The Influence of the Lack of Society
“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.” (Golding 72). The lack of society created a monster whose main focus was to hunt another monster. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of boys were stranded on an island in the depths of wilderness, with no sense of direction or authority. This lead to chaos and destruction to erupt between them; the boys were left to make their own decisions and choices to figure out survival on the island. In the novel, the power struggle between Ralph and Jack to become chief, ultimately led to savagery, a lack of innocence and society on the island. In particular, the antagonist, Jack Merridew was strongly influenced by the uncivilization which lead to great …show more content…
Before the boys crashed onto the island, Jack seemed to be focused on his singing abilities, he never showed any interest in wanting to hunt. As the story progressed we saw Jack’s thirst for power and interest in hunting develop, which lead to the death of the most innocent boy on the island, Simon. “‘He came- disguised. He may come again even though we gave him the head of our kill to eat. So watch; and be careful.’ Stanley lifted his forearm off the rock and held up an interrogative finger. ‘Well?’ ‘But didn’t we, didn’t we-?’ He squirmed and looked down. ‘No!’ In the silence that followed each savage flinched away from his individual memory. ‘No! How could we-kill-it?’” (Golding 177). Before Jack had this conversation with Stanley, a boy on the island, Jack and his tribe had mistakenly killed Simon because they thought he was the beast. In this quote, Jack used the fear of the beast to manipulate the boys in order to gain power and control. Stanley asked Jack if they had killed the beast, Jack had said no because he said that it was just a form of the beast, and that the beast was not so easy to kill. Despite Jack knowing that him and his boys killed Simon, Jack continued to instil false fear of the beast in the boys, so that they would continue to hunt. Jack knew that if the boys had stopped hunting, they would realize the priority of rescue, which would result in him …show more content…
Both tribes, being opposite from each other, illustrated the different styles of leadership. “‘It’s time some people knew they’ve got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us-’” (Golding 111). Jack led his people by clearly vocalizing that only his voice was important and that the conch or the voices of the others did not matter. The conch represented democracy and authority, which was opposite to what Jack wanted, he desired for sole authority over everyone. Undermining the opinions and thoughts of the other boys and the conch, showed how less Jack valued equality. This implied that Jack desired for a dictatorship as he assumed only his voice, opinions and power were relevant. “‘He’s going to beat Wilfred.’ ‘What for?’ Robert shook his head doubtfully. ‘ I don’t know. He didn’t say. He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up. He’s been’ he giggled excitedly-‘he’s been tied for hours, waiting-’ ‘But didn’t the Chief say why?’ ‘I never heard him.’ (Golding 176). Jack showed the qualities of a dictator through his pleasure and enjoyment of punishing Wilfred physically for no reason. Jack went the extent of physically abusing another boy, to keep things entertaining, thereby holding his power over the boys. This example, showed that Jack would do anything to keep his boys under his rule and control. Jack’s
“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.” (Golding 72). The lack of society created a monster whose main focus was to hunt another monster. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of boys were stranded on an island in the depths of wilderness, with no sense of direction or authority. This lead to chaos and destruction to erupt between them; the boys were left to make their own decisions and choices to figure out survival on the island. In the novel, the power struggle between Ralph and Jack to become chief, ultimately led to savagery, a lack of innocence and society on the island. In particular, the antagonist, Jack Merridew was strongly influenced by the uncivilization which lead to great …show more content…
Before the boys crashed onto the island, Jack seemed to be focused on his singing abilities, he never showed any interest in wanting to hunt. As the story progressed we saw Jack’s thirst for power and interest in hunting develop, which lead to the death of the most innocent boy on the island, Simon. “‘He came- disguised. He may come again even though we gave him the head of our kill to eat. So watch; and be careful.’ Stanley lifted his forearm off the rock and held up an interrogative finger. ‘Well?’ ‘But didn’t we, didn’t we-?’ He squirmed and looked down. ‘No!’ In the silence that followed each savage flinched away from his individual memory. ‘No! How could we-kill-it?’” (Golding 177). Before Jack had this conversation with Stanley, a boy on the island, Jack and his tribe had mistakenly killed Simon because they thought he was the beast. In this quote, Jack used the fear of the beast to manipulate the boys in order to gain power and control. Stanley asked Jack if they had killed the beast, Jack had said no because he said that it was just a form of the beast, and that the beast was not so easy to kill. Despite Jack knowing that him and his boys killed Simon, Jack continued to instil false fear of the beast in the boys, so that they would continue to hunt. Jack knew that if the boys had stopped hunting, they would realize the priority of rescue, which would result in him …show more content…
Both tribes, being opposite from each other, illustrated the different styles of leadership. “‘It’s time some people knew they’ve got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us-’” (Golding 111). Jack led his people by clearly vocalizing that only his voice was important and that the conch or the voices of the others did not matter. The conch represented democracy and authority, which was opposite to what Jack wanted, he desired for sole authority over everyone. Undermining the opinions and thoughts of the other boys and the conch, showed how less Jack valued equality. This implied that Jack desired for a dictatorship as he assumed only his voice, opinions and power were relevant. “‘He’s going to beat Wilfred.’ ‘What for?’ Robert shook his head doubtfully. ‘ I don’t know. He didn’t say. He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up. He’s been’ he giggled excitedly-‘he’s been tied for hours, waiting-’ ‘But didn’t the Chief say why?’ ‘I never heard him.’ (Golding 176). Jack showed the qualities of a dictator through his pleasure and enjoyment of punishing Wilfred physically for no reason. Jack went the extent of physically abusing another boy, to keep things entertaining, thereby holding his power over the boys. This example, showed that Jack would do anything to keep his boys under his rule and control. Jack’s