preview

Lord Of The Flies Character Analysis

Decent Essays

A meaningful change in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies demonstrates how conflict between members of society can lead to the loss of rules and the breakdown of civilisation. He uses the act of hunting to illustrate this meaningful change that significantly affects Jack, one of the main character’s of the text. Golding uses themes and symbolism to assist readers in understanding how easily we can fall into savagery and become a monster or, more aptly in Jack’s case, a beast.

Golding uses hunting in the Lord of the Flies to cause significant changes in characters, specifically Jack and his relationships with other characters. Hunting is a large part of Lord of the Flies, throughout the text hunting is used to develop Jack’s character. The first time Jack goes hunting he is unable to kill the sow, finding the ‘enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh’ unbearable. In this moment we can see that Jack is, at heart, a child who is too frightened to truly do any harm to animals let alone other people. Golding uses this action to show the audience how Jack is before any of the main events of the novel take place, allowing us to see him as the child he is before he becomes more bloodthirsty. When Jack later goes to kill a pig with his knife he paints his face, using it as a mask. He dances and “his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling” as he released his inner savage. By painting his face Jack feels that he is able to turn a blind eye to the ‘evil’

Get Access