Jack himself is savage, he transforms them to be savage and barbaric. Golding characterizes Jack’s control of his tribe of hunters as savage and barbaric. All the boys are imitating Jack and as they do, they become savage as Rousseau states about society. We can easily see, that when Jack starts to chant and dance, the other boys start to imitate what he is doing and even become bloodthirsty like Ralph. Rousseau says that when society started to develop, we all started to imitate each other because our surroundings started to evolve as savages, we became savage. The desire to squeeze and hurt was overmastering.” ()īy Jack starting a ritualistic practice, the other boys join in because they want to fit in. ‘Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!’ Ralph too was fighting to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh.
“The chant rose ritually, as at the last moment of a dance or a hunt. When the boys pretend to hunt, using Roger as the pig, they all chant and dance as their savagery increases. Rousseau says that when we evolved, we started to compare ourselves to everyone and imitate them. As the boys sing it, they get the same effect, they even circle a boy who acts to be the pig and act out the killing. Whenever Jack goes hunting, he chants his song which makes him exhilarated and savage. Jack triggers the boy’s savagery by making them perform ritualistic practices. William Golding depicts the boy’s social development on the island as innocent children in a new environment to selfish and savage because of Jack’s savage influence, which we can relate to Rousseau’s social contract theory.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau states in his social contract theory that man started off as innocent people and as civilization developed, they became selfish. He manipulates the boys into agreeing with him, triggers their savagery, and torments them with threats to their life. In the novel, the boy’s main source of their development is Jack. As we evolved, we became selfish and savage, because we wanted to be like others and since they were selfish, we were too. Rousseau contradicts Golding’s thoughts and thinks that humans when they were first in Nature, were civil and innocent. William Golding makes it seem that humans, if not controlled or looked after, can go to a darker side of themselves. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding characterises the boy from innocent children who have just been deserted on an island to murderous savages who have gone to a darker side.
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