At the start of the book Ralph gets voted Chief of the Island, and part of the rules were that everyone must listen to the person holding the ‘conch’. The conch was a symbol of peace, the exact opposite of what Jack represents, which is evil. Jack always wanted to be centre of attention and always wanted to put his point across. The conch prevented him from doing so, if someone said something he didn’t agree with regardless whether he had the conch, this bothered Ralph and especially Piggy. The conch meant a lot to Piggy and he abided strictly by the rules of the conch. Jack however didn’t want to and would continually break the rules and shout out when people where trying to speak. This lack of respect for the conch would really get to Piggy and Ralph because Jack would continually rebel against the ideas put forward. But no one would say anything because they feared Jack so much.
As the book got on Jack became more obsessive about hunting, and even made up his own song
‘ Cut the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood ‘
This was evidence that Jack was becoming more twisted as an individual, and his passion for hunting started the rows and fights on the island. This aggravated Piggy a great deal, and Piggy confronted Jack by saying
‘ You and your blood, Jack Merridew! You and your hunting! We might have gone home – ’
Jack eventually retaliated by hitting Piggy. Jack would continually pick on Piggy because he was an easy target. Jack never really liked Ralph on the other hand but they had this mutual respect for each other, which was continually being tested.
Jack was building up a kind of respect and following, people feared him, and he gained respect from them, he could do whatever he wanted because no one had the guts to confront him. For example he continued to talk without the conch, which was a rule that seemed not to apply to Jack, this was a sign that things were falling apart because they were forgetting about the rules.
The longer they stayed on the island the boys started losing their minds and were becoming less logical. For example Ralph was forgetting his words, and was getting confused with him self. Which wasn’t the Ralph we read about in the start of the book, at the start of the book Ralph was confident and was logical e.g. starting the fire etc. However Piggy on the other hand continually thought logically and like an adult, and was becoming aware of the goings on around him.
Ralph: “ Why do you hate me? ”
Ralph realised that Jack hated him and confronted him trying to find out why he hated him; this showed Ralph’s courage and strong personality. This is very important because they are two very well respected characters and if one decided to leave then he would take people from the other. Later on in the book Jack tried seizing power in page 139
‘ Hands up,’ said Jack strongly, ‘whoever wants Ralph not to be chief?’
There was a silent reaction and no one put their hands up, this humiliated Jack and he left the group. His last few words were interesting, he said ‘ I’m not going to play any longer. Not with you.’ This was interesting because he said he’s not going to play with them anymore, Golding is reminding us that they are still only kids. Jack separating from the island was the main reason in my opinion why everything fell apart on the island. Jack’s hunters where very close to him, and they later left Ralph without telling him, this made a big division in the island and this started the problems, which led to violence and insanity. The separation was like two countries’ going into battle, which was ironic since the world war was going on at the time of which the book was written. It was like a civil discontent which eventually led to break down of respect for authority and fighting between the two rival powers.
There was a great rivalry between the groups and Jacks group invaded Ralph’s camp and attacked them, as a warning shot to what could later happen, they also took Piggy’s glasses as a kind of bait so Ralph and the others would go searching for Jack. This lead to the killing of Piggy, and the death of Piggy left Ralph to fend for his self because ‘Samneric’ had been taken hostages. The death of Simon and Piggy resulted in Ralph fighting for his life, on his own. Jack and the others decided to set the island on fire and chase after Ralph, this proved they were just savages because they didn’t think about the consequences of setting the island alight, this would matter in the end because Ralph escaped the fire along with the littluns and Jack and the others got trapped in the fire.
Although the end seemed to cut off short and it took a while to get into the actual story I thought Lord Of The Flies was a great book and well written. I liked the way Golding wove secret messages throughout the book. I can say I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
Keiran Mustafa
