Several passages in Lord of the Flies allow the reader to know what Jack is feeling. When the boys call for a vote for chief in the beginning, Jack feels confident he should be the group's leader, and when Ralph is elected instead, he blushes with "mortification." When he has failed to kill a piglet caught in the brush, he feels ashamed for not having the courage to spill its blood, and then he feels determined to not let his squeamishness embarrass him again. Hunting exhilarates him, but when he lets the fire go out, he feels humiliated and takes it out on Piggy in anger. When Ralph declares they will look for the beast, Jack is afraid: "For the first time since he had first known Jack, Ralph could feel him hesitate." He gets angry at Ralph for implying Jack's "hunters are no good" against the beast, and his anger and jealousy cause him to call for a vote of no confidence in Ralph. When the vote doesn't go his way, Jack feels humiliated and leaves the group to start his own tribe. During the feast, Jack feels proud. When Ralph visits him at Castle Rock, Ralph senses the hatred Jack and the other boys feel for him and his group.
Jack loves two things primarily, and they are related: power and hunting. Hunting makes Jack feel powerful, not only over the animal he kills, but also because providing meat gives him high status among the other boys. He uses meat and hunting to draw the other boys away from Ralph's tribe at last so that he can be chief as he has wanted to from the beginning.
As mentioned, Jack shares his meat with the other boys as a way of gaining their loyalty. At his feast he even shares with Ralph and Piggy, who have refused to join his tribe.
No comments:
Post a Comment