Describe at least one important character in the written text. Explain how this character is revealed to you throughout the text?
In the novel lord of the flies, we see many characters of significance such as Piggy, Ralph, and twins’ sam and eric. They all play main roles in the story and are first revealed to the audience as neutral or even good characters. In this essay, I’m going to cover the novel’s antagonist character Jack and how he is revealed throughout the story as the villain or hostile towards the boys and how Sigmund Freud’s theory applies to his role.
Jack Is first introduced to us in chapter 1 when the boys are first called to meet by the boom of the conch. In this scene, Jack is seen as a neutral character as normal as anyone else. when the election for a leader or chief commences and he is not chosen something changes inside him, It’s as if he will do anything to be chief. From then on he will stop at nothing to take control. we see this in many places in the book for example ” I got the conch” Said Piggy indignantly. ” You let me speak!”
” The conch doesn’t count on top of the mountain,” Said Jack,” So you shut up.”
Jack is like a dictator here since he is telling Piggy what to do. And this is only the first of many attempts to force others under his rule. Things get even worse when his hunting party begins slaughtering pigs this begins the slow descent into madness and a thirst for blood for all the hunters.
As the novel progresses we see more and more layers of Jacks diverse personality to the point where he is entirely a primitive savage. jack’s slow descent into madness begins with the slaughtering of an innocent pig. At first, Jack hesitates and the pig escapes, but further and further into the story jack becomes more and more comfortable with killing even to the point where boys such as Simon, and piggy are murdered under his rule. This is because with every kill his primitive mind grows stronger and begins to overrule the Ego or his mind that keeps reality in check. Sigmund Freud calls this theory Id, Ego, Super Ego this theory is accurately seen throughout the book in the majority of its characters and especially in Jack. In Freud’s philosophy, he made the analogy that “the ego is described as like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse” the horse being the id. Freud’s philosophy can be applied to many characters and situations both in the world of Literature and the very real world we live in. Not only are these psychological changes observed in lord of the flies they can be seen in classic films such as Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Silence Of The Lambs, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. All these classic films have one thing in common, and that is that the main characters id has been triggered by something, for example in ‘The Shining’ main character Jack Torrence starts as normal as You or I but after months of being isolated up in a mountain lodge over winter with his family he begins to break down mentally to the point where he sees dead people as a coping mechanism and eventually tries to murder his family with an axe. This is a very similar situation to what the boys are in Lord Of The Flies are in as they too are isolated from society on a desolate island. When the human mind is isolated from organised society the id takes over and can make you go insane.
coming back to the question “Describe at least one important character in the written text. Explain how this character is revealed to you throughout the text?” jack is revealed to us throughout the text as important because this idea of Freud’s philosophy influences his choices to the point where jacks choices affect every boy on that island. For example, if it was not for Jack’s influence over the boys Ralph would successfully have got the boys of the island in a much shorter amount of time because the boys would have never been tempted to revolt against Ralph and form a separate tribe the unified strength of the boys would have got them rescued quicker. At the end of the book just before the boys are rescued Jack sets the island ablaze in an attempt to kill Ralph, he even has his hunting party sweep the island with orders to kill. This is Jacks final attempt to gain supreme power because as long as Ralph was living he could never achieve this.
In conclusion, Jack is an important character in the text because of his mindset on power and his unpredictable behaviour to achieve this. He is revealed to us throughout the text as more and more of a savage as the story progresses as his id mind begins to overthrow his ego. William Golding has tried to show the key themes of “savagery and a lust for power” through Jacks character and then revealed this throughout the book through jacks actions and decisions. All in all, Jack is important because of his determination to achieve supreme power no matter the cost, no matter how much blood is spilt.
By Nathan Beaton.
4 Comments
Add Yours →Hi Nathan,
Remember an important part of your introduction is outlining the points you’re going to address in your essay. In your introduction you are introducing irrelevant information that you do not need as well.
Hi Nathan,
Be careful to avoid just explaining the plot or events of the novel. You need to discuss how Jack’s character is being revealed to you throughout the novel. Remember to include connections to the world outside the novel as well and try identifying language features like metaphor or simile to help make your argument stronger.
Hi Nathan,
Good job in describing Sigmund Freud’s theory, you’ve done a great job of describing it and connecting it to the character of Jack. You need to extend into the author’s purpose and start making some connections to the world outside the novel. Think of other novels, films, real world people or events that relate to the concepts you are discussing.
Hi Nathan,
You have a very strong connection between The Lord of the Flies and The Shining. This, however is not meant to be a paragraph on its own. You need to make these connections as part of each paragraph when discussing the point you are using to make that connection. It is extremely relevant to use this in the paragraph discussing the Id, but you need a similar connection for when you are discussing Jack’s decent. You need to tie your quotes into author’s purpose as well. What is Golding trying to say through these quotes? What message is he trying to pass through the character of Jack? You need to have a distinct third paragraph directly related to the question you are being asked. How is Jack’s character revealed to you through the novel? This means discussing things like themes, symbolism, Jack’s role in the novel, etc. You have some very strong ideas here, you just need to link them specifically to the text a bit more.