Ralph's Leadership in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies

Ralph's Leadership in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies

Ralph, the elected leader of the group of British boys in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, strives to take the civilized society to which he is accustomed and apply it to society on the island on which he and the other boys are stranded. As leader, this task seems simple – tell the other boys what they each need to do and expect them to do it. Ralph fails to realize the difference between the rest of the boys and himself.

The world is in the middle of a massive war, a war in which the threat of the atomic bomb looms prominently. In fear of losing all its future fighting force, Britain sends a group of its schoolboys on an airplane to safety. Before reaching its destination, though, an enemy fighter plane shoots down the boys’ plane. The plane crashes into a forest on a remote island and, as a result, the pilots die. This group of schoolboys jumps from a society in which adults direct them to act properly to one in which there is no authoritative figure to give them orders. Back in Britain, adults train the boys to obey them and follow their lead. They act appropriately because of the threat of punishment for disobedience. Even later in the novel, once things begin to fall apart, Golding writes, “Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law” (62). As the story progresses, though the boys go so far as to participate in savage acts such as killing each other, in the end, they realize that they conducted themselves immorally.

Stranded on the island with a bunch of boys and no adults, Ralph quickly takes charge and demands the election of a leader of the bo...

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...ings a type of closure to the ordeal, and it also shows a realization he had about society, about mankind in general. He has witnessed with his own eyes the evil that comes about as a result of the lack of civilization and the inborn nature to do evil. Golding describes Ralph’s profound crying simply: “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (202).

While nearly all the boys on the island ignore those standards British society has taught them, Ralph does not, and, as leader, tries to apply them to society on the island. Even when everyone else reverts to his inborn evil nature, Ralph sticks with that which is good, that which he learned from British society – civility. Ralph is different than the other boys, and because of that difference, it is only fitting that he cry.