William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies is the story of a group of English schoolboys who crash-land on a deserted island and have to survive until they are rescued, without the structure and convenience of modern society. There are many characters who take prominent role in this story. Piggy, a fat glasses wearing kid whom has asthma is the helping, more feminine boy. Ralph, a tall, somewhat carefree person is the leader. And Jack is a tall, long, bony kid, that’s the hunter. Although, all of the boys go through character changes as a result of being taken away from the strict structure of English society, the character of Jack changes the most through the course of the novel, from a very posh, well-mannered boy who followed the rules of
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Golding uses a pig as symbolism for Jack, the pig symbolizes survival and him moving away from his past society. In the first chapter Golding describes Jacks first in counter with the pig as described in this quote, “There came a pause, a hiatus, the pig continued to scream and the creepers to jerk, and the blade continued to flash at the end of a bony arm. The pause was only long enough for them to understand what an enormity the downward stroke would be. Then the piglet tore loose from the creepers and scurried into the undergrowth. They were left looking at each other and the place of terror. Jack’s face was white under the freckles.” (Golding 31.) The pause that came, feeling like an enormity to them shows and the look of terror on their faces when the piglet broke loose shows that Jack could simply not bring himself to kill the pig. Later in the novel, Jack was able to kill the pig, “Jack, his face smeared with clays, reached the top first and hailed Ralph excitedly, with a lifted spear. ‘Look! We’ve killed a pig—we stole up on them—we got in a circle— ‘” (Golding 69.) Jack calling out excitedly about him killing a pig is him leaving behind the past society of Britain behind. Thus, through the symbolism of the pig, the character of Jack is shown to have great potential to
Golding uses a pig as symbolism for Jack, the pig symbolizes survival and him moving away from his past society. In the first chapter Golding describes Jacks first in counter with the pig as described in this quote, “There came a pause, a hiatus, the pig continued to scream and the creepers to jerk, and the blade continued to flash at the end of a bony arm. The pause was only long enough for them to understand what an enormity the downward stroke would be. Then the piglet tore loose from the creepers and scurried into the undergrowth. They were left looking at each other and the place of terror. Jack’s face was white under the freckles.” (Golding 31.) The pause that came, feeling like an enormity to them shows and the look of terror on their faces when the piglet broke loose shows that Jack could simply not bring himself to kill the pig. Later in the novel, Jack was able to kill the pig, “Jack, his face smeared with clays, reached the top first and hailed Ralph excitedly, with a lifted spear. ‘Look! We’ve killed a pig—we stole up on them—we got in a circle— ‘” (Golding 69.) Jack calling out excitedly about him killing a pig is him leaving behind the past society of Britain behind. Thus, through the symbolism of the pig, the character of Jack is shown to have great potential to