Lord of the Flies Essay

Lord of The Flies Essay
Joelle Jacobs
ENG101-01
Friday Jan 10th 2014 The Lord Of The Flies

In the novel, “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding a plane carrying a group of British school boys gets shot down and crashes on an uninhabited island in the Pacific Ocean. The pilot of the plane is killed and the surviving boys are without adult supervision. As the boys wait for rescue they create their own civilization. Two of the boys, Jack and Ralph, both want to be the leader of the group. Ralph is chosen as the leader and he asks Jack to be in charge of hunting for food. Ralph wants to establish rules and make sure everyone is safe while Jack wants to have power over the boys, enjoy being without adults, and to hunt. Eventually, Jack forms his own tribe after always being at odds with Ralph. Throughout this novel Jack’s tribe becomes more powerful than Ralph’s. Jack’s regime is able to become more powerful by his offering the boys individual freedom, the ability to express their self interests and to have fun, by using masks to cover their faces while hunting to make them seem stronger and anonymous, and by his instinct to survive on the island by hunting pigs and creating fire.
All children want to have fun with their friends. They want to be able to do things on their own without a parent telling them what to do and what to think. Children want to be involved with activities that they find amusing and interesting. Jack’s regime becomes more powerful because he offers his followers all these expectations. Jack lets the boys in his group have freedom to enjoy themselves. Jack does not think that his group of hunters need to hunt every hour of the day. This makes him powerful because the boys will want to remain in his group because they would rather have fun and have few rules than be in Ralph’s group where essentially they have to works all day. Jack lets his group have fun, “ ‘We want meat,’ said Jack. ‘ Well, we haven’t got any yet. And we want shelters. Besides, the rest of your hunters came back hours ago. They’ve been swimming,’ exclaimed Ralph. ‘ I went on, I let them go,’ said Jack” (Golding 3). Jack’s regime also has enjoyable times after they kill a pig (sow). They dance and chant while acting out the pig hunt over and over. “Jack leapt on to the sand. ‘Do our dance! Come on! Dance!’ ” (Golding 9.) “ ‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’ ” (Golding 9). This play acting ritual offers the boys excitement and reinforces the bloodlust they so desire. Jack’s regime is more powerful than Ralph’s because Jack is able to give his followers the power to do whatever they want and to feel no guilt about their choices.
Masks are a way to cover your face and allow the wearer to take on a role of a new person that they desire to be. Jack’s regime becomes more powerful by putting on these masks. Jack allows his followers to take on any character traits they want and this then makes them feel much more power within themselves. Jack, who is in charge of hunting, decides that maybe he should paint a mask over his face in order to not scare off the pigs (sows) so it is easier for the tribe to catch the pigs (sows). “Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye socket white, then rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw” (Golding 4). After Jack begins wearing face paint, many of the older children view him as a chief and want to follow him over Ralph. Jack’s followers begin to wear masks and this made his group more powerful because they are able to hunt more successfully and have food in order to survive. For Jack, "the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness" (Golding 4). Jack believed the mask not only gave him power and the skill to hunt, but the freedom from responsibility and appropriate behaviour. Wearing a mask increases the boys

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