Although Jack is the leader, he is only familiar with the task of leadership, not being automatically skilled at it. This is seen from the beginning of the novel, when Jack desires power above all other things; he is furious when he loses the election to Ralph.
The title shows a clear contrast of the events that happen in the duration of the novel. The first sentence represents order and democracy whereas the second sentence represents savagery and death. Even though Jack seems to be civilised at the beginning, he is falling to a steady decline to violence and anarchy.
We first meet Jack’s character towards the end of the first chapter. At this point, we notice his behaviour towards the choirboys. He is fiery temperament and a boy who shows authority over the choirboys. His uniform also tells us that he is a leader as “his cap badge was golden” unlike the others who had silver badges. They were dressed in “eccentric clothing” which could show that they are unique from the rest of the boys.
The choir shows that they fear of Jack as they “raised their hands with dreary obedience.” Jack does not care about the health of the choir as he noticed that Simon had fainted due to the heat. “Let him alone” was his command towards the boys showing his cruelty and undemonstrative behaviour.
We also see fear not only from the choir but from Piggy as he said “’I’m scared of him, and that’s why I know him. If you’re scared of someone you hate him but can’t stop thinking about him. You kid yourself he’s all right really, an’ then when you see him again; it’s like asthma an’ you can’t breathe.’” This immense fear from Piggy has told us that Jack is far worse being chief than any other chief is there could be.
We already see the creation of the hunters in the first chapter that was created by Jack. Ralph “wanted to offer something” and so he decided that Jack could create his own “army.” The imposition of the rules was applied well as they used a “conch” which represented authority and order. Every time a person wanted to point their view across, they would hold the conch and express their own views.
Jack’s leadership is again shown when the topic of ‘the beastie’ arises within the group. When a small boy is forced to speak about the beastie he saw, Jack tries to show authority over everyone, including Ralph. He convinces to the little boy that “if there was a snake we’d hunt it and kill it. We’ll make sure when we go hunting.” At this moment, Ralph was astounded to hear what had just happened. He was “annoyed and defeated.” Ralph was the chief of the group and he had every right to control the group and think of the best way of being rescued. The beast represents an anarchic side to the novel, as it brings no authority.
By already creating the hunters, Jack has his own point of view of surviving on the island. It can be said that Jack himself is a hunter as he “lowered his chin and stared at the traces and then dog-like” crept along the trails. He is changing from a clean civilised boy to a hunting animalistic savage as he “became less a hunter than a furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle of trees.”
His main contribution to the survival of the boys is to track down the pigs and provide meat for the boys. Jack is beginning to get addictive with his pig hunting, as it is becoming the “compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.” Meat is not the most essential at the moment of their survival as the island provides them with fruit. He has the necessity to kill and not think about the real importance of survival, such as helping to build the huts with Simon, Ralph and Piggy.
Following on from the civilised behaviour of Jack, we begin to see the move to savagery. We now see Jack taking over Ralph’s position as chief and, forgetting the conch, the symbolisation of order, he said, “Come on! Follow me!” He is becoming a dominant and aggressive character as this is shown repeatedly in his treatment of Piggy: “You’re talking too much…Shut up, Fatty” and “His specs – use them as burning glasses!” He again shows that he does not care about anyone else but for himself. His extreme obsession with Piggy continues as Jack realises that it was his fault letting the fire go out. To cover up his mistake, he decides to stick his “fist into Piggy’s stomach” and smack his head. This shows the real cruelty of Jack’s behaviour. It can also be said that because Jack has settled down into the hunting environment, he may no longer want to go back home, which caused him to let the fire go out. This again is another point that has been left unanswered which still remains a mystery.
Golding illustrates the change in Jack’s character in a variety of ways. One of the changes includes portraying Jack as a ‘barbarian’ as he “smeared on the clay…For hunting. Like in the war. Like things trying to look like something else.” By painting his face, he has become an entire different character, a savage. It can be said that Jack is almost reaching the point of savagery physically as well as mentally.
Another way of which Golding has illustrated a change in Jack’s character is using symbolism. Piggy’s glasses symbolise fire and he uses this for cooking meals and most importantly, building fires for rescue and murder.
Golding has used the mask to symbolise Jack’s true behaviour in the novel. The mask was used to create another view of Jack’s personality as “the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self – consciousness.”
In conclusion, there has been a clear move from civilisation towards savagery. At the beginning of the novel, we see Jack as a civilised and young boy but in the duration of the events that have taken place; Jack is emerged as a hunter and is described like a savage from an African tribe.
He shows a sense of order and authority over the choirboys, which was accepted by Ralph, but with this sense of confidence building within Jack, he has tried to not only overcome the choirboys, but also Ralph, Piggy and the rest of the boys.
“Golding knew exactly what the boys are like.” This was taken from a newspaper review in the 1950s and this tells us that Golding’s views about how boys would survive on a island seems realistic as he used to watch how boys used to interact with each other in the playground.
Lord of the Flies is more than an adventurous story: it gives us a lesson about what human nature is all about. It consists of messages and morals that we can learn from, such as how we behave in a primitive way, how we are cruel to each other and how we can easily be influenced and bullied.
