Throughout Golding’s novel, egomaniacal Jack is a primary representative of character development as he undergoes a transformation from a proper leader of the choirboys to one who favors savagery, violence, and the desire for power. Early on, Jack retains the sense of moral propriety and behavior that society instilled in him. He express this by claiming, “We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages... I'll split up the choir -- my hunter, that is -- into group, and we'll be responsible for keeping the fire going” (42-43). Nevertheless, Jack portrays his short tempered, naturally aggressive personality; even before the trauma of the island has an effect on him; "Out of this face stared two light blue eyes, frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn, to anger” (20). His desires of power above all other things leaves him furious when he loses the election to Ralph, resulting in him continually pushing the boundaries of his subordinate role in the group. As the choirboys take responsibility of becoming the hunters, Jack is unable to kill when he first encounters a pig. Golding depicts that the rest of the hunters, “knew very well why he hadn't: because of the in Normandy of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood" (31).
In contrast to Jack’s original inability to kill, he soon becomes obsessed with hunting and devotes himself to the task. He gives himself over to the bloodlust and paints his face like a barbarian; "Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw” (63). Jack delineates his favor for hunting and its savage reward of meat over the civilized domesticity and hope for rescue that Ralph tries to maintain. The more savage Jack becomes, the more he is able to control the rest of the group. Indeed, the group follows Jack in casting off moral restraint and embracing violence and savagery. Caught up in the moment, Jack and the hunters slaughter a sow, "Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife… The sow collapsed under them and they were heavy and fulfilled upon her… he giggled and flip them while the boys laughed at is wreaking palms. Then Jack grabbed to Maurice and rubbed the stuff over his cheeks” (135). This revolting scene of how the boys can gruesomely spreads blood on others, laugh at this attack and end up putting the sow’s head on a stick portrays the savagery transformation that has happened. Jack’s fondness of authority and violence are intimately connected, as both him to feel powerful and exalted.
As Jack loses his moral innocence, Jack leads his group of choirboys-turned-hunters in mutiny against Ralph's leadership by playing on the boys' baser instincts. Due to Jack’s heightened desire for power he justifies yet again that he should be chief not Ralph since, "He's not a hunter. He'd never have got us meat. He isn't a perfect and we don't know anything about him. He just gives orders and expects people to obey for nothing" (126). Not only does he revolt towards Ralph’s leadership, he reveals that he wants absolute power by stating, "It's time some people knew they've got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us” (102). Then in Chapter 8 a split occurs among the boys and they are divided into two tribes. An overall psychological decline occurs as some boys slowly choose to follow their instincts in preference to order. By the end of the novel, the tribe lays before him as he sits naked to the waist with a blocked out face of paint while, "power lay in the brown swell of his forearms: authority sat on his shoulder and chattered and his ear like an ape” (150). Jack transforms into a primal entity, exploring the dark side of humanity and the savagery that underlies even the most civilized human beings.
