‘The boy who controlled them…’
At the beginning, Jack is seen as a role model and an example to younger boys. William Golding uses the word, ‘controlled’, which indirectly tells the reader that Jack is a character that did not consider his choir’s point of view towards his orders, and rather he told them what to do without their view of whether they wanted to or not. This gives the reader a hint from chapter 1, that Jack is a person who has the power to take control over a group of boys which makes him a character who people are scared of. Jack liked the thought of having control over people who obeyed his every command. So, we are shown from chapter 1, that Jack is greedy for power. Also, when the boys vote for the leader of the Island, Jack shows how proud, selfish and arrogant he is, by saying:
‘‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.’’
William Golding tells the reader directly that Jack is arrogant. He does not leave it for the reader to deduce. This tells us that Jack’s character is slowly being shown to the reader, through direct language. Jack also shows his selfishness through the use of the first person pronoun, ‘I’. This pronoun is used to show that Jack is concerned about himself only. From this quote, we can deduce that Jack is saying that there is a possibility that he will be chief. This is shown through the use of the modal verbs, ‘can’ and ‘ought’, which suggest a possibility of Jack being chief in the future. This hint is shown to us and is carried out further on in the book, as Jack does become the chief.
After the vote has been carried out, we can tell that Jack is jealous as he was not chosen as chief.
‘…and the freckles on Jack’s face disappeared under a blush of mortification.’
We can tell from this quote that Jack was very embarrassed. His ‘blush’ was personified using the human characteristic and ‘mortification’. ‘Mortification’ is also an abstract noun because it is a feeling we cannot detect by the five senses. He blushed so much that his freckles disappeared; therefore he must have turned very red. This event of degradation and humiliation caused Jack to become very jealous of Ralph, up to the point where he took over Ralph’s leadership completely. This shows us Jack is hungry for power. When we first meet him he bosses the choir around; later he undermines Ralph’s leadership and sets up his own tribe against Ralph even though he loses the vote. He gradually becomes a dictator and boasts to Ralph in chapter 11.
Therefore, in chapter 11, Jack has developed into the leader of every boy on the Island, except Ralph and Piggy. Here, we can also point out that the hints of Jack being a dictator in chapter 1, lead Jack to becoming a dictator without doubt in chapter 11. Not only does he order his followers, but also shows pride in doing so. He is equal in dictatorship as Hitler. This is the comparison William Golding wanted to show because of the World War Two.
‘See? They do what I want.’
Jack uses a rhetorical question to show his pride in this quote. He did not require an answer from Ralph when boasting, but by using a rhetorical question it created a greater effect in showing his pride and helped in making Ralph feel like a loser. He answered his question himself giving an explanation that ‘they do what I want.’ It was a way of showing Ralph that he cannot do anything about his dictatorship, rather just accept it. Again, Jack uses the first person pronoun ‘I’ which shows his selfishness.
Jack’s leadership qualities were shown from the start as a ‘dictator’, in chapter 1.
‘…he shouted an order and they halted, gasping and sweating, swaying in the fierce light.’
Jack ‘shouted’ to his choir and they did as they were told obediently, without any objection to his order. This indirectly shows that he is a dictator, because he did not give his choir a choice in his instructions. The ‘light’ is personified by using the adjective ‘fierce’ to describe it, which is a human characteristic. The abstract noun ‘swaying’ tells the reader that Jack is controlling influence.
When Jack ordered his choir in chapter 1, he ordered them in an organized manner.
‘Choir! Stand still!’
‘All right then. Sit down. Let him alone.’
This meant that he did not order them in command to hurt somebody or create a negative view about him being a leader. The imperative verbs, ‘Stand’, ‘Sit’ and ‘Let’ are all ways of getting his choir to be disciplined. He did not influence his choir by ordering them to do evil, but rather to be organized. The exclamation mark is used twice to express the volume of the way that Jack is talking to his choir, he said it loudly, and he said it with order, which makes his choir more scared of him. Also, these short and snappy words are used to show that he is ordering his group in short sentences to bring more effect. Jack uses, ‘Stand still’ when ordering his choir, to grasp the choir’s attention by this alliteration.
In chapter 11, Jack is now leader of everyone on the Island excluding Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric. The imperative verbs he uses to order the hunting group totally oppose to his orders in chapter 1.
‘Grab them!’
‘I said ‘‘Grab them’’!’
‘Tie them up!’
‘Go on. Tie them!’
