As Presidential candidates run for office every four years, they have to show everyone in the world that they deserve to lead the country. William Golding makes the point of leadership in Lord of the Flies by putting Ralph as the almost automatic leader of the island. As Ralph and Jack’s tribes split up, Ralph was the only one concerned with the well being of others, making him the better choice as leader of our country. When the boys first landed on the island, Ralph took it in his hands to get everyone together for a vote, Ralph spoke, “Seems to me we ought to have a chief decide things” (p. 22). The votes were split between Ralph and Jack, the choristers voting for fellow choir member, Jack. Then everyone else putting their vote towards Ralph, who held the symbol for leadership: the conch. This lead to Jack feeling enmity toward Ralph. Ralph began organizing a plan to be rescued. Ralph decided early on that the boys should act like men, and have rules. The rules were to be followed, Ralph spoke, “We’ have rules! Lots of rules! Then when anyone breaks ‘em-” (p. 33) followed by a tumult of the crowd of choir members. The conch was made the symbol for speech, if you had the conch, you could speak. Ralph made a blatant remark, “I said before we’ll be rescued sometime. We’ve just got to wait, that’s all” (p. 43). The choristers made a taboo move to break the assembly by running up the mountain to make fire. Making Ralph’s plan inscrutable because of the outburst. As the fire burned down half of the mountain, Ralph looked down on the declivities of the mountain for find green branches to make smoke. Jack took the remark of smoke as ludicrous and oppressive, Ralph fired back, “I was talking about smoke! Don’t you want to be rescue... ... middle of paper ... ...ing glow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt, traveled through the air sideways from the rock, turning over as he went” (p. 181). Ralph barely let out a snivel of his loss, only looking to the luminous lights of the ships of their rescue. The President holds a lot of responsibility for the well being of everyone in the country. As soon as the boys landed on the island, Ralph showed his leadership skills by being the first to speak up and the first to make a stand when something went wrong. Golding makes a wonderful point that without leadership, anyone of today’s groups of authority would cease to exist. Throughout his time on the island, the reader learned that Ralph has the right state of mind that would be able to conduct the country as a national leader.
Ralph feels the need to create a better place as he attempts to get everyone home. Although he is demanding, Ralph shows that he has good ideas and can enforce what he thinks should happen: "Shut up," said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. "Seem to me we ought to have a chief to decide things," (Golding, 22)." His forcefulness gains respect and a confident response from the others. "Ralph smiled and held up the conch for silence," (Golding, 23)." The conch is mentioned and revered as one of the symbols of such power. As Ralph blows the conch, the others draw nearer, compelled to follow: "By the time Ralph had finished blowing the conch the platform was crowded," (Golding32). Piggy, however, was aware of the conch first, but Ralph was credited with its discovery and use. When it was first found, Ralph thought it was a stone in the water but Piggy saw it as the shell and explained what he knew about it:
William Golding’s book, Lord of the flies, begins with the central character stuck in a jungle of which he knows little about. Ralph as we later find out his name, is the athletic, level-headed, leader of the boys on the island. He is the emotional leader of the group, and he has a major influence on all of the other characters. Ralph is used as a sort of reminder of the old world. He reminds the boys that there are laws and rules and everyone must abide for survival. When the boys realize that they are not at home anymore and they being to rely on their natural instincts they lose the society that man-kind has created. Ralph is trying hard to keep the boys together because he knows if they are not the chances of being rescued become lesser.
Being a leader is not a simple task to manage. Some are born to be leaders and for others it’s a struggle to guide their people. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses Ralph to represent Franklin D. Roosevelt through their many similarities and differences in their leadership qualities: guiding their people, providing shelter, protecting them and wanting to stay neutral. Their leadership qualities made both of them neither a great leader nor a bad one. The struggles of both Ralph and Roosevelt shows how everyone, including great leaders, has faults.
When the boys landed on the island, they would initially strive to have fun and enjoy themselves due to a lack of authority curtailing their liberties, and with the sanguine hope of being rescued. However, due to their predicament, two leaders would emerge, Jack and Ralph, leading to conflicting leaderships that would eventually lead to tension between the two boys. Jack would have a penchant for flouting the orders of Ralph, the elected leader, especially when he and his hunters were ordered to watch the fire which was at that time, their only hope of being rescued. The fire, like many, would die down, and Jack would return with a slaughtered pig, with the knowledge that he disobeyed the orders assigned to him. Ralph would express this to him, but he would be,¨vaguely irritated by his irrelevance but too happy to let it worry him.¨ (Golding 63).
