What Does Jack Merridew Represent In Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the Flies Essay Jack Merridew is a symbol for savagery. From the very beginning, he seems to harbor emotions of anger and savagery. At first, he is the leader of his choir group, who become hunters as the book progresses. Finally, his savage personality and ability to tell people what they want to hear, allows him to overtake Ralph as chief. The three points I will be talking about in this essay are Jack’s character, Jack’s symbolism, and the moral or lesson Golding is trying to teach us throughout the story. Jack Merridew is a young boy, probably the same age as Ralph, possibly older. On pg. 20 Golding describes Jack as “…tall, thin and bony; and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face
Different characters provide different symbols. Jack is a symbol of savagery and anarchy. Golding relates this to the evil and cruel people in the world. When Jack first arrives on the island he is excited to have rules for their new settlement. Jack exclaims on pg. 33 “ We’ll have rules!” he cried excitedly. “Lots of rules!…” Jack changes his view on rules towards the end of the story because he rebels from Ralph’s leadership and starts his own clan. Jack’s character goes from a choirboy who doesn’t have that much power to a savage and power hungry character without guidelines. While Jack’s first attempt to kill the pig failed, his quote “ Before I could kill it-but-next time!” foreshadowed his future of savage hunting. When Jack shows signs of belligerence by arguing with Ralph, the meaning of a child is stressed. The fighting of Jack and Ralph in the early chapters, foreshadows the future conflicts between them in the future. In chapter four called “ Painted Faces and Long Hair”, Jack’s savagery is becoming more known. Jack’s mask of face paint represents a cover that he can hide behind, which liberates and frees him, allowing him to do anything when wearing it, without worrying about any important matters. Jack still does not understand Ralph’s concern with the fire, and
Although one cannot be sure of Golding’s motives for choosing the island setting, it was probably because it works best to have the characters isolated, where the laws of their governments cannot reach them. Also, why did Golding choose children instead of adolescents, or adults? Most likely because children have not yet fully conditioned by society to understand right from wrong, and thus in this ignorance, most of them are guided by their instinct and what is inherent within them. If older, more knowledgeable characters were chosen, the events of the novel may not occur as they do. In the beginning of the story Jack, still conditioned by the previous society he had been apart of; could not bear to kill a pig that was caught in the brush. As the plot progresses he becomes less and less attached to any societal norms. Near the end, he feels no shame about the deaths of Simon and Piggy, nor his attempt to kill Ralph. Lord of the Flies has more than one “theme” or meaning, but the overall and most important one is that the conditions of life within society are closely related to the moral integrity of its individual members. The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human