Character Development In Lord Of The Flies

Everyone longs for some sort of power, it’s how it is revealed and drawn out of them that limits to the compulsion of savagery. Uncivilized acts can be carried out from a person’s violent side. However, if it isn’t recognized by a guilty conscious than impulses of ferocious behavior can break out into a natural state of being for someone. In his book, Lord of the Flies, William Golding used character development to relate to the theme of his story. A group of British children crashed on a tropical island and had to fight for survival, all competing for power and going to a great extent of killing each other to gain it. One of the characters, Jack, his need for power leads him to lose control of his savage impulses. The smallest bit of satisfaction
someone can get from curing their needs can trigger an instinct or a switch in their mind. Facing that timid fear and overcoming an obstacle can also set it off as well. The build up of Jack’s angry and unsettledness helps factor in. In the start of the book Jack and the boys were hunting, “Jack’s face was white under the freckles...then they all three laughed ashamedly and began to climb back to the track”(Golding 31). Jack failed to kill the pig they were hunting. The boys made fun of him and called him out of being weary and afraid. Reacting to all the comments Jack “snatched his knife out the sheath and slammed it into the trunk. Next time there would be no mercy”(Golding 31). His anger is going to escalate until he is satisfied with his outcomes. Aside from being angry, he is somewhat embarrassed. Jack wants the boys to be proud of him and see him as a leader, as they do Ralph, one of the other main characters. The development of overcoming obstacles is achieved in many different ways. When a problem occurs or someone cannot reach their goal they often have a plan. One way, is changing your point of view and attack it that way. Like Jack, he develops a new “face” and becomes fearless and be who he wants under that mask. William Golding described Jack with his new mask right before he was going to hunt, “He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling. He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing on it’s own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from from shame and self-consciousness”(Golding 64). Jack was getting caught up in the whole idea of becoming stronger. Killing and hunting didn’t help his character either, it was making it worse. He is blind from the real priorities and all he wants is to hunt and feel that power. Once Jack feels that power of killing he gets engulfed in the essence by the sudden rage of ending a life.
The boys on the island were afraid of this “beast” and jack managed to convince them that it was on of the other boys. They all got so caught up in killing the beast that they didn’t even feel remorse for killing the kid. Even one of the boys, piggy responded to someone saying it was murder, “You stop it! What good’re you doing talking like that?”(Golding 156). They were all in denial of the situation besides Jack. He egged them on and told the boys that he was the beast and to surround him and everything. When someone is getting all the power they want, they don’t care who they are hurting or destroying. Telling the boys what to do gives Jack a sense of leadership and power, as long as he has that he is
content. Killing became a game and fear became an aspect that Jack used against the boys.
It was the way he gained more power. He would make it seem that all the killing and hunting was okay, and since the boys followed him and did everything he said Jack felt more and more in control. That power is what set him off and go over board. He made dances and had the boys worship him. Before Ralph and piggy went to go see Jack and his tribe William Golding said, “...Jack, painted and garlanded, sat there like an idol. There were piles of meat on green leaves near him, and fruit, and coconut shells full of drink”(Golding 149). The boys worshipped Jack and that’s all he wanted from the beginning. He abuses his talent and power though. He changed his name from Jack to Chief now. He even has the boys do a dance around the prey they are killing. They circle up around it and scream “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood”(Golding 69). “The chief led them, trotting steadily, exulting in his achievement”(Golding 168), Jack was too proud of the things he’s done. He feels no mercy and and has no guilty conscious and he is training the boy hunters to be like that as well. Mankind will do anything to feel that satisfaction of power, even if they have to do the
extreme.
From the very start, all Jack wanted was to be leader and have control of everything and all the boys. When he finally had courage to help hunt for food he got that adrenalin rush, but it was never ending. The excitement of kill overpowered him and everything he did. That’s all he ever wanted to do, the fact that he had control over killing animals and even people excited him. Jack used many aspects against the boys to gain his power though. Things like: the beast, and fear, and survival, and saying that it was all for good and threatening anyone who thought otherwise. Everyone has those savage impulses, it’s how they are brought out of someone, and how they are dealt with is key. When it becomes uncontrollable than it can make someone a cruel monster and always wanting more because it’s never enough.