Who Was Jack Brave In Lord Of The Flies

The need for civilization, innocence and loss of power is shown through the impaled pig's head. In order for the group to survive, animals must be killed in order for the boys to eat. Jack takes on the role of hunter because he enjoys killing living things, as seen when he states, “Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!” (104) Ralph is a more calm person and does not enjoy killing as much as Jack, although he takes a small part in killing the pig. However, in the end, Jack gains all the power because everyone looks up to him as leader because he attempts to hunt the pig throughout the novel and is successful in the end. “We’ll take the meat along the beach.” “Pick up the pig,” Jack said. (150) Meanwhile, Ralph doubts Jack's abilities to kill the pig, and constantly mocks him about being successful. “He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.”(51) Jack proves Ralph wrong and kills the pig. “Jack begins to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling."(58) He celebrates

However, in contrast to this when Jack comes across a pig, evidentially to kill as he assigned himself the role of hunter, Jack is unable to murder the animal. Golding describes

After a few tries, Jack and the hunters finally catch a pig. The boys and Jack brutally attack it and kill it. This is the first step of Jack's decent to primitive savagery. We see the loss of innocence because Jack has killed his first living creature, and also had a loss of innocence sexually. Now we see Jack become very confident in his hunting ability and we start to see him act more like a hunter. He now wears a mask over his face and always wants to hunt. The author has this to say about Jack and his mask, "the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness" (62).  With the aid of the mask, Jack is now transforming into a different person. He seems to be happier as a hunter. The author also lets us into Jack's mind, for his thoughts on his first kill, "His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink" (70).

He and his hunters have trouble trying to hunt and kill a pig because he has not had any experience in anything like this before. He continues struggle in being a hunter. At this moment he still has not made his decent into primitive savagery as he ends up at the end of the novel. However, the author does mention that Jack has primitive urges of a savage characteristic early “He [Jack] tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up." (51) This shows how Jack’s primitive desires are truly to hunt and kill. After a couple of attempts, Jack and the hunters finally brutally attack and kill a pig. This is the first step of Jack's transformation from being civilized into savagery Jack has lost his innocence in killing his first creature. From then on Jack becomes very confident in his hunting abilities and transitions into savagery, which brings out the evil in him. He now wears a mask over his face and always has the desire to hunt and becomes thirsty for

Even though Jack demonstrated his leadership qualities when proposing a rescue plan to the ‘tribe’, and by accepting Ralph’s election to lead the group, something he wanted for himself, he eventually turns into a savage through killing a pig. This incident gives him a sense of power realizing that he can act with impunity without consequences. Wanting to hunt and kill pigs turned into a priority, eliminating the need to be

(Golding 33). Being stranded on the island has majorly changed Jack, he is praised for killing pigs because of it supply of meat. The amount of praise and the feeling of victory after a kill has caused Jack to go mad. The society within the island has corrupted Jack and many of his hunters because they are praised so greatly for killing a pig that they have now adapted this hunting as an evil game, the hunts are no longer for food but instead for self pride, and praise, and power.

By the end of the novel, Jack has become a full blown barbarian. He is so caught up in killing pigs that he no longer listens to Ralph. He tries to become chief again and fails. Because of that, he starts his own tribe on the other side of the island where all they do is hunt pigs. The boys that follow him are transformed into the savage that he is. “Here, struck down by the heat, the sow fell and the hunters hurled themselves at her…Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife. Roger found a lodgment for his point and began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight. The spear moved forward inch by inch… [t]hen Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands.” Jack and his followers were demoralized and tainted

While Jack and his hunters started out as just choirboys, they become obsessed with violence and are driven to kill. In the beginning of the book, Jack hesitates and misses his chance to kill a trapped pig. Later on, as Jack and his newly formed tribe hunt in the forest, they discover a sow. Following the desperate chase after

When Jack was first asked to kill the pig he hesitated. He said, “ ‘I was waiting for a moment to decide where to stab him’ ” (Golding 31). Although it is not directly stated why Jack didn’t kill the first pig, it is assumed that it is because he is a child and this is his first time killing. This is the only time Jack struggles to kill as it starts to consume him from not only killing just animals but people too. An external conflict is Jack wants to be chief, which causes a tension between him and Ralph. When it was first decided that the boys needed a chief Jack said, “ ‘A Chief! A Chief! I ought to be Chief!’ ” (Golding 22). This was the first time Jack showed any interest in becoming a leader which grew stronger the longer they where on the island. He lets becoming chief consume him and he begins to loose sight of who he

