When we first met him in the novel, he led the choir boys. They were not allowed to take off their clothes and they must walk in two parallel rows. This shows Jack’s commitment to civilization and morality is strong. However, his character changes at the later parts of the novel as he upholds savagery. Also, the more the rules differ from the island reality, the more cruel and ruthless a person Jack turns out to be which contributed to the plot. In Lord of the Flies, Jack is charismatic and Inclined to leadership.
Despite not being leader, Jack does agree with Ralph about managing the fire and that there should be more rules and offers to be responsible for the fire. When Ralph told the boys that they should have more rules Jack was supportive of Ralph and said that “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything”. This reveals Jack’s manipulative Intent as he wants to be Involved In leadership and he has seen an opportunity to get control of something very Important.
This will become significant later when Jack shows his true character which is morally lacking and totally savage, revealing the irony in his words. Jack plays an important role in this novel as he is the cause of the separation between the boys. The conflict on the island begins with Jack attempting to dominate the group rather than working with Ralph to benefit it. He frequently ignores the power of the conch, declaring that the conch rule does not matter on certain parts of the island. Yet he uses the conch to his advantage when possible, such as when he calls his own assembly to impeach Ralph.
For him, the conch represents the rules and boundaries that have kept him from acting on the impulses to dominate others. Their entire lives in the other world, the boys had been moderated by rules set by society against physical aggression. On the island, however, that social conditioning fades rapidly from Jack’s character. He quickly loses interest in that world of politeness and boundaries, which is why he feels no compunction to keep the fire going or attend to any of the other responsibilities for the survival of the group.
Throughout the novel, we can see how Jack became more unruly. Jack was made the leader of the hunting tribe. Coming from a place like England, he had not had any experience in hunting and killing a pig. He struggled to be a hunter because he still had not made his decent character into primitive savagery, which is the way he ended up at the end of the story. “He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up. ” After a few tries, Jack and the hunters finally caught a pig. The boys and Jack brutally attack it and kill It.
This Is the first step of Jack’s transaction Into savage living. We see the loss of Innocence because Jack has killed his first living creature, and also had a loss of Innocence In a sexual standpoint. Jack’s next step Into savagery Is when they are all dancing around the fire In celebration. Simon Is coming to tell the boys about his vision of the beast, when Jack and his tribe mistake Simon for the beast and attack and kill him. He has now killed his first human being, although It seemed not to be completely Intentional.
Jack Is starting to get his tribe to hind about nothing but hunting now. The boys and Jack continued to hunt animals, but now a new order is taking place. Everyone must obey Jack or else pay the the boys, Just to set an example. He gets all the boys except Piggy and Ralph to Join his group. They are all dressed like savages and Jack now has all his primitive urges coming out. He has no care for anyone and has no feeling for killing like he did earlier when he thought about killing the pig. This brings us to the way Jack controls his tribe. Jack represents an autocratic dictatorship.
Ralph, whom symbolizes necromancy shares responsibilities with the other boys and gives Jack power by being in-charge of hunting along with his choir boys. However Jack has no interest in society or rescue. At first, Jack seems content to hunt and play war games. Later, Jack takes control and becomes the autocratic dictator who leads by fear instead of consultation and example. By the end of the novel, “Jack, now a leader sits on a great log, painted and garlanded as an idol. ” This means that the civilized democracy of Ralph has long been forgotten which shows that civilization no longer exist in him.
