One could argue that the boys always possess savagery, and it was the removal of society's confines that allowed it to emerge. However, if one chapter needed to be identified as the point in which the savagery emerges, chapter three would be a clear example.
Chapter three begins with a physical description of Jack:
Jack was bent double. He was down like a sprinter, his nose only a few inches from the humid earth. The...
One could argue that the boys always possess savagery, and it was the removal of society's confines that allowed it to emerge. However, if one chapter needed to be identified as the point in which the savagery emerges, chapter three would be a clear example.
Chapter three begins with a physical description of Jack:
Jack was bent double. He was down like a sprinter, his nose only a few inches from the humid earth. The tree trunks and the creepers that festooned them lost themlves in a green dusk thirty feet above him, and all about was the undergrowth. There was only the faintest indication of a trail here; a cracked twig and what might be the impression of one side of a hoof. He lowered his chin and stared at the traces as though he would force them to speak to him. Then dog-like, uncomfortably on all fours yet unheeding his discomfort, he stole forward five yards and stopped. Here was loop of creeper with a tendril pendant from a node. The tendril was polished on the underside; pigs, passing through the loop, brushed it with their bristly hide.
Jack crouched with his face a few inches away from this clue, then stared forward into the semi-darkness of the undergrowth. His sandy hair, considerably longer than it had been when they dropped in, was lighter now; and his bare back was a mass of dark freckles and peeling sunburn. A sharpened stick about five feet long trailed from his right hand, and except for a pair of tattered shorts held up by his knife-belt he was naked. He closed his eyes, raised his head and breathed in gently with flared nostrils, assessing the current of warm air for information. The forest and he were very still.
Jack's position on all fours and his nostrils flaring to smell the air for evidence of pig is not how a civilized English boy would hunt. He has lost most of his clothing at this point. This represents the shedding of the authority of his previous life. He was a choir leader and clung to his uniform in chapter one, despite the oppressive heat. By chapter three he no longer values the authority given to him by civilized society. The way Jack drags his spear behind him is very savage when compared to the pomp of an English hunting outfit.
When Jack encounters pig droppings and is excited, his decent into savagery is clear. The civilized reader is revolted by the detailed description of the droppings' color, texture and temperature. This can be compared to Jack's excitement over the discovery and used to exemplify his change in state.
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