Jack Merridew Character Analysis

Human’s innate behavior after the constraints and expectations of society disappear is the recurring theme centering the characters. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies uses the righteous Simon to highlight Jack and his evil role throughout the novel of savagery and civilization. The foil characters in Lord of the Flies exhibit the contrasting ideals and characteristics, the dissimilar symbolism of both characters, and the circumstances which lead both characters to follow one’s natural tendencies. To emphasize the message of Lord of the Flies, two young innocent boys will gradually begin to show their individualism.

Jack’s characteristics of violence and aggression were showed in the book when he loved to “watch the blood pour out” of the pig (W. Golding 89). Watching an animal die, and enjoying it, as a psychopath would. People don’t enjoy death or injury and the fact that Jack watched in enjoyment is unusual. Young children such as Jack are scared of blood and Jack is happy to be seeing such gory things. Jack’s tendencies and enjoyment reflect on his psychotic ways. Jack has unusual thoughts especially for such a young boy. Jack gets overly excited that they “will have rules” (32) so excited that he shrieked. Normally young boys don’t enjoy rules and tend to break them. So it is unexpected that Jack would be “excited” about such rules and he will be providing strong commands and following distinct rules. Following rules would seem like a drag, but the fact Jack finds this exciting is

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of young British boys are left stranded on an island after a fatal plane crash in the midst of a World War. With no communication to the outer world and no presence or influence of adults on the island, Ralph, Jack Merridew, and Piggy are forced to take initiative if the group of hopeless boys want to survive. The group of boys experience a drastic change throughout their time on the island, a change that no one would ever expect to occur to a young group of primed British boys. The leader of the stranded choirists on the island, Jack Merridew, shows such a change that he soon persuades other boys to follow his savage actions as the novel progresses. Though the changes to Jack’s mental and physical characteristics advance slowly at first, the final personality of Jack is instantly taken over at the climax of the novel to a dehumanized savage. Jack’s innocence is corrupted by his inability to withstand a society without rules proving man's good essential nature is altered by the evil within society.

Stories through history argue that evil tendencies are shown in early life. One character, Jack Merridew in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, is a perfect example. This young boy is the evolving antagonist who brings discord in his wake, and fundamentally undermines the representative society on the island. At the outset, he is seen as a plainly ugly redheaded child, only possessing his grandiose black cloak, but evolves into something more sinister. Jack’s actions are impulsive, but effective in moving his darker motives forward. He uses his following of other young boys as muscle, demonstrates his power, and corrupts the world of Lord of the Flies with his destructive behaviors. As well as demonstrating the characteristics of a harsh leader, Jack fits the description of evil under other descriptions. Jack is the character that moves the novel forward with his harsh words and conduct, as illustrated by his dominance, pride, and selfishness.

Horace once said that, “Force without wisdom falls on its own weight.” Jack Merridew is a boy who who becomes stranded on an inhabited island from six to thirteen years old. They are forced to survive in this environment until they are rescued. Jack Merridew, a character in William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, has changed from the beginning of the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Jack’s behavior and attitude is immature and extremely cocky, while toward the middle, he becomes more animal-like, and towards the end, he is a savage and acting on impulse and emotions. Jack’s behavior throughout the novel takes a drastic turn, but his behavior, after the plane crash, is significant to the novel.

In chapter three, is a detailed description of one of Jack's hunts. Golding describes, "the ground was hardened by an accustomed tread and as Jack rose to his full height, he heard something moving on it. He swung back his right arm and hurled the spear with all his strength." (Golding 3). Though Jack had no sense of who could have been behind him, he still powerfully swung his spear as a form of protection. Unaware of his surroundings, Jack easily could have swung his spear and killed one of his acquaintances. This cause of immediate reaction can be lead to the loss of civilization and no rules. With civilization and rules to abide, Jack would not necessarily need to be frighten of who may have been behind him. He also may not have been in the forest alone but accompanied by someone. In the beginning of chapter eleven, Golding explains how instead of eating the killed meat, the boys left it "on the grass the headless body of a sow lay where they had dropped it." (Golding 129). This can be identified as savageness. An ordinary boy would not kill an animal for fun, but for food; However, in this case, the boys on the island are indeed killing the animals for the sake of pleasure. Towards the end of chapter eleven, a tragic moment occurred when Roger carelessly threw a rock at piggy "a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch

