Lord Of The Flies Essay - What Evil Lurks In The Heart Of Jack Essays

Lord Of The Flies Essay - What Evil Lurks In The Heart Of Jack? By Sean Rioux The novel Lord of the flies by William Golding presents and defends a theme that human nature is essential evil, and that a person removed from society will be allowed to let their evil instincts to manifest themselves as the person becomes increasingly savage. In this novel, Golding presents a character (Jack) who takes on and exemplifies this transition to savagery through out the course of the book as the evil inside him is set free. We see Jack, who at first cannot even kill a pig caught in the creepers, fall deeper in deeper into his savage ways as his killing of one pig, and his focus on the hunt turns to bloodlust. Then as it progresses his bloodlust begins to drive more than just the hunt for food as he leaves the dead as sacrifice for the beast, and he begins to turn his violence out towards the other boys, not just his pray. As a final decent into the evil that has consumed him the pray becomes one of the boys as Ralph is hunted with the intent to kill, sacrifice and possib ly even eat in an act of cannibalism. Before the evil began to grow in strength within Jack, he was a boy much like the others and like the others he found the concept of killing another living thing was not something easy to digest, but Jack learned. How ever hard it was for Jack to first kill a pig, spilling its blood on his bare hands, once he had first killed another living thing his path towards evil and savagery was well one its way. Early on in the novel we find Ralph, Simon and Jack walking through the forest when they come across a small pig tangled and caught in the creepers. Although Jack does have a knife with him his hesitation combined with the overwhelming reality of the situation keeps Jack stunned in his place and the pig escapes untouched. Jack swears to himself and the others that he will kill the next pig and this pressure to perform to prove himself a true and worthy hunter, leads him to obsession over the hunt. To Jack the hunt becomes more than just a game, or a source of food, it becomes his mission, duty and purpose on the island. When Jack makes his first kill he is spellbound by the power of life and death he exerts on the pig and is fascinated by the warm blood that pours from the wound he cuts to slit the pigs throat. Now the hunt has become something more for Jack as lust for blood begins to stir in him and the hunger for that feeling of power over another beings mortality grows. The others on the island begin to take interest and excitement in the hunt as Jack has provided meat, and the draw of the hunt and its bloody gore begin to stir in the other boys. This acts as a catalyst to the fall of the brittle society Ralph protects as the boys through Jack see the chaotic and savage game of the hunt and the prospect of more meat far more amusing and pleasing than even getting home. Jack denies the importance of the fire or shelters suggesting he is in complete obedience to the draw of the hunt, and the inherent evil that comes with. Cruel as slitting a pigs throat may at first seem to Jack, as the lust for blood that stirs in him begins to escalate, so does the power of evil deep within him, and for Jack the hunt becomes that much more lust full and primal. As Jacks grasp on the forgotten reality he left behind fades away, the new more savage ways of his tribe of hunters begins to shape a culture around the evil of the island. Jacks kills, as time passes become more and more brutal and without mercy as he begins to loss any morel structure or compassion for other living beings. When hunting one day he manages to track a sow with young still suckling at her