“There is evil nside all of us (Lord of the Flies)”;
Inside all of us there is an indescribable itch that exhibits itself in the form of evil. When we are young it is generally petty little actions that it is expressed in, but as we grow and morally decline these actions can be much more serious and easier to perform. As we see in the Lord of the Flies, a handful of children, predominantly Jack and Roger, demonstrate this to it’s peak potential.
Beginning the Lord of the Flies, we see all of the characters as a group of young kids who have just survived a tragic plane crash. Together, still dumbfounded by what just happened to them, they begin united. There is order in the group and the kids all get along, and work towards a greater good. In this particular case the greater good being survival until they are rescued from the island.
Shortly after reading for awhile longer however, you can start to see how the boys as a whole begin to start acting out due to the lack of consequences for their actions. To begin with, the kids represent this with language choice when talking to each other. Often swear words are incorporated into their sentences, “insert quote”, just because they can’t get into trouble for it. From the start however, Jack seemed to lead the pack when it came to doing things they weren’t suppose to. He offered leadership for those who weren’t capable of making their own decisions, and in result corrupted the pure thinking process they began with leading to the acceptance to evil or dark self expression.
Later into the story you will notice that when Jack and Ralph first go hunting for wild pigs, Jack is more than willing to kill what he needs to survive, “insert quote”, while Ralph just kind of tags along. This is a focal point in the story because it shows the difference in leadership expression between the two morally. On one side Jack is shown as a merciless kid who will do whatever it takes to survive, and on the other Ralph shows that he’s sceptical when it comes to going against his beliefs. It shows that although still enticed, Ralphs morality remains strong through this point, while Jack's willpower is beginning to deplete. In the end, this will separate one faction member from the other. Whether that be the group that is aimed towards unity and rules until rescue, or a ravenous pack of chaotic kids that demonstrate violent “mob mentality” like attributes.
Once the story develops and the crowd of kids are distributed into their preferred faction, there is a clear distinction between the two groups intent. Jack and his group focus on direct concerns such as food and basic survival. Ralph and his group focus on surviving, protecting the Littluns, and making a signal fire for their rescue. Now because Ralph and his squad have their hands full trying to maintain many things with few capable people, they don’t have much time to hunt or to find food. This forces them to go to Jack’s camp in order to find food. Once they arrive they are forced to assimilate to the odd traditions surrounding Jack’s group. While eating food Simon comes back from a walk with big information for the kids, and on run up to them, Jack’s group attacks him on the beach, stabbing him to death. Once they realize that Simon was not the monster, they leave him on the beach letting him wash away out to sea. The next day Piggy and Ralph are traumatised by the experience, while Jack’s group mates get over it due to it being an accident. This scene shows how the two separate groups react to tragedy. Murder was an unimaginable thought to the kids until this point amongst every kid on the island, but the difference between how the two groups handle it shows how they differ morally at this time in the story.
In the end of the Lord of the Flies when piggy is killed, it is clear what dark things the members of Jack’s group were willing to perform in order to survive by their terms. Once again Jack remains unshaken by the experience, “insert quote”, but also decides to hunt down Ralph as a result. At this point Ralph is terrified and running from the killers of Jack’s group. Hunting him down, they chase Ralph through the Jungle like landscape of the island. As Ralph sprints out of the jungle, he trips and falls only to look up and to see a soldier standing in front of him. Ralph is now saved, along with the others, but if it weren’t for the soldier they would’ve killed Ralph just because they wanted to, or because Jack ordered them to. What once started as a tight friendship between Jack and Ralph, became polluted by the evil inside Jack.
In conclusion, as Jack became more and more dark, he began doing whatever he wanted whether it was right or wrong. He controlled a gang of kids who carried out amoral practices. This eventually lead to the creation of a group of kids that did not care about life and its meaning. They cared about survival of the fittest, and what would keep them alive. Disintegration of a line between right and wrong, they were lead down an evil path of survival in Jack's interest. No matter how they started off life on the island, not all could be protected by the most dangerous thing of all, themselves. Finally proving that inside all of us there is an indescribable itch that exhibits itself in the form of evil.