In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the character Jack shows excessive pride which leads to conflict on the island. He shows pride by talking down to others, promoting himself to chief, and by talking himself up. Jack’s pride cause much of the conflict in the book. Jack’s pride represents how people are evil and immoral when all rules are taken away.
Jack shows pride by electing himself to be chief so he can be in charge. “‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.’” This quote exemplifies how Jack volunteered himself to be in charge. Jack wanted to be above everybody, so he tried to convince everyone to let him be chief. He wanted to have power and authority. “We’ll hunt. I’m going to be chief.” This is yet another quote that shows how Jack was stubborn about how he believed he deserved to be chief. He did not bother to ask the others about their opinion on who should be in charge. Instead he just appointed himself. “His tone conveyed a warning, given out of the pride of ownership, and the boys ate fast while there was still time.” This quote shows how Jack was obsessed with the power of being chief. Jack scared the other boys into respecting him as a leader. Jack shows pride in these quotes, because he shows that he believes he should be chief, because he is superior to everybody. All of the other boys chose Ralph as their leader, so Jack creates conflict by challenging Ralph as chief. Jack trying to usurp Ralph as chief shows how he was putting his needs before those of the entire group. Jack was too prideful to allow Ralph to be in charge, and constantly challenged him as a leader. This conflict gets in the way of the boys being able to work together to try to survive and get rescued.
Jack shows pride by talking to his peers as if he is above them. “You’re talking too much. Shut up, Fatty.” This quote was spoken by Jack to Piggy. This quote shows how Jack believed he had more of a right to speak than Piggy. He intended to put down Piggy to get Piggy to submit to him. “Give me a drink.” This quote shows how Jack forced others to serve him, because he believed that being a leader meant be should be treated better. He ruled
Jack respects Ralph as a leader and another alpha, however deems himself the higher qualified to lead the group; bringing forth a vote for a chief. However, the choir boy followers weren’t strong enough in numbers to counter the seemingly endless supply of little kids that voted for Ralph. After this unexpected result, Jack develops an instant grudge towards his only competition for power. Ralph begins to form a democratic society solely focused on rescue; yet jack has other plans in agenda. Under Ralph’s seemingly boring command, Jack develops other outputs for his primal necessity of dominance. Jack begins focusing on the task of hunting animals and finding weaker beings to prey on. Jack even blatantly leaves the rescue fire to chase after a pig; had he not have done so, the group could have possibly been rescued by the boat passing by during the fire’s absence. Once Jack finally has enough of going in circles with Ralph, he makes the decision to shake off Ralph’s influence and create his own niche. Within Jack’s tribe, lifestyle is greatly different to that of one designed by Ralph. Jack and his followers seemingly devolve into primal beings, as Jack gets his fill of power. Control over others was all that Jack longed for, with a crazed and burning
William Golding's Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group of boys who are lost on a deserted island and must do what they can to survive. At the beginning of the novel, two of the boys, Ralph and Jack, become leaders. These differences will form the main conflict in the story. The differences will cause them to hate each other and the anger that results is a recurring part of the plot throughout the novel. These two boys can be compared by the way they change, the reason for their actions, and the way they use or abuse power.
Jack is trying to help but he somehow makes a mess of what he is doing as shown here, “A fire! Make a fire! At once half the boys were on their feet, Jack clamored among them, the conch forgotten. Come on! Follow me! The space under the palm trees was full of noise and movement. Ralph was on his feet too, shouting for quiet, but none heard him. All at once the crowd swayed toward the island and was gone-following Jack.”(Golding, 17) Whenever Jack feels like he has something to do, he gets too anxious and tries to complete it without giving it a full thought while Ralph on the other hand is always giving it another thought so what they do won’t kill any of them. Jack acts very childish in this quote which makes full sense of why he was not leader and Ralph is. Jack shows very childish behavior which does not make him a good leader for society in this quote, "I ought to be chief," said Jack with simple arrogance, "because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp." (Golding, 16) Jack shows arrogance while trying to be chief which shows that Jack can easily ruin the society with quick and easy remarks that are not thought through. Jack is proving that he is not worthy of becoming a leader to the tribe. As shown by the quotes, Jack is going to ruin society with his arrogance and Ralph is just going to make things more civilized so they can keep civilization inside of them instead of
William Golding's Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group of boys who are lost on a deserted island and must do what they can to survive. At the beginning of the novel, two of the boys, Ralph and Jack, become leaders. These differences will form the main conflict in the story. The differences will cause them to hate each other and the anger that results is a recurring part of the plot throughout the novel. These two boys can be compared by the way they change, the reason for their actions, and the way they use or abuse power.
All our personalities compare to a character from Lord of the Flies, and I found myself to be an ENFP or an idealist; someone most comparable to Simon. An ENFP or an idealist personality displays characteristics of being extroverted, intuitive, feeling and perceiving which. Furthermore, passionately concerned with positive improvement, being kind, warm, sympathetic, distracted and motivated were all trait described in the personality test for the ENFP. Due to our selflessness, how introverted and extroverted we are, and how we can think both logically and emotionally, makes Simon and I most similar.
