Who Is Ralph's Leadership In Lord Of The Flies

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Lord of the Flies is a fiction novel written by William Golding. A group of British boys crash land on a tropical island while attempting to escape their homeland during a future World War. With no adult on the island, the boys are forced to work together and survive. They encounter the difficulties of finding a leader, shelter, and friends. As the book continues, two prominent leaders arise. Ralph, a 12 year old boy, is originally elected leader of all the boys and tries to construct an orderly group. Jack, a leader of a boys choir back in Britain, is elected head of the hunters. Although Jack and Ralph have many obvious differences because one represents order and the other represents human instincts, they share important similarities in …show more content…

They both have leadership skills that are ideal to guiding others. Ralph shows important leadership qualities when he takes the initiative to call all the boys together using a conch. “Ralph found his breath and blew a series of short blasts” (17) to gather an assembly. After one boy appeared “Ralph continued to blow till voices shouted in the forest” (18). Gathering the boys, Ralph demonstrates that he can lead a group without problems. Jack shows tremendous leadership when he informs the group he will '"...hunt pigs to get meat for everybody"' (36). Knowing the younger boys are petrified of a mysterious beast, Jack tries to relieve their stress by providing them with food. Ralph cares for everyone by telling them different ways to survive and escape the island. He tells them, '"We can help them find us. We must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire'" (38). Without fire, the boys would have no way of getting off the island to safety. Jack demonstrates a rare quality in a leader when he tells everyone '"[he was] sorry...about the fire…'" (72). After Jack neglected taking care of the fire that was supposed to help them escape, he apologizes and “...[puts] himself in the right” …show more content…

This was one of the moments where Ralph chose to disrespect another human rather than defend someone. Sadly, Ralph took pleasure in attacking a boar during a hunt with Jack’s group. Ralph was caught in all the excitement and exclaimed, '"I hit him all right. The spear stuck in. I wounded him!"' (113). One of the worst actions a human can commit is killing an innocent living creature out of enjoyment. Jack’s human nature also shows when he decides to kill an innocent pig. Instead of killing a male pig, “...he stood up, holding the dripping sow’s head in his hands” (136). By killing the female pig, Jack viciously orphaned her piglets. Another major example of Jack’s wickedness is when he and a group of hunters start chanting, '"Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood'" (152) even after a boy was trying to tell them very important information pertaining to safety. Using the same chant that was recited while killing a pig, Jack and his group murder the boy with their hands and weapons. Even though Jack knew the was a boy trying to tell everyone information, he continued to attack and eventually killed the boy. Ralph demonstrates his biggest evil when he watches Jack’s hunters kill another boy. Instead of stepping in and saving the boy, he was distracted by the excitement and “...found [himself] eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure

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