Jack comes up with the idea of him being chief to lead the whole group of boys. He says that he ought to be chief because he is the leader of the choir and has the skills of being a leader, but the boys decide to vote for a chief. Only the choir votes for Jack showing their obedience towards Jack but all the rest vote for Ralph meaning Ralph was the chief of all the boys on the island. “The freckles on Jack’s face disappeared under a blush of mortification.” This tells us that Jack is very angry about this and it is very foreign to him that he is not a leader. The anger on Jack’s face gets to Ralph and he offers Jack to be the leader of the choir and they can be his army or hunters. This is the turning point where Jack wants to hunt and be savage.
Jack starts to treat Piggy differently. The first thing Jack says to Piggy is “Shut up Fatty” and everyone starts laughing. His first impressions of him aren’t very good and Jack will keep treating him like this throughout the book because he isn’t the same as the other boys. Jacks’ behaviour changes from the point where the three boys find a piglet during their exploration of the island. Jack quickly draws out his knife but does not stab the pig. His failure to do so makes him angry and fills him up with fury. He says that that next time he will show no mercy and he stabs the knife into a tree trunk. This point in the book sets off the evil within Jack because from this point forward all he wants to do is hunt and be savage.
The conch has a very big significance in the book. It is a symbol of safety, unity, democracy and a symbol of leadership. The conch is made as an item all the boys will give their attention to. During the second meeting the boys have decided that the conch should be in someone’s hand for them to have a right to speak. The conch is order and civilization and without it would be anarchy amongst the boys. The mountain is a place where the boys decide to make the fire so it is the place which could help them to be rescued from the island.
The beast came into the boys’ minds when a mulberry birthmark boy told everyone about his fears about a “snake thing” or a “beastie.” This imaginary beast frightens all the boys and is a symbol of savagery which exists within every human being. As the boys grow more savage during the course of the book their belief in the beast grows stronger.
Jack becomes a primal hunter and his desire for hunting gets very high as he tries to find a pig through the jungle. He spends all day trying to find a pig and gets very close to the island in doing so. “his nose only a few inches from the humid earth” This quote tells us that Jack has turned very savage and has drifted away from society.
Since the beginning, the boys have bullied Piggy whenever they needed to feel powerful and important. By chapter 4, their bullying of Piggy intensifies and Jack hits him breaking one lens of his glasses and then mimics his voice to humiliate Piggy even further. “Jus’ you wait – yah!”
Jack’s desire for killing a pig is fulfilled in chapter 4 when he and the hunters finally find a pig. They quickly surround the pig and Jack cuts its throat. During this little adventure the hunters’ language changes. When they killed the pig they spoke in tri-syllabic chants, “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.” A tri-syllabic chant is a chant that is chanted in three parts. This change of language shows their potential of being savage.
Jack’s behaviour changes during and after the hunt of the pig. He becomes more savage and gets drunk with bloodlust because of his obsession of killing the pig and the chants are another way to show him becoming savage. These kinds of chants produce a military rhythm and were chanted by wild men centuries ago. Jack is chanting them now which means that he is bringing savagery from the past into their lives today and it is going to turn them like the wild men.
Jack, possessed with the idea of killing a pig, camouflages his face with dirt and mud from the ground to help him kill the pig. When he returns from the jungle he is covered with blood of the pig making him look barbaric. This sort of change in appearance is another type of move to savagery and atavism. Jack’s bloodlust and thirst for power have overwhelmed his interest in civilisation.
In conclusion, the move from civilised to savagery is William Golding’s main message. The evil within a human soul can take over and move the person away from civilisation and into savagery.
In the first meeting the boys chose a leader, Ralph, whom they would follow but after a few chapters most of the boys play or want to hunt like Jack. At the start everyone wanted to build society but after Jack overtook the camp everyone wants to go back to savagery. This implies in our communities and that everyone can be evil.
Ahsan Raza
