Revision

My choice project is a revision of the literary analysis done in the first semester. I chose this essay because I felt like this one was one of my best pieces this year. It clearly represents my strength of taking factual evidence and writing complete papers about it. This piece includes an immensely greater ending than the original as well as corrected grammatical mistakes. In my original piece, I had embedded quotations incorrectly, and the piece a conclusion that didn't tie the essay together as a whole. This revision better represents Jack's hunger for power in Lord of the Flies.

The Obsession

            Is having a witty and unstable leader better for society than having a smart and stable leader? Lord of the Flies by William Golding answers this question in an unusual method that creates a lasting effect on the reader. Humanity is quick to trust those around it without questioning their motives, but that may easily be its downfall. Golding portrays Jack as a power-hungry and bloodthirsty bigun, which suggests that the lonely boy values his needs and power over friendship with others. Jack’s obsession with hunting, desire to overthrow Ralph, maintenance of an illusion of the beast, and bullying of Piggy causes a war between the young boys. 

            The first sign of a thirst for leadership and blood is when Jack asks to be a hunter for the society when they distribute the roles to the boys. He declares that the choir members will hunt with him. This command is positively followed by Ralph and the others because Jack leaves them no choice. Jack’s desire to butcher everything in his way causes many problems such as losing the fire, minuscule tasks not being completed, the creation of a new society, and the death of fellow members of the boys’ unstable society. The fire ends because of Jack’s selfishness and obsessions. He is out hunting while a ship passes the island, but the boys are left unnoticed because Jack is not tending to the fire. The passing of the ship infuriates his friends, mostly Ralph, and makes them questions Jack’s motives and devotion. Trying to interpret the situation, Ralph approaches Jack and says “[Ralph] let the fire go out” (69). This occurrence makes Ralph assemble the group in a meeting, leading to the reestablishment of jobs for the society and 9eventually, the destruction of it. These situations bring the reader to question Jack’s complexity. These occurrences initially make the young boy seem curious and witty, but he is naïve and selfish due to his desire to please himself by only wanting to hunt and lead the people of the island into chaotic situations.

            Once Jack receives freedom from Ralph’s power over him, he steals the conch to assemble his friends in a meeting. His second attempt to force himself into a position of leader ship is claiming that Ralph is only ruining the society while Jack can give everyone freedom and meat. In the meeting, no one wants to follow Jack even though he says, “[They’ll] hunt. [He’s] going to be chief” (133). After the meeting is over, the majority of people follow Jack into their new society. This follows the pattern of laws being established in the meetings and civilized areas of society and the laws being broken because of humanity’s carelessness. Jack asserting himself as a leader reminds the reader of a dictator more than a king or an elected leader. This act shows that Jack only values his own opinions, even though he is in a place where democracy should be key. Jack’s thirst for blood and hunger for power often align with each other as they do in this situation. He is mainly followed because he promises his followers meat and the destruction of the beast. Even though these goals seem important to the boys, it tears them apart by not realizing that Jack does not know how to be a peaceful leader.

            Jack shows his desire to continue hunting and keep his leadership for as long as he can when he promises that he will give the beast a portion of their food as an offering. He tries to ease his followers’ worries by claiming that Simon is the “beast” and allowing them to kill him. Once Jack realizes that peace and order cannot keep him in his position of dictator, he approaches this situation by claiming that the beast will never be satisfied by telling his followers that "He came—disguised. He may come again even though we gave him the head of our kill to eat” (160). This shows the reader that Jack’s focus is not on the people but on his ability to control what happens to the society. Jack is maintaining his ability to hunt for pigs or other living creatures by not allowing anyone to restrict him.

            Jack’s final act of selfishness and cruelty is bullying Piggy. When Jack and Ralph first meet, they are fascinated by each other. They appear to be close friends for a short amount of time. They often bonded in the bullying of Piggy. This activity allowed them to have one thing in common while maintaining their diversity. As the boys split apart from each other when Jack demands less work and more control over the people, they stop bonding in their mocking and teasing of Piggy. Ralph grows closer to Piggy because he has no other close friends after Jack leaves. This results in Ralph teasing Piggy much less and defending the boy more. Jack’s desire to rebel against Ralph makes him want to bully Piggy more than he did before. He increases the name-calling and the physical harassment. Jack breaks Piggy’s glasses and says rude things like, “[Piggy] would, would [he]? Fatty!” (71). These actions make Jack seem lonely and jealous of Piggy for stealing Ralph from him, which could be the cause of his need to only care for himself. He claims revenge for Piggy stealing his best friend on the island by having his followers murder Piggy. This seems to anger Ralph, further ruining his ties to Jack.

Jack’s struggle for power is represented by his smaller actions in attempting to own the island and its people. Once the people learn about the type of leader Jack is, they even begin to dislike him. This creates an awkward phase in society where the people are forced to follow Jack because they are scared to do anything else. Despite Jack’s efforts to “improve” society, his plans backfired causing his own demise.