He uses the imperative verbs, ‘Go’, ‘Grab’ and ‘Tie’, to order the hunting group. These words are not ways of getting discipline, but rather to cause chaos and bad behaviour. This shows that the imperative verbs that jack uses in chapter 11 go against the imperatives used in chapter 1. Many exclamation marks are used to show that the volume of Jack’s voice is high and that he is saying it with command. Short and snappy sentences are used to catch his tribe’s attention, and to make the reader slow down and think. This creates an emphasis on the reader to show them the importance of the text.
So, from the event of Jack’s degradation, he has become from a follower in chapter 1 to a leader in chapter 11. He was powerless in chapter 1, but because of his power in chapter 11, his action was to use his power of being fearful, to make every boy on the Island follow his dictatorship.
In chapter 1, one of the most obvious character developments of Jack was based on ‘hunting and killing’. After being set by Ralph to take control of hunting, Jack, Ralph and Simon went exploring on the Island. Jack hesitated in killing a pig on their exploration of the Island, which showed his innocence in chapter 1.
‘‘I was choosing a place,’ said Jack. ‘I was just waiting for a moment to decide where to stab him.’’
This tells us that he was hesitant and did not find the nerve within him to commit this gruesome action. It also tells us that he had never done something like this before, because he said, ‘I was just waiting…’ which shows he was inexperienced in hunting.
Jack’s pride and boastfulness gave him strength within himself to say that he ‘was going to’ and will ‘next time-!’ kill the pig. This was shown through the use of the modal verb ‘will’, which suggested possibility that Jack will kill a pig.
Although his innocence and purity as a child was shown, the nerve of ‘hunting’ and also ‘killing’ was already building by the end of chapter 1.
‘He snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk. Next time there would be no mercy. He looked around fiercely, daring them to contradict.’
The language used to describe his actions in the quote above, show his savage like actions that are beginning to develop. The words ‘snatched’ and ‘slammed’ are used to describe Jack’s actions which show fierce and vicious connotations. There is alliteration in the first sentence where it says ‘tree trunk’, which brings emphasis on the reader by slowing them down. Although, it is not directly written, we can deduce that the look on Jack’s face would be according to the following sentence, ‘Next time there would be no mercy.’ This is a very short sentence but has a lot of power to it. It is as though William Golding is warning the reader of the next time that Jack will see a pig. It includes the abstract noun, ‘mercy’ which we cannot detect by the five senses. Also, the modal verb, ‘would’ suggests that there is a possibility that ‘next time’, Jack will kill a pig. The last line, ‘He looked around fiercely, daring them to contradict.’, shows us that although he had not yet carried out the action of killing the pig, he was so confident in his feeling of the ‘next time’, that he did not even bother to rethink the past event where he could not kill the pig. Instead, he dared Ralph and Simon silently, just by the look on his face, without saying a word. This shows us that his character is developing into becoming a hunter and killer, through the building of his pride and boastfulness within himself.
Therefore by chapter 11, Jack has developed into not only a hunter but also a killer. His dedication and interest towards hunting was so deep, that he could not even differentiate between a human and an animal when he killed Simon along with his followers. He was so dedicated towards hunting that he saw Simon as a pig, and became a killer. Ralph gets angry when Jack thinks of nothing but hunting:
‘All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!’
Ralph repeats the word ‘pig’ three times in order to show emphasis on it. This is called repetition which is used to show the effect of the word, because it is important. Also, an exclamation mark is used at the end of the last ‘pig!’ to show that he is saying it very loudly and is screaming out for it to be heard. This quote tells us that Jack has become obsessed to killing pigs up to the point where all he can see and think about is pigs and killing.
So in chapter 11, after killing a countless amount of pigs and a human, Jack feels no guilt and has no conscience over the death of Piggy. Instead he turns to Ralph and screams ‘wildly’.
‘See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I mean that! There isn’t a tribe for you any more! The conch is gone-’
Jack does not show any remorse or shock towards Piggy’s death, instead he threatens Ralph from this event which shows he has no sense of right and wrong. He uses the rhetorical questions, ‘See? See?’, to show that he knows Ralph saw Piggy’s death, and explains himself further by saying, ‘That’s what you’ll get!...’. The use of an exclamation mark is used to express volume of the way Jack is shouting. In this sentence, William Golding has already hinted that Jack wants to kill Ralph. Jack says ‘you’ll’ which is abbreviated for ‘you will’, and contains a modal verb ‘will’, suggesting that in the future there is a possibility that Jack will kill Ralph too. When Jack says ‘The conch is gone’, it shows that he uses the conch to also say that Piggy has gone. The reason he used both ‘Piggy’ and ‘the conch’ as one, is because they both symbolise the same things, which are the themes: ‘law and order’ and ‘civilisation’.
