Lord of the Flies Character Metamorphosis

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Lord of the Flies Character Metamorphosis Like a caterpillar that goes through metamorphosis and changes into a butterfly, Jack, Roger and Ralph also go through their own metamorphosis of character. Jack, Roger and Ralph are all fictional characters in William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies that tells the story of a group of English schoolboys stranded on a tropical island after their plane was shot down and crashed. The novel discusses the dark side of humanity and the capacity of evil and savagery that lies within each one of us, even the most civilized of human beings. The novel also shows how this capacity for evil can change us and take us from innocence to experience. Jack, Roger and Ralph journey through the process of innocence to experience through the course of the novel. To begin, Jack’s journey through the process of innocence to experience can be observed through his clothes, the rules and authority he follows, and his killing. Since the clothes make the man, Jack’s transformation in character can be followed through what he wears because it changes as Jack goes from innocence to experience. For example, Jack, along with his whole choir start off wearing very constricting clothing, “their bodies, from throat to ankle, were hidden by black cloaks which bore a long silver cross on the left breast and each neck was finished off with a hambone frill” (15). The choir uniform that Jack initially wears clearly portrays his innocence because it makes him look prim and proper, showing his connection to civilization and society. As the novel progresses, so does Jack’s change in clothing because “except for a pair of tattered shorts held up by his knife-belt [Jack] was naked” (48). This loss in clothing helps portray Jack’s further descent into savagery, thus proving his disconnection from civilization and society. However, the final change in Jack’s
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