What is human nature? Do humans control it or does it just evolve? According to William Golding in his 1954 novel Lord of the Flies, it’s a little of both. Two of the main characters, Jack Merridew and Ralph have different human natures. A group of British schoolboys are stranded on an island, and try to build a society, but the hunger for power gets the most of them, and the boys quickly turn savage. Jack, a choirboy from England but now a hunter and chief of most of the island, has a violent and savage nature, and turns to murder and hunting, especially when there are no adults to keep him sane. Ralph, the original chief and the most societal on the island, puts effort into keeping an orderly civilization. He is one of the intelligent ones on the island, staying sane when everything else goes…show more content… His personal human nature gets the best of him while he’s on the island, turning him into a savage. He starts out “tall, thin, and bony,” (Golding 13) and “ugly without silliness” (13). Jack begins on the island as a scrawny little boy, a choir leader from England. Jack is very full of himself. He longs for power and when he lands on this island, it doesn’t take him long to tell the other boys, “‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp’" (15). Jack is the best singer in his group, but singing voice doesn’t determine your power when you are stranded on an island where the main priority is food. When the naval officer comes to rescue the boys in chapter 12, he describes Jack as, “a little boy who wore the remains of an extraordinary black cap on his red hair and who carried the remains of a pair of spectacles at his waist” (182). Jack is made out during the story to be fierce and adultlike, when in reality, he is just a little boy that wants to be in