Describe at least one important character in the written text. Explain how the character is revealed to you throughout the text?

• dictatorship
• right vs wrong
• civilisation vs savagery
• authority figure
• leadership
• vicious and arrogant
• sees this from one point of view
• insecurities and jealous
• believes all he does is right
• has no one to correct him
• is in the here and now

Introduction

“I was talking about smoke! Don’t you want to be rescued? All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!” This is a quote that is directed towards an important character named Jack, it represents the unleashing of his primal instincts, his one point of view and how he only cares about the here and now. Jack takes part in many important scenes that show the unleashing of his primal instincts, his one point of view and how he only cares about the here and now, this is shown throughout the novel “Lord of the Flies” written by William Golding.

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Jack demonstrates the unleashing of someones primal nature and the violence that comes with it. His choices and reactions in the novel show us that he slowly unravels his primal instincts, this comes from jealousy that has formed over time because Ralph and Piggy are a lot more Civilised than he every was, which causes him to be ashamed of who he is therefore he turns into a violent person that being his true nature. By feeling ashamed and insignificant when compared to Ralph and Piggy he decides to use the fear of other people to help him gain power, by taking the chief status away from Ralph and taking it for himself, this causes his violent nature to emerge. In chapter 9 the author wrote a scene where all the boys started chanting “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” this is an example of when Jack let his true nature control his actions. The author wrote that scene because he wanted to show the world what can happen when a person lets their true nature overcome them completely, and the consequences behind it. A real world example would be war. One small disagreement between two leaders, from two different countries, that can turn into an out right war, the leaders that started the war not caring about the casualties they will lose, only the power they will gain once they win, those leaders lost their humanity by starting the war, the only though that still remains in their mind being power. By allowing someones true nature to emerge, and by losing their humanity in it all the only after math that remains being violence and death. The reason it relates so well to the book is because Jack only wants the chief status, willing to do anything to get it. He shows us this when he used his true nature to manipulate the littluns fear of the beast to gain the his chief status, at this point the littluns where so blinded by their fear and the lies Jack was spreading, that he had all the littluns convinced that Simon was the beast, the object of all their fears, so if they killed Simon all their fears would go away. As a result Simon was brutally killed. Jack was now the new chief of his tribe, and he did so by losing his humanity to primal instincts. He is now as violent as they come, willing to do anything for power. 

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“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view” this quote represents Jack in a different way then you might think. Jack doesn’t understand other people because he only sees what he wants to, therefor he doesn’t bother listening to others because to him it doesn’t matter, he will always be right in his mind, and everything he does is for the greater cause. He believes he can do no wrong, he sees only his point of view. In chapter 5 Jack had enough of Ralph and his demands, he believed Ralph was not fit to lead the littluns he saw only himself worthy enough for the job “And you shut up! Who are you, anyway? Sitting there telling people what to do. You can’t hunt, you can’t sing—” Jack didn’t understand where Ralph was coming from when trying to lead the littluns, but to Jack it didn’t matter the only thing Jack cared about was what he thought, which was, he is the only person fit to be chief. The author purposely made Jack this way because every story needs a antagonist, so the author made him the so called rival or opponents of the protagonist in the story, and since Jack was made to see only his point of view this made the readers think Jack was that antagonist. Relating back to the quote I started with “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view” since Jack wasn’t made to understand others point of view he could not be the so called protagonist of the story, leaving him to fill in the role of the antagonist. Other then “Lord of the Flies” the theme of protagonist and antagonist are in almost every novel you come to read, without this their theme the novels would all be rather dull, any story needs to be able to draw in readers. Without the conflict and drama between them then there wouldn’t be much of a story to read.

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What is more important, preparing for what might come in the future or preparing for everything that is happing in the present? Depending on your choice you might see the novel differently to when you first read it. In the novel Jack is seen as the antagonist, Ralph being the protagonist, this is because Jack only cares about what is happening in the present moment, he was preparing the littluns for the possibility of being suck on the island forever. Therefore he hunted for food, so they wouldn’t starve that being his only priority, while Ralph was building a signal fire in the small hopes that they would see a ship and be rescued. “I was talking about smoke! Don’t you want to be rescued? All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!” this show us a scene where Ralph was so focused on the fire and the small chance of rescue, that he didn’t care to think about the possibility they could be stuck on that island forever. When the author wrote the novel, a lot of what he wrote could be seen from different views Jack is seen as the antagonist because he is so obsessed with killing the pig, but if you think about it Jack was just looking out for the littluns survival. Going back to the quote from the book “I was talking about smoke! Don’t you want to be rescued? All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!” in that moment a ship sailed past but because the fire was not looked after by the two boys that were meant to control/watch it went out, and the ship didn’t see them. After this scene people started to see Jack as the antagonist since a ship sailed and the chance of rescue got even smaller, but just imagine if the ship never sailed past, the children where still starving, and the fire was the only thing that matter, then the children would all be dead by now. Since Jack had the meat as the top priority the children didn’t end up starving to death. These points may or may not of changed how you see Jack, but just ask yourselves the real reason Jack why Jack is seen as the antagonist, and maybe that will change your mind.

Conclusion

Jack was shown to us throughout the novel “Lord of the Flies” written by William Golding because of his actions and choices that he made: when he let his true nature influence his choices, when he refused to see other people’s points of view, and when he showed us he only cares about the here and now. Those were the three main points that showed us who Jack really was and why he was important to the novel because without him the story would no longer have the antagonist character and would therefore by making the novel quiet dull.