When Ralph, Jack, and Simon climb up the mountain to see across the island, they come across a pig trapped in some vines when Jack draws his knife and can’t bring himself to kill the pig, it is because he is too civilised at this point in the book; "The pause was only long enough for them to understand what an enormity the downward strike would be." Here Jack doesn’t kill the pig however his attitude to killing pigs, and indeed humans, changes radically during the story.
Chapter three opens with Jack hunting pigs through the jungle. Here, there are many animal images attached to Jack, for example Golding writes, “Jack was bent double….his nose only a few inches from the humid earth.” and “Then, dog-like…on all fours”
The descriptions likening Jack to an animal show the first signs of regression among the boys. The most relevant part in this section is the part when Golding describes Jack as ape-like, because modern humans evolved from apes, and so regression would lead to acting again as apes. A line from the passage reads, “less a hunter than a furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle of trees.”
Despite Jack's attempts, he does not kill a pig. He is obsessed with hunting and killing a pig, after his previous embarrassing failure to do so, with Ralph and Simon. "From the pig-run came the quick, hard patter of hoofs, a castanet sound, seductive, maddening-the promise of meat."
This desire is clearly overwhelming him. The desire to kill, and thus get meat, must surely come from our days as primitive men, hunting for food. At this stage, Jack's hunting is quite necessary, and so it can hardly be described as 'evil'. However, the lack of available food on the island has driven him to hunting. This is one way in which the island's way of life has influenced and changed him. It is a human instinct, forgotten by most with the dawn of agriculture. It appears that the protective cover of society has been ripped open already, revealing this ability to hunt. As we see, the evil within him modifies Jack into a savage.
Without parental control the boys delve deeper into savagery. Jack starts to paint his face so the pigs do not notice him as much, “For hunting. Like in the war. You know – dazzle paint. Like things trying to look like something else… He twisted in the urgency of telling.” This shows us that Jack is actually excited about looking like a savage and is keen to act in this manner.
In Chapter four, Painted Faces and long hair, a ship passes the island but the hunters are so obsessed with hunting that they forget about the fire and try to help Jack. They finally kill a pig but the best chance of escape from the island has been lost. Ralph is furious and upset but Jack is very excited with this successful kill. Together, Jack and the other hunters start singing, “Kill the pig, Cut her throat. Spill her blood.” I do not think that Jack would be chanting this if he was back at home with his family. It shows how the group has descended into savagery.
In Chapter five, Ralph calls an important meeting to discuss what has happened on the island so far. Things get out of control and Piggy eventually shouts at everyone,
“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or Savages? What’s grown-ups going to think? Going off – hunting pigs – letting fires out – and now!”
At the end of this meeting Jack gets so annoyed with Ralph that he stands up and screams, “Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong – we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat…” This shows that Jack has almost hit rock bottom, he believes that everything can be solved by hunting and killing.
After this escapade Ralph, Piggy and Simon are all alone and Ralph says that he should give up being the leader and Piggy says, “If Jack was chief he’d have all hunting and no fire. We’d be here until we died.” This is another moment in the book when Piggy uses his foresight as represented by his glasses.
During these first five chapters Golding shows what is about to happen and what Jack will do with his power and new found cult. It shows how Jack was originally when he came to the island and how he is degenerated into a savage and will eventually drag everyone down with him.
BY LUKE HARRIS 10R/T
