How does Golding make Jack such a frightening figure in the novel? Amy Allison 10th Grade

In his novel, ‘Lord of the Flies’, Golding highlights Jack and one of the story’s pivotal characters. Whilst it may originally appear that Jack is just one of the many confused boys on the island, Golding quickly sets Jack aside from the other boys by establishing his frightening character. In this essay I will analyse and explore the linguistic techniques and structural elements of Golding’s writing to determine the ways in which they present Jack as such a frightening figure throughout the novel.

Golding presents Jack as such a frightening character in the novel as he describes how naturally ruthless he is. Golding describes how ‘he gave orders, sang, whistled, threw remarks at the silent Ralph’. The juxtaposition between giving orders and pleasant activities such as singing and whistling, combined with the aggressive lexis ‘threw’, demonstrates how Jack lacks boundaries and that in his mind, the difference between right and wrong is extremely ambiguous, hence why it is so easy for Jack to be ruthless. The lexis ‘silent’ has connotations of vulnerability, Golding’s intention being to reveal how Jack thrives on Ralph’s shortcomings, particularly because at the beginning of the novel, Ralph is presented as a strong orator and...