Identity In Lord Of The Flies

The first and most obvious example of loss of identity in Lord of the Flies, is Percival Wemys Madison. In chapter 5 when Percival is given the conch he rhymes off his name, address and telephone. “‘Percival Wemys Madison, The Vicarage, Harcourt St. Anthony, Hants, telephone, telephone, telephone, tele-’” (93). Percival is already starting to forget simple things about himself after spending a short amount of time on the island. He is quickly losing sight of who he is. Later to come, Percival Wemys Madison again speaks but very few words are spoken. At the end of the novel when the naval officer is rescuing the boys from the island Percival tries to speak, “‘I’m, I’m…’ But there was no more to come. Percival Wemys Madison sought in his head …show more content…
Jack and his tribe also lost pieces of their identity. Initially, Jack paints his face using dazzle paint. In chapter 4 “Painted Faces and Long Hair”, before Jack and his tribe go on a hunt, “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 the right ear to left jaw” (66). Jack is excited about his new face. He believes that the dazzle paint gives him power. Similarly, Jack smudges the pig’s blood across his face. After Jack and his tribe has killed the first pig, “Jack transferred the knife to his left hand and smudged [sic] blood over his forehead as he pushed down the plastered hair.” (75). The blood becomes a mask that distances the boys from the killing. If Jack doesn’t look like himself, he is more likely to feel less guilty about the killing he has part taken in. Furthermore, the boys are scared of who Jack and his tribe become when they are painted. Ralph has called an assembly to decide what to do about Jack when Eric states “‘But they’ll be painted! You know how it is.’ The other nodded. They understood only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought.” (191). The paint liberates Jack and his tribe by concealing their identities. They know they won’t be recognizable and as a result they are more likely to be cruel. This scares the other boys. Additionally, nearing the end of the novel, Ralph comes to notices the change in the other boys. While Ralph is hiding from Jack and his tribe, “He has even glimpsed one of them, striped brown, black and red, and had judged that it was Bill. But really, thought Ralph, this was not Bill. This was a savage whose image refused to blend with that ancient picture of a boy in shorts and shirt.” (203). Ralph has convinced himself that the boys aren’t the same boys he knew before. The boys are now

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