Daniel Ramos

English Gate Period 7

January 28, 2016

In the Neigh-boar-hood of the Jungle

At the beginning of Lord of the Flies, Jack had little concern with the pig that

he let escape in the jungle, but like the long creepers dangling down from the trees,

his obsession grew. It changed into more than an obsession, a ruling fixation, for

killing that specific pig. This drove his hunters and him backwards into a complete

tribal and primitive state. Jacks pig hunt symbolizes how mans capacity and

capability for destruction and violence can convert one into an animal.

On page 31, his hunt commences in the initial meat n greet with the pig.

Golding wrote the squealing increased till it became a frenzy. The pigs volume

could be allegorical symbolism for jacks obsession; it started small and grew into

something uncontrollable. He also said Jack drew his knife again with a flourish.

He raised his arm in the air. Jack drawing his knife out with a flourish has a ring

that makes it sound superficial, as if he was drawing it so show everyone else he

has power. Later, Jack says, You cut a pigs throat to let the blood out otherwise

you cant eat the meat. If Jack intended in killing the pig in the first place, his arm

would not have been raised to an extent that would make it difficult for him to slit

the pigs throat easily. He had the power and capability to do it; the opportunity was

right in front of his snout. Jack knew the reason he could not kill the pig was

because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh;

because of the living blood, but that before he started to feel the obsession and

gilt.
 By Jacks second encounter with the pig on page 48, Jack was much more

primitive. Goldings words about Jacks position went from bent double (a position

that is bent over as it he was throwing up from the swine flu) to like a sprinter to

dog-like, uncomfortable on all fours yet unheeding his discomfort, foreshadowing

how Jack goes from an innocent British choir boy to a complete animal. A major

moment of animalistic features Jack possessed was shown when Golding said, They

[his eyes] were bright blue, eyes that in this frustration seemed bolting and nearly

mad. Another moment of Jacks primativity is on page 49 when he shrank at this

cry with a hiss of indrawn breath, and for a minute became less a hunter than a

furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle of trees. In this whole search on page 48

and 49, Holding is relatedly dehumanizing Jack.

By the time Jack and his hunters finally killed the pig on page 68 through 71,

they were in a tribal state, chanting kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood,

which is the only thing jack really cared about. When Ralph confronted jack about

letting the five go out and possibly obstructing their only way off of the island, jack

cared so little, and he was vaguely irritated by this irrelevance. This irrelevance

was their only way off of the island, but jack only had eyes for the pig.

Jack was turned into a complete animal by chapter 4 due to Goldings

dehumanizations toward him. Jack's moment in the first chapter showed the

capability and power he had to kill the pig, but chose not to. As he went on, his

nature morphed and lost its humanity until he was indistinguishable that of an

animal. Jack's crave for violence could end them all