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Lord Of The Flies Character Analysis

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In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, a group of British boys are left stranded on an island. There are no parents to enforce rules or be a leader to keep the boys civil, so the boys quickly become savage by creating the havoc that causes the death of two innocent boys. Jack’s character quickly transforms into a savage and most of the boys follow Jack so they can play and show their inner savagery through pure acts of evil. Golding uses the transformation of Jack and his tribe’s power to show man’s savage state of nature when all rules of society are unrecognized and there is no leader to keep the boys together, separation leads to war and death.
Jack quickly transforms from a civil and innocent boy to a savage in the story. In the beginning, Jack is civil and innocent as he follows society’s rules and he quickly becomes a savage and begins to feel pleasure when doing acts of evil. Jack is focused on killing his first pig throughout the beginning of the story and lets this corrupt him. He begins to act as if he is an animal himself. Golding writes, “His laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling” (Golding 64). Jack can be seen as a man eating carnivore here instead of an innocent little boy. Jack is also afraid to kill at first because of his innocence as he says,“I thought I might kill” (Golding 51). This shows Jack’s hesitation to kill and also shows the rules of society are still in his mind even though there are no adult figures to enforce rules of society. Savagery

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