A main theme in Lord of the Flies is killing the pigs on the island for meat. In the beginning of the book, the boys are unable to kill, the thought of taking an innocent life was too much for them to bear. Jack, the leader of the choir-boys-turned-hunters, tries to go off on his own to kill a pig, but still can not, even though on page 51 he confesses, “‘I went on’ said Jack. ‘I had to let them go. I had to go on. I-’ He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up.” Already the idea of killing something has become a need, a compulsion to do something forbidden in a place with no rules.