Your Honor, this is evidence against the defense number 4. It states that Jack Merridew’s role on the island was to make sure that the boys had food and that the fire kept going. On the first hunt, Jack was unable to kill the pig that he had his heart on. He was upset because “[he] wounded a pig and the spear fell out” (bottom of pg. 51); he felt that by having the spear fall out he was not showing his manliness. The rest of their stay on the island he kept on reminding everyone that he was a man, both by showing and telling the boys. This pertains to our case in this matter; if not for the constant “obligation” to show his manliness, he would not continue to kill pigs and get used to the idea. For instance, on a hunt, he got so excited about killing a pig for the first time. That seems very normal, but the describing words that he chose to use were showing his thirst for blood. I quote “‘There was lashings of blood’ said Jack, laughing and shuddering ‘you should have seen it’” (last sentence of page 69). Is that not something that pertains to a potentially dangerous person? He is so enthralled in the gory details that it does not click that he has taken a life. The surroundings that he created is a blood thirsty society, which is based on himself. Whilst killing a pig “he giggled and flicked [his bloody fingers] while the boys laughed at his reeking palms” (bottom of page 135). He is laughing at

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies presents a story of a group of boys who become stranded on an island together, and in their struggle to survive; some begin to fight for power. Having power makes them feel in control of their situation; however, this power struggle quickly begins to consume them. Golding uses the power struggle between Ralph and Jack, the two main characters, to illustrate the power struggle between good and evil.

William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The Flies’ tells the story of a group of English boys isolated on a desert island, left to attempt to retain civilisation. In the novel, Golding shows one of the boys, Jack, to change significantly. At the beginning of the book, Jack’s character desires power and although he does not immediately get it, he retains the values of civilized behaviour. However, as the story proceeds, his character becomes more savage, leaving behind the values of society. Jack uses fear of the beast to control the other boys and he changes to become the book’s representation of savagery, violence and domination. He is first taken over with an obsession to hunt, which leads to a change in his physical appearance This change

Thesis Statement: The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding portrays the theme that regardless of each person’s different background and characteristics, every individual has the ability to commit brutal acts. While this book depicts Ralph and Piggy as the most civilized characters, and Jack and his hunters as young English choir boys, their actions reveal that they all have the capability to act violently.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a classic novel and portrays just how the society surrounding us can corrupt our once pure nature No one is born a killer, no one is born with an intense compulsion to kill, the island that the boys are stranded on has a very unusual, corrupting society; A society that erodes the boys innocence through the power struggle between Jack and Ralph, readers see the transfer from innocent to savagely through the hunting and Piggy’s death.

The human mind is made of up two instincts that constantly have conflict: the instinct to live by society’s rules and the instinct to live by your own rules. Our civilized will has been to live morally by law and order, and our savage will has been to act out for our own selfish needs. We each choose to live by one or the other depending on how we feel is the correct way to live. In this allegorical novel, William Golding represents the transformation from civilization to savagery in the conflict between two of the main characters: Ralph who represents law and order and Jack who represents savagery and violence. Lord of the Flies has remained a very controversial novel to this day with its startling, brutal, and truthful picture of the

Golding uses the characters from Lord of the Flies just as Shakespeare did to prove that man is turned to evil. The narrative illustrates a story about a group of British boys who get stranded on a deserted island without any adults. This lack of a stable society and presence of leadership forces the boys to create their own, and this works for the boys for a while. The boys turn themselves into savages and begin to do evil deeds which continue to get worse until they are rescued. In the time between their rescue, the society the boys create devolves and turns them into savages although this was not always the case. When the boys first arrived, Ralph, the fair haired boy, attempts to lead them in a civilized manner, but through the influence of Jack, many of the boys become evil. Jack mutants against Ralph saying, “ I'm not going to be a part of Ralph lot... I'm going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too,” (Golding 127) in saying this Jack has made most of the boys on the island betray their leader which proves both Jack and his followers to be evil. The society the boys created glorifies violence and death:“... the boys… found themselves eager to take part in this demented… society.” (Golding 152). Jack, the leader of the violent tribe, often takes his followers on gruesome hunts on which they graphicly disembowel the kill, and after the hunt, Jack leads a chant while the other boys stand

    Despite the progression of civilization and society's attempts to suppress man's darker side, moral depravity proves both indestructible and inescapable; contrary to culturally embraced views of humanistic tendencies towards goodness, each individual is susceptible to his base, innate instincts. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, seemingly innocent schoolboys evolve into bloodthirsty savages as the latent evil within them emerges. Their regression into savagery is ironically paralleled by an intensifying fear of evil, and it culminates in several brutal slays as well as a frenzied manhunt. The graphic consequence of the boys' unrestrained barbarity, emphasized by the

“Isolation is a dream killer” (Barbara Sher). In the novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, kids stranded on an island must figure out how to survive. By hunting pigs and building shelters the kids tried to subsist on the island. Through the process of hunting, the kids became cruel, evolving to the point of being barbaric. Thus, through the barbaric actions of the boys and the outside world, Golding shows that savagery exists in all people.