From this, we can tell that from chapter 1 to chapter 11, there is a great development in Jack’s character because at he was unable to kill, whereas in chapter 11 he can kill not only animals but also humans without any feeling of affection or conscience towards his wrong actions. This also proves one of the themes of Lord of the flies which is, ‘Survival of the fittest’. Jack survived due to being powerful and strong whereas Piggy died due to being powerless and weak. Also, the theme ‘Innocence of children’ is shown through this character development because Jack is not innocent although he is a child. His true colours are shown when there is no authority keeping him civilised.
In chapter 1, Jack is already seen as a bully particularly towards Piggy. He mocks Piggy about his name saying:
‘Piggy!’
‘Piggy!’
‘Oh Piggy!’
The use of an exclamation mark in this quote is to show Jack’s voice level. We can tell that he is saying this very loudly and screeching.
Also, when Jack, Simon and Ralph go to explore the Island, Jack bullies Piggy and says:
‘We don’t want you. Three’s enough.’
This shows the nasty character of Jack, because he did not tell Piggy in a polite way, he just told him directly that he was unwanted in their group. Also, because of the background of a person, this can affect their relationship towards others. The English that Piggy speaks is classed as a lower standard than Jack’s English.
‘That’s right. Can’t catch me breath. I was the only boy in our school what had asthma,’ said the fat boy with a touch of pride. ‘And I’ve been wearing specs since I was three.’
The words, ‘me’, ‘what’ and ‘specs’, are all used in his sentences as non- standard English. This shows he was not from a very high- classed background which is probably why Jack did not like him.
By chapter 11, Jack is not only a bully but also a killer. He has no thought of Piggy when he steals his glasses. Piggy’s glasses play a very important part in Lord of the flies because they symbolise order. This shows that by abusing his glasses, they also abused order, meaning they were not following order and were completely lost. Jack steals Piggy’s glasses and when Piggy comes to him to ask for them, Jack watches him die. Even after Piggy’s death Jack has no remorse over Piggy’s death. Instead he threatens Ralph and declares himself chief.
‘I’m chief!’
He has lost the name ‘Jack’ which shows he has lost all. What we can deduce here, is that the language used throughout by the boys progressively degenerates. Jack starts off as ‘Merridew’, the name he would have been called at school- but soon becomes ‘Jack’, then ‘Chief’. His followers- originally the school choir- become his ‘tribe’ and are eventually seen as ‘savages’, having lost their individual identity. This tells us that Jack has lost his identity form the character he was in chapter 1, to chapter 11 where he has a completely different character. He has become from a bully to a killer without any conscience of what he is doing. This proves one of the themes which is ‘Good and bad’, because Jack cannot differentiate between good or bad anymore.
The most important part of the story where language is most strongly used, is to explain and describe Jack’s character as a whole, particularly whether he is civilised or not. In chapter 1, Jack could be seen as a ‘civilised’ character. When realizing that the island was ‘inhabited’, he did think of ‘survival’ as an important issue. After realizing that there are no grown- ups on the Island, Jack gives very sensible opinions about it.
‘Then we’ll just have to look after ourselves.’
‘We’ve got to decide about being rescued.’
These quotes show that Jack was concerned about ‘Survival’. He was optimistic too, and gave straight forward facts of what had to be done. He used the words, ‘got’ and ‘have’ to emphasise that survival was not an option but a ‘must’. Also, the language William Golding has used in these quotes gives us a very good insight of Jack’s character in chapter 1. Jack uses the first person pronoun which tells us that his concern of survival is regarding everyone on the Island. He did not use ‘I’, as in only being concerned about his survival, but used ‘we’ and ‘our’, to show he included everyone in his concern.
He also respected ‘the conch’ which plays an important part in Lord of the flies because along with Piggy’s glasses, the conch symbolised ‘law and order’. The conch is described in chapter 1, using many positive indications that it is a sign of civilisation and innocence. It is described as, ‘valuable’, ‘interesting’, ‘pretty’, ‘ever so expensive’, ‘deep cream’ and ‘glistening thing’. The conch was described in chapter 1 many times, showing the importance of it in the story, right from the start.
‘…and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch.’
‘…held up the conch for silence’.
William Golding personifies the conch using the word ‘obscure’ which shows it was a very small, vague thing to notice. Conversely, he personifies the conch using the human characteristic ‘powerful’, which gives the connotations that the conch plays a very important part in the story. The conch was held up for ‘silence’. We can deduce from here that the conch was used for ‘law and order’, in order to bring civilisation.
Jack respected the conch in chapter 1, which shows he respected law and order. When he first heard the blow of the conch, his choir and him went to the place where they had heard it coming from.
‘Where’s the man with the trumpet?’
