Lord Of The Flies- How Does Jack Become Leader? Essay

From the beginning of the novel “Lord of the Flies”, it is immediately obvious that Jack does not like the idea of Ralph being the chief of the boys.By the end of the book he successfully acquires the position he works towards. The idea of Jack being a leader is first portrayed by Jack ordering his choir in “army” type maneuvers to the first meeting . Jack bellows at his choir , “Choir!’ stand still!” his choir wearily responds obediently.

Jacks first priority to secure his position as chief is to shut down Piggy , who is the man with the ideas in Ralph’s democratic rule.

From the beginning Jack cunningly uses the fact that piggy is the “scapegoat” to constantly break down Piggy’s ideas with the view that once Piggy’s gone, then Ralph has little intelligence to support his views. He is helped greatly in this field as most of the tribe use piggy to make fun of but not in the same extremity as that of Jack.

Psychologically is the way that Jack begins his torment towards piggy and as the book progresses so did his level of control. His demeaning words turn towards violence and his violence eventually leads to Piggy’s death.

Jack understands that in order to persuade the children to side with him he would need some sort of a bait. Due to the condition on the island the most appropriate inducement is the lure of hunting. However any other form of pleasure could have been used so long as it appeared to be free from tyranny (Ralph’s orders to be rescued). The hunting starts off for enjoyment and food then quickly grows to be a tribal ritual of bloodlust , dancing and violence.

Jack knows in order to become chief he not only can rely on the lure of hunting.He uses cunning and manipulative strategies to illustrate a false image of himself praying on the innocence of the “littluns’.

Perhaps the greatest instance in which this occurs is when jack gives a manipulative apology after not following orders to keep the fire lit resulting in not being rescued by a passing ship.”All right, all right!’ he looked at Piggy , at the hunters, at Ralph. “I’m sorry. About the fire, I mean. There. I-” He drew himself up. “-I apologize.” Once again his sinister apology targeted at the innocence of the younger members, concluded in the naïve “littluns” believing that Ralph was somehow in the wrong and not jack. “Clearly they were of the opinion that jack had done the decent thing, had put himself in the right by his generous apology and Ralph, obscurely in the wrong.”

Possibly the most powerful campaign Jack used to become chief, was to use force and fear together to drive the intimidated children to side with him. Most of the time Jack displays his force on Piggy which in turn puts fear into the minds of the others. As the break up of rules and regulations in the society grow larger so to does the force and fear eventually leading to the death of children. By this stage in the novel it seems inedible that anyone not with jack would be either forced to join his tribe of savages or face death.

Reflecting on the novel it is clear to see how Jack becomes a leader and sure enough the power hungry dictator-leader of the choir we are introduced to at the start, only grows more violent and more manipulative to become the Chief of the island.