control, he relentlessly tries to become the figure in power. Jack discredits the power of the conch and lies about Ralph so the children will not want him as leader. “‘The conch doesn’t count on top of the mountain,’” (Golding 42). When Jack is embarrassed, he becomes violent. When Piggy embarrasses Jack about the signal fire, Jack becomes upset and “… stuck his fist into Piggy’s

Jack tries to tell the entire group that Ralph is a coward who doesn't deserve to be a leader. He asks everybody to kick him out as their leader and to accept himself as the new leader. As the boys are very scared, they do not raise their hand to agree with Jack. This makes Jack very angry and he decides that he can no longer stay with Ralph, and goes to the other end of the island. As many of the boys want meat, they slowly start leaving over time to join Jack's new group. Jack and his followers create a lot of conflict because of this new group. Jack, the self-appointed leader, is the cause of the murder of two kids in the book. Jack, the self-appointed leader, is at conflict with Ralph because he enjoys having power over others, and also because he does not like the rules that Ralph has made, and instead wants to go hunting. Jack is also at conflict with Piggy, because Jack relies on instinct to make his decisions. He does not like Piggy's logical way of thinking as he feels threatened by Piggy's knowledge and wisdom. To get rid of this threat, Jack gets Roger to kill Piggy and destroy the conch at the same time. "See? See? That's what you'll get! I meant that! There isn't a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone---.".."I'm Chief." (Golding 1996, 223). Jack says this right after the murder of Piggy and the destruction of the conch. It shows that Jack really is a very savage person, who is not at al suited to be a leader.

I don’t know why,” (Golding, 82). In addition, the author of Lord of the Flies uses the theme that people abuse unearned power, which shows people that there will always be a leader, and that leader will not care about the people he is ruling over. Ralph and Jack were just put into leadership roles without doing much, and since then, many negative events had occurred. Those negative events had been caused by the misconduct of power. “Jack held out his hand for the conch,” (Golding, 35). Jack had wanted to be in power over Ralph, even though he had not won the vote, so he kept trying to abuse the small amount of power that he did have. Jack was very power hungry and didn’t care what precautions he had to take in order to gain power. “And you shut up! Who are you, anyway? Sitting there telling people what to do,” (Golding, 91). Jack had been very upset with Ralph for trying to suggest different ideas than what he had wanted, and Jack felt that he was the better leader over Ralph. Thus, Jack was using the power that he had to try and dominate over Ralph. Leaders arise in everything and some of them use their power to benefit

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

Lord of the Flies, an allegorical novel by William Golding, holds truths about mankind’s true nature of existence. The novel explores the savagery in all men that lies dormant, yet when society’s rules cease to exist, the boy’s innocence perishes along with it. The boys attempt to band together and mock the society that they came from, but not understanding the complexity of the situation, results in their society falling into ruins. On the island the boys are returned to man’s primitive nature, without rules or discipline, and they slowly drift into anarchy. Without proper guidance, the boys resort to cloaking their innocence with body paint to survive. With the body paint coating their skin, the boys bury their old personas within and allow themselves to commit acts that society would frown upon. When Jack’s tribe uses the facade of body paint to dissociate themselves from civilization’s morals, they denote that hiding one’s true identity liberates them from the constraints of society.

“Is there worse evil than that which goes in the mask of good?” (Alexander) Evil and cruelty often conceal themselves behind the mask of polite civilization. When the mask is removed, the true savagery is revealed. In William Golding 's dark novel, Lord of the Flies, humanity’s true savage nature is covered by a mask of civility. The group of boys crash onto a deserted island. And in order to survive, the boys attempt to recreate civilization and designate the conch as a symbol of authority. However, when the natural instinct to survive seizes the boys, resulting in the removal of their civilized masks, the savagery inside the boys emerges. Throughout the boys’ adventure on the island, Jack loses his mask of innocence and civility,

Within William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies a large group of British boys find themselves stranded on an unknown island, scared and uncertain of what to do and how to survive. The boys are divided and fighting among each other, and slowly come to hate and kill one another. Golding uses the novel to show what becomes of humanity when there is no civilized society and uses the character “Jack” as a symbol of feral behavior.

Antagonists are often found in literature to form conflicts for other characters regarding actions, beliefs, and morals. This is also the case in Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, where a group of young boys is stranded on an island. With no one to establish authority, the boys quickly spiral into violence, cruelty, and eventually turn into pure savages. In Lord of the Flies, the antagonist is Jack Merridew. He shows himself to be adventurous, unrelenting, and tyrannical as the story progresses.