He did not use any negative words to describe the conch, and after the first meeting he had respect for the conch. But, the more abuse the conch was given throughout the course of the book, the more it showed that order was fading away.
The language that William Golding uses to describe Jack’s actions in chapter 1, gives away the hint that he is a civilised character. I think that the strongest word Golding uses to describe Jack is from the following quote. He also likens Jack with Ralph which is a great shock.
‘Jack and Ralph smiled at each other with shy liking.’
Jack is described as to have ‘smiled’. This shows a very innocent and pure side of Jack in chapter 1, and also that he was friends with Ralph at first, but by chapter 11 he wanted to kill Ralph. William Golding uses everyday verbs to describe Jack’s actions in chapter 1. He uses the words, ‘stood’, ‘sat’, ‘saw’, ‘spoke’ and so forth.
So, we can see from here that in chapter 1, Jack was not so self- centred as in chapter 11 and he also took survival and civilisation as a strong consideration. He also respected the conch which symbolises ‘civilisation’ and his actions were described using verbs denoting civilisation.
But in chapter 11, Jack has turned from a civilised young boy to a tyrant, killer and most simply a ‘savage’. Not only has he become ‘savage’, but so has the rest of his ‘tribe’. Jack paints on a mask to help him hunt better. The paint gives him liberation into savagery: he is able to do savage things now that he looks more like a savage. When piggy is deciding to go to Jack, the others show their opinion of Jack:
‘He’ll be painted’, said Sam, timidly. ‘You know how he’ll be-’
‘-he won’t think much of us-‘
‘- if he gets waxy we’ve had it- ‘
These quotes show their fear for Jack as he has now become a killer. When Sam gives his opinion, he says it ‘timidly’. This tells us that he is scared and is hesitant towards Piggy deciding to go to Jack. He does not explain why he is hesitant, yet gives the reader a chance to think. He says, ‘You know how he’ll be’, showing that he is scared to say what Jack’s reaction will be like, and leaves it for the others to think about it themselves. This tells us what a fearful and uncivilised character Jack is.
Also, in chapter 11, he became very self- centred and did not consider sharing with the others.
‘You go away, Ralph. You keep to your end. This is my end and my tribe. You leave me alone.’
Here, we can tell that Jack used the first person pronouns ‘my’ and ‘me’, which shows his self-centredness and arrogance. He uses pronouns in an effect to emphasise his greediness and nastiness. Instead of saying, ‘Go away, Ralph’ or ‘Keep to your end’, he adds the pronoun ‘you’, which shows he is being very possessive and greedy due to him having the power. He is abusing his power which proves one of the themes of Lord of the flies, which is ‘Abuse of power’ and shows he is a dictator.
Jack does not show any consideration or importance towards the conch in chapter 11, even after it ‘exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist’. The conch is described using the colour ‘white’. This gives us the connotations that the conch is pure, innocent and sinless like an angel. The verb ‘ceased’ tells us that the conch still wanted to stay alive. It gives us the indication that there will be trouble now that the conch is finished off. Thus, Jack’s reaction towards the conch breaking has no affect on him whatsoever.
‘‘…The conch is gone-’
He ran forward, stooping.
‘I’m chief!’’
Jack is not affected by the conch, yet he states the fact that ‘the conch is gone’ showing no sympathy or guilt, and declares himself ‘chief!’ The use of a hyphen after ‘gone’ makes the reader slow down to think. This brings an affect on the reader by making them realize the importance of this sentence. The exclamation mark after ‘chief’ indicates that Jack is shouting with loud volume in his voice, showing that he wants to be heard. The verbs that describe Jack’s actions in chapter 11 are negative and prove he is a savage. The verbs used are: ‘stooping’, ‘advancing’, ‘shouted’, ‘rush’, ‘stabbed’, ‘swung’, and so forth.
So, we can see from here that in chapter 11, Jack is self- centred and he never considers survival and civilisation. He also disrespected the conch which signifies he has no respect for civilisation, therefore he has become into a savage.
In conclusion to my coursework, Jack’s character development varied hugely from chapter 1 to chapter 11. Jack’s character development started from being powerless, innocent, a bully, civilised, orderly, unable to kill, conductive and being good to others, which became into a killer, disrespectful, savage, malevolent, dictator and most importantly into an uncivilised human being.
Jack’s character development changed according to the events brought in his life on the island. The characters Ralph and Piggy and mainly his ‘followers’ played an important role in the character development of Jack throughout the book.
Overall, William Golding has made Jack a character that can be identified with not only Hitler from the Second World War, but even adults and children in the modern world. William Golding showed his view of the world, using the character Jack who was only a child, and proved the main themes, ‘Evil in man’ and ‘Violence and death’.