Lord of the Flies Essay

In the midst of a raging war, there is a plane ﬁlled with a group of schoolboys

from Britain that gets shot down over a deserted island. The boys discover a conch shell along the beach and the shell is something we see over and over again throughout the book. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding creates many characters that experience change throughout the book. One of his main characters, Jack, is the protagonist that goes through the most change. He begins the novel as a preppy choir boy who seethes the fact that he is not chosen to become leader. Jack inevitably takes a leadership role during the middle of the story and takes the responsibility of bringing back food for the rest of the boys. As the story goes on, Jack transforms into a hungry savage who is more obsessed with killing a pig, than caring for the well-being of his friends. ! When we ﬁrst meet Jack we visualize him by the direct characterization we are

given in the text. An example of when we see direct characterization is in this quote where the narrator describes the arrival of Jack. “Within the diamond haze of the beach something dark was fumbling along... then the creature stepped from the mirage on to clear sand, and they say that the darkness was not all shadow but mostly clothing” (Golding 19). This quote is not only the arrival of Jack but the arrival of the beast foreshadowing Jack. When we ﬁrst meet Jack Merridew, he is described to us as a tall, thin, bony boy with red hair and blue eyes. William Golding represents Jack as a boy with principles, a choir boy who never had competition on being in charge. Jack desires power and is quite furious when he loses the election that ﬁrst takes place in the novel to Ralph. “A chief! A chief! “I ought to be chief,” said Jack with simple arrogance,

Alyssa Richardson Sunday, October 21, 2012

“because Iʼm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.” (22). Although Jack shows clear displeasure that he is not chosen to be chief, he agrees that rules and obeying the rules will have a huge impact on their length of survival on this deserted island. Jack collaborates with Ralph to make sure all efforts ought to be in civil order for them to be rescued and keep themselves safe in the meantime. Jack has just lost the ﬁrst election in the novel to Ralph however, Jack speaks up to tell the rest of the boys that Ralph is now in charge. Jack says “I agree with Ralph. Weʼve got to have rules and obey them. After all, weʼre not savages. Weʼre English, and the English are the best at everything. So weʼve got to do the right things” (Golding 42). " Jack takes a leader role by creating his own group with his former choir boys and

attempts to get meat for everyone to eat. He and his hunters have trouble successfully hunting and killing a pig. Coming from a place like England, they are not experienced and struggle with the concept of being a hunter. The narrator describes to us readers how much Jack has tried to hide his failure for hunting in this quote “[Jack] tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up”(p.51). This quote describes when Jack and his hunters come back from their ﬁrst hunting trip and bring back nothing. Time after time, Jack tries to make excuses about not getting a pig. After a few failed attempts, Jack and the hunters ﬁnally catch a pig, in which they brutally attack

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