Jack and his Devilishness

          Jack Merridew is one of the main characters of chapter one of Lord of the Flies, and is important to the action in the story as well as the symbolism. At the end of the chapter,  while Jack, Ralph, and Simon are done exploring the island, they're going back to the beach where all the other kids are when a pig appears from the brush. Jack by instinct tries to kill it with his knife, but it escapes in time. "They were left looking at each other and the place of terror. Jack's face was white under the freckles. He noticed that he still held the knife aloft and brought his arm down, replacing the blade in the sheath" (Golding 30). From this incident and the reaction he has from losing the pig, it shows how Jack has darkness somewhere in his nature, and evidently, that he can be malicious. In this case, since they're now in a mode of survival on the island, Jack symbolizes the 'animal' or natural instincts that people have inside of them, or the trait that in society is seen as insanity. Jack's actions also possibly show how he will become just as, or even more, ferocious later on in the story when trying to survive either by killing animals, or even going against people. "He snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk. Next time there would be no mercy" (Golding 30). When Jack has such an instinct to kill the pig, it also might be foreshadowing the possibility that Jack will also try to kill the character, Piggy. The pig and Piggy are close in names, so that might be a play off his name and what appears in the jungle for the sake of trying to tell something to the reader in an easy way. Also on a deeper level, the pig and Piggy are similar because they are both scared of something, Piggy of being stranded , and the pig, of Jack. Since pig and Piggy are similar and the pig was the prey in the situation with Jack, maybe that means Piggy will be the prey in a future situation with Jack. Jack is important to this chapter with his devilish characteristics and how much symbolism he shows to the story.