Jack becomes obsessed with hunting and changes his appearance by painting his face to resemble a savage. He just leads his tribe to make an act of transgression like raid Ralph’s camp, steals Piggy’s glasses, and orders his gang to hunt and kill Ralph. Meanwhile, Ralph does not fall into the savagery life as Jack did, he remains determined not to let this savagery -overwhelm him, and only briefly does he consider joining Jack’s tribe in order to save himself. When Ralph hunts a boar for the first time, however, he experiences the exhilaration and thrill of bloodlust and violence. When he attends Jacks feast and participates in the killing of Simon, he starts to realize that evil exists in him as well as everyone else. This new fact made him fall into a restless despair for some time, however, this knowledge enables him to cast down the Lord of the

Jack cares about the loyalty of his people, and in return, Jack will be loyal to them. Like before, Jack calls the meeting to talk about new leadership and becomes embarrassed. After this he says that “ ‘I’m going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too’ ” (127). When Jack leaves the “main” group, it is obvious that his loyal hunting group will follow him too. With them being loyal to Jack, he will most likely try his best so those who are really loyal to him survive too. Later when Jack’s group comes back to Ralph’s group with food. He gives all of them food, and lets them eat as much as they want. After letting them eat Jack, “waved his spear again. ‘Has everybody eaten as much as they want?” (149). Doing this shows that he is loyal to not just his own people, He does this to also lessen the amount of people in Ralph’s group so he has the upper hand in this

Jack’s bloodlust for hunting contributes to his savage state of mind. The first time the boys went on a hunt in the story Jack pulled back his arm with one swift motion as his knife raised ready to kill a pig. As his arm was raised, Jack took a long pause, the “pause was only long enough for them to understand what an enormity the downward stroke would be” (Golding 31). Jack knew that the act of killing would be counted as wrong, or bad, or even evil in his “normal” society. Knowing that Jack took a pause shows how the boys saw through society’s eyes for the last time. Jack had a breakthrough, he lost all societal bonds after being in this moment of hesitation. The next time the boys go hunting there is no hesitation. Jacks next prey was a innocent carefree sow. Jack leads the hunters inch by inch closer to the sow before commanding the start of the kill

He is the lead of the hunters. His job is to provide members meats. Contrast with Ralph, Jack is violent. He focuses on killing instead of getting rescued. When Jack hunts the pig, he will proudly say: “Kill the pig, cut her throat, spill the blood” (69). The quote showed he did not have mercy and he is changing from decent to savagery. Like Adolf Hitler, he is political allegory. He often disregard Ralph’s rule and tries to invalidate the power of the conch on part of island by saying “The conch does not work on the mountain, only at the beach.” (38). His bad temper and savagery will later cause the death of Piggy and Simon.

Jack Merridew quickly finds himself, losing all civilized traits he once had. When the boys wash up on the deserted island , Jack clearly asserts himself into the leader, and the best thing going on the island. Jack then loses a leader vote to Ralph, Jack and his choir boys are quickly assigned the duties of hunters. But when Jack is met with the first animal he sees out hunting he is quickly met with internal conflict, “The three boys rushed forward and Jack drew his knife again. He raised his arm in the air.. The pause was only long enough for them to understand what an enormity the downward stroke would be. Then the piglet tore loose from the creepers and scurried into the undergrowth… ‘I was choosing a place. Next time!’ “ (31). While Jack originally deems himself as the best and bravest, he has areal moment of weakness, when he finds himself being incapable of being able to kill the pig. He really has a battle within himself, so when he was given the hunter job he gladly accepted. At this time he became a hypocrite and not only made a mockery of himself, but as Jack represent his choir boys which are now known as hunters. Jack’s action however, foreshadows an event to come when does infact see another pig, there will be no hesitation. Further in the novel, the group of survivors have lost all civilized traits they once had. The boys are divided on who really is the true leader and the impending

I thought, by myself…I thought I might kill.”. The reader can see from this that Jack’s vocabulary is composed of only monosyllabic words as he is preoccupied only with thoughts of slaughtering. We can also interpret that Jack feels as if he has to kill in order to gain respect for himself. Jack shows this pride when he does eventually kill a pig and he retells the story of the hunt to the rest of the boys. He and some of the boys re-enact the murder in a savage and primitive style. Therefore, we can see how his behaviour has been affected as a result of his compassion and need to hunt. This change in his behaviour is very significant as hunting is how Jack begins to establish his power over the group. Soon after the killing of the first pig, Jack is able to become more powerful and Ralph begins to realise this so he says, “I’m calling an assembly.”, as he feels in danger of losing control.