We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all we’re not savages :: English Literature

We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all we’re not savages When the boys first step on the island they are very civilised; they are all wearing clothes and walking around in groups exploring. Ralph and Piggy then find a conch, and use it to contact the other boys on the island. This moment establishes that the conch symbolises law on the island. Every time the conch is blown all the children come for an assembly. When the first assembly is held, Ralph is voted in as chief, instead of Jack. This frustrates Jack but Ralph consoles him and says that he and his choir can be hunters, and Jack jumps at this opportunity. I think this is the first indication of savagery as everyone is very nervous and afraid, but as soon as Ralph mentions hunting to the choir they are all quite excited. The savagery emerges with â€Å"hunting† as â€Å"hunting† presents the image of killing. We see the boy’s developing excitement of ideas of savagery with this passage, â€Å"Jack and Ralph smiled at each other with shy liking. The rest began to talk eagerly.† When Ralph, Jack, and Simon climb up the mountain to see across the island, they come across a pig trapped in some vines when Jack draws his knife and can’t bring himself to kill the pig, it is because he is too civilised at this point in the book; "The pause was only long enough for them to understand what an enormity the downward strike would be." Here Jack doesn’t kill the pig however his attitude to killing pigs, and indeed humans, changes radically during the story. Chapter three opens with Jack hunting pigs through the jungle. Here, there are many animal images attached to Jack, for example Golding writes, â€Å"Jack was bent double†¦.his nose only a few inches from the humid earth.† and â€Å"Then, dog-like†¦on all fours† The descriptions likening Jack to an animal show the first signs of regression among the boys. The most relevant part in this section is the part when Golding describes Jack as ape-like, because modern humans evolved from apes, and so regression would lead to acting again as apes. A line from the passage reads, â€Å"less a hunter than a furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle of trees.† Despite Jack's attempts, he does not kill a pig. He is obsessed with hunting and killing a pig, after his previous embarrassing failure to do so, with Ralph and Simon. "From the pig-run came the quick, hard patter of hoofs, a castanet sound, seductive, maddening-the promise of meat." This desire is clearly overwhelming him. The desire to kill, and thus