How Does Jack Change In Lord Of The Flies

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The novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding was inspired by his time as a veteran in World War II. His goal was to portray the multifaceted human morality and its dependence on circumstance. During the war, he witnessed a change in people’s mentality, which he reflected into his characters. The most evident of which is Jack, who, initially described as a proper, cultured choirboy, slowly transitions into savagery. He conveys Golding’s idea that civilization’s conditioning of right and wrong merely masks humans’ more primitive and barbaric nature. One change seen in Jack’s character was his loss of innocence. Like the rest of the boys on the island, Jack was relatively young. At his age, society expected certain behaviors from children. When they took off their clothes, it alludes to the idea that they had been freed …show more content…
Golding wrote Jack with the intention of using him to model the idea that people become evil through a series of small steps. Being one of the older kids on the island, Jack feels the need to prove his strength. Therefore, when his first attempt to kill a pig fails, his humiliation fuels his drive to kill. A little later, Jack created a mask from a shell. Having the mask gave him a sense of having a new identity. “… the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness (Golding 64).” People acting differently based on what they wear is a concept that can be traced to many different groups that believe their uniforms give them superiority over others. Another step that Jack took towards savagery was treating others cruelly. He initially teases Piggy, and later ends up physically hurting him. Later, while reenacting the killing of a pig, the boys go too far and actually hurt Robert. This foreshadowed the way they killed Simon in a later chapter. Both incidents showed that Jack allowed violence to occur and used it to manipulate the
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