Choir Boy or Savage Boy? 

The story that was read is called Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The story is about a group of British schoolboys who get stuck on an island due to a plane crash during a war. Almost all of the boys survive the crash and find themselves stranded on an island, where there is no adult supervision. They must choose a group leader, gather food, build shelter, and try to find order in a society they must establish. They also need to find a way to get back home.

Jack is one of the boys who survived and he is savage, intelligent, and a dictator, which affected the boys lives in how they live, eat, and function in everyday life on the island.

The first trait that describes Jack is savage because in the story, Jack notes, “You can feel as if you're not hunting, but- being hunted, as if something's behind you all the time in the jungle” (Golding, 53).

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As the author observes, “The madness came into his eyes again” (Golding, 36). Jack is going crazy and becoming a savage: “I thought I might kill” (Golding, 37-40). It describes Jack being savage because he is becoming paranoid and is ready to kill anything that steps in his way. He is also a very savage hunter that refers to primitive ways of killing the pigs he hunts. The characters see Jack as a leader because he would be in charge of all the hunting the group does. Then Jack starts to prioritize hunting over things like shelter and making a fire to get rescued and started breaking rules that divided the group.

Jack was tired of being a nobody in terms of everyone's perspective and wanted to form his own group and be a leader.

Jack can also be described as a dictator because he wants to be a hunter and an autocratic leader, meaning he wants all of the power. He was tired of following in Ralph’s footsteps and wanted to have his own tribe of hunters. It shows that Jack is ambitious, determined to be a leader, and in charge of the group. This can be supported by the quote from Jack: “We’ll hunt. I'm going to be chief”(Golding, 133). “He (Ralph) isn’t a proper chief”(Golding, 126). This trait affects the story because before there was some unity and equality in society and now it’s more of a dictatorship and Jack is going off trying to be a leader. It is important to Jack because he hated being behind Ralph’s shadow and wanted to be a hero responsible for rescuing them and he’s changing his ways for the better.

The third and final trait that Jack can be described as is intelligent. Jack portrays this trait through his actions and thoughts throughout the novel. Jacks and everyone on the island needs food, but he can’t seem to kill anything. He takes some clay, charcoal, and coconuts - mixes them together - and rubs it on his face to blend in with the animals and environment while hunting. To illustrate this point, Jack says to his tribe, “They don't smell me. They see me” (Golding, 63). Jack is also intelligent because after he makes his own tribe he tells them to “forget the beast” (Golding, 133). He then states: “We’ll kill a pig and give a feast. When we kill we’ll leave some of the kill for it. Then it won’t bother us, maybe” (Golding, 133). Jack is intelligent and tells the boys to forget the beast so they fear the beast and he can then use the beast to control them. Jack’s intelligence helps them get food to survive and it also helps to keep his tribe together. At the beginning of the book, Jack is a proper choir boy and in the end, he turns into a savage hunter. This change was not good for Jack because it got him into a lot of trouble and hurt himself and his friends.

Throughout the story, we have learned that Jack has mostly been the antagonist. He has always been against Ralph ever since he became chief. Jack has been sneaky, and we all agree that he is the “Bad Guy”. We have learned that Jack is a dictator, savage, and intelligent. Jack is a hard manipulator when trying to get his own way, and throws fits whenever not getting his way. This story portrays how people can change over a long period of time under the right conditions. As shown in Lord of The Flies, Jack started off as an innocent choir boy and ended up a vicious savage by the end of the story.

References

• LiteraryDevices.net: Lord of the Flies
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding: Book Study Guide | Lord of the Flies Notes | Shmoop
• SparkNotes: Lord of the Flies