The Development of Jack in

A detailed Summary of The Development of Jack in


In the novel "Lord of the Flies" Jack is the character that goes through the most change of anyone throughout the novel. He begins the story as an arrogant choir boy, who we actually see cry when he is not elected leader of the island. Jack's physical appearance is described as,

"Inside the floating cloak he was tall, thin and bony; his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled and ugly without silliness" (p. 19)

Jack's original goals were much like those of Ralph, to keep an organized group on the island. Jack says,

"I agree with Ralph. We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are the best at everything. So we've got to do the right things." (p. 40)

Although we are shown a fairly normal boy, we begin to see that Jack can be very mean at the same time. While Piggy is talking, Jack exclaims,

"You're talking too much. Shut up fatty." (p. 20)

Jack is made the leader of the hunting tribe. He and his hunters face much trouble trying to hunt and kill a pig. Coming from a place like England, he has not had any experience in anything like this before. He is struggling to be a hunter, because right now he still has not made his decent into


"...the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness." (p. 62)

Jack was seeing all this trouble they were going through as a game, and went off with many of the older boys and formed his own shelter at the rock. Ralph and Piggy had now lost their influence over almost everyone. Jack had become a dictator, ruling by force. He tied up and beat one of the boys, just to set an example. He manged to get all the boys except Piggy and Ralph to join his group. They were all dressed like savages and Jack'urges become clearly evident. He had no care for anyone and had no feeling for killing like he did earlier when he thought about killing the pig. The final step in Jack's decent into savagery is when he steals Piggy's glasses. Piggy goes to get them back and Jack orders the boulder to be let go, which kills Piggy. This is a premeditated murder. He directed the other children to torch the island in an attempt to kill Ralph, and he went charging after him with murderous intent. I think he would have killed Ralph if the Naval officer had not arrived when he did.

"His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living

Some common words found in the essay are:
Soon Jack, Coming England, Flies Jack, Piggy Ralph, English English, Ralph Piggy, Ralph Naval, Unfortunately Jack, Ralph We've, author jack, jack killed, step jack's, , ralph piggy,

Approximate Word count = 864
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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