He taught them how to hunt and be savages. Jack’s method of leadership resembled that of a dictator’s. He used fear and intimidation to demand gruesome things from the boys. For instance,”’You don’t know Roger. He’s a terror.’ ‘And the chief-they’re both-’ ‘-terrors-’” (173) This quote was stated by Samneric, a pair of twins who were involved in Jack’s tribe. As evident, Jack used his ability to terrorize people as a technique of leading. From this hunger for power, Jack acquired a strong tribe and used them to do sickening things, such as murder Simon, decapitate a wild boar, and throw a rock over Piggy’s
In William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, we can see that Jack faces his own personal battle between himself and his want for power. Jack’s desire for dominance led him to commit evil acts for his own personal gain, than the greater good for all boys on the island. Jack claimed that he was fit for the role of leadership several times during the early chapters of the book. Golding stated that it was between Ralph and Jack who would lead and that Jack believed he should be chosen saying, “ ‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, “because I’m chapter and head boy. I can sing a C charp.” (22). This is where Jack lists all the reasons that he is the best selection of a chief over Ralph, he wanted to persuade the rest of the boys for their vote. Towards, the end of the book we see Jack try to reclaim the already lost authority from Ralph. Jack induces the boys by saying, “ ‘I gave you food’ said Jack, ‘and my hunters will protect you from the beast. Who will join my tribe?” (150) Jack tries to make all the other boys, besides the hunters who already sided with him, to join his new tribe. This attempt for power with going against Ralph, clearly the most knowledgeable leader, displays how Jack only cares to satisfy his coveting of power.
It is clear that Jack is a better leader than Ralph because he is more of a demanding, manipulative person. From the time the boys landed on the island, Jack was in control of the choir. “The other boys, led by Jack, run off in disorganized excitement to light the signal fire”(Reilly, 3). This quote shows that the boys followed in Jack’s footsteps since they set foot on the island. Along with controlling the choir, Jack challenged Ralph’s opinions. “We do not need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things” (Reilly, 4). This quote demonstrates that Jack is making an attempt to control the group by doing what is best for him, and he demands that the boys support his decisions. In addition, Jack’s main priority was to hunt and give them what they want. “The point is that Jack is doing what he wants, not what he ought” (Reilly, 5). This quote illustrates that Jack is aware that he is the leader of the group, for he is doing what he wants and not what he has to. Clearly, it is evident that Jack is the best choice as chief for
William Golding shows a tremendous amount of violence played through Jack in the book. Jack gets described as someone that is obsessed with hunting, however, he had more than a obsession. Throughout the story, Lord of the Flies, Jack is very violent and his violence transforms him into a vicious person. Jack becomes deeply obsessed with hunting right after he gets on the island.
As humans we all have a natural desire to be a accepted. In Lord of The Flies by William Golding, Jack has this desire as many humans do. We often change in order to meet our desires. Jack, motivated by his desire to be accepted changes from being a regimented boy to being a savage.
This was something that one character in particular pursued to achieve even if it resulted in the breaking of society on the island. There were two main leaders or people who the children looked up to. This included Ralph, who wanted to run things in a more democratic style, and Jack, who preferred to rule with dictatorial force. From the starting jack was wanting the lead position, and this is evident when he says, "I ought to be chief,” “Because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.” (Golding, 18), and also by, “Jack started to protest but the clamor changed from the general wish for a chief to an election by acclaim of Ralph himself.” (Golding, 18) Although Ralph was elected as head, Jack attempts to assert his power as leader by proving himself worthy of a better head than Ralph. This is existent when he was talking about the beast and said, “We're strong--we hunt! If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down! We'll close in and beat and beat and beat--!” (Golding, 99) This shows how he is willing to protect the boys at any cost, as he is more afraid of losing power than he is of the beast. Jack shows his nature in how he will risk his life in order to gain authority although the decision he made is illogical and may affect all the boys. Correspondingly, when Jack and his hunters let the fire out, Piggy begins to scold him, but since Jack is afraid that the others might look down on him, he punches Piggy. The relationship is showing Jacks disapproval for proper government and order, and his desire for anarchy. Piggy was a drawback for Jack as he questioned him in multiple occasions, and this made others also question Jack, which degraded his authority. Since this was occurring, Jack found it righteous to insult and hurt him in order to scare Piggy from ever questioning him. This described Jacks cruel acts to preserve power even if it went against the
Overall, Jacks new rebellious nature in Lord of The Flies turns innocent children into savages reinforcing how great of a negative impact one person can make in society and how power
Instead of Ralph, Jack starts to receive most of the attention. Ralph begins to talk about not being chief anymore. The boys seem to listen to Jack more, such as the time when he told them to go hunting and they went willingly. The young boys never seem to agree on things but when Jack said “Let's have a fort” (pg. 108) all the boys concurred with him. I suspect that Jack would not be a suitable chief because his main
Several times in the novel, Jack is seen having a tendency towards violence. This is a negative quality and represents how an inherently bad person would act- violence over peace. The first example of this is after Jack allows the signal flame to go out, causing a passing vessel to miss their island and therefore a chance at rescue. Ralph of course scolds him for this, in front of the group of other boys. When Piggy starts to chastise Jack, however, Jack becomes humiliated and furious. When the other boys nod in agreement with Piggy, Jack punches him in the stomach, causing his glasses to fall off of his head and break. Jack then mocks Piggy for running from his second assault. “This from Piggy [...] drove Jack to violence. He took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach. [...] Jack stood over him. His voice vicious with humiliation.” (Golding p.71). A good person would have apologised then (as he does later), or at least admit that he was wrong, and not attacked the boy (who was in the right). Another example of Jack’s tendency towards violence is when his group of hunters and he attack Ralph’s camp to steal fire and Piggy’s glasses, though as Ralph stated,
Almost every person will go along with the majority even if it is wrong. Their behavior is often impacted by others around them. In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, a group of very young British schoolboys are in a plane crash during World War II, and must survive being stranded on an unknown island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Golding does not shy away from groupthink in this book. The boys on the island end up going along with the bulk, even if the group has bad intentions.