After Ralph officially became the chief, all the boys applauded for Ralph, but Jack felt embarrassed and sat down. Ralph saw Jack’s embarrassed face, then decided to give him back the status of being the leader of the choir boys. Jack became excited again, and his embarrassment face vanishes, Ralph had successfully did what he anticipated. Ralph was trying to make Jack feel better, belonged to the group. Jack was the former leader of the choir boys after all, losing the election would have some level of indignity. If Ralph didn’t give him back his position and gain his status again, Jack wouldn’t be that aggressive in the story. That’ why Ralph is respectful as a leader, and it’s a positive character trait. Ralph is also conscious. In chapter five, Ralph calls for a meeting to discuss the problems that they are facing. He said to boys that they aren’t doing anything that was planned. They refuse to build the shelters, He also said, “And another thing. We nearly set the whole island on fire. And we waste time, rolling rocks, and making little
First, Ralph represents order, and civil attitude in the world. Ralph shows his efforts for civil behavior through his repeated attempts at reminding the group that they need to keep order in the group. After they arrived on the island they had taken a vote to elect Ralph as chief. The boys began to get riled up and make a commotion. “"All this I meant to say. Now I've said it. You voted me for chief. Now you do what I say." They quieted, slowly, and at last were seated again. Ralph dropped down and spoke in his ordinary voice.” (58-59) This evidence clearly shows that Ralph knows as leader it is his job to keep everyone under control. Ralph raising his voice demonstrates his authority, but how fast he returned to his normal volume represents he only wants to be civilized. As the novel goes on the power of human instincts take over the order. Ralph has been focused on rescue, and wants everyone to only think of that. “’Cos the smoke’s a signal and we can’t be rescued if we don’t have smoke.” (73) When they talk about the smoke they refer to the fire. Ralph stresses the importance of the fire, and reminds everyone that it is key to survival and rescue. Unfortunately, these reminders and slowly forgotten due to Ralph’s polar opposite Jack.
I was chosen.” cried Ralph “Why should choosing make any difference? Just giving orders that doesn’t make any sense.” It is with this argument between Jack and Ralph that the decline of the island society reaches its peak. There is finally enough fear and worry that people are in doubt of their current leader. Once this has happened there is space for another leader to step in, usually by force. In this situation the fear was created by a thing out of Ralph’s control, but he was unable to prove that he could handle the problem because he had not handled any problem previously. Because of this perceived weakness Jack is able to flip the tables on Ralph, creating two groups and therefore even more tension than
In the beginning of the book, Ralph wants to set up rules for the group so they can be civilized and safe. The littluns and the choir boys will not survive on their own, so Ralph wanted them to follow his set of rules so they can be safe until a rescue. Ralph demonstrates his leadership by saying, “All this I meant to say I’ve said it. You vote me for chief. Now you do what I say” (Golding 74). Ralph is encouraging the littuns and the choir boys by saying, “You vote me for chief.” He acts like an adult because he wants the small group of
... Ralph has proven to have a much better understanding of people and their needs and this makes him a much better leader than Jack. With Ralph's understanding of the need for order and rules, he improves the condition where the boys are living in. Jack's condition was horrible. Also, Jack treated the boys very badly and like he better. Ralph, on the other hand treated the boys all equally and with respect. Ralph's priority to get off the island shows his wisdom and ability to make good decisions. Although Jack was popular on the island for the short amount of time the boys were there, he would not have been popular for much longer. He does not have any of the qualities that a good leader should have and turned himself and the rest of the boys into complete losers. Jack's plan would have soon faded but if Ralph had become leader, his wisdom would last much longer.
Vacant and windswept, the island sees various displays of leadership as the marooned boys attempt to create a civilization. Predictably, the boys began setting up their own form of government as soon as possible; humanity has an essential need for civilization. Two characters in particular exhibit instances of leadership while constructing a state and after. For example, Jack is controlling and does not consider the opinions of others; the boy is a paradigm autocratic leader. When starting his own tribe, Jack pronounces, “I’m going to be chief” (Golding 133), and doesn’t care what the others have to say. In contrast, Ralph promotes voting from the start, and continues to be a democratic leader until society falls apart. Even though Ralph seems
In the book the Lord of the Flies there are two people that lead the group of kids on the island. One of the leaders in the Lord of the Flies is Ralph, Ralph is kind and he thinks of the well being of everyone in his group of people. The other leader in the Lord of the Flies is Jack, Jack is more of a mean leader and he wants to be more powerful and have all of the power for himself. At the beginning of the story Jack and Ralph compete on who will be in charge of the whole group. on page (22) Roger said ¨ Let's have a vote¨, So they decided to have a vote on who should be leader between Jack and Ralph, everyone in the choir voted for Jack because Jack was the leader of the choir and everyone else voted for Ralph, and I think that they all voted
He blows the conch and summons the deserted children together” (Li & Wu 1). While all the boys are interested mainly in playing and setting out to satisfy their own needs, Ralph is focused on building shelter and keeping a fire going to facilitate their rescue. As one can see, Ralph is “the representative of civilization and democracy, lives by rules, acts peacefully, and follows moral commands and values the good of the group, who dramatically reveals the condition of civilization and democracy in Golding’s time” (Li & Wu
Even though they don’t last very long, the fact that he tried to help the group is what makes him a better leader. Ralph’s wisdom and ability to look toward the future also has an advantage over Jack. He has a sense of keeping his focus on getting off the island. When the fire goes out, Ralph gets upset because the chance to be rescued was gone as well. Ralph enforces his role of leadership as he gives the boys a sense of stability as an authority figure.
In William Golding’s novel, the Lord of the Flies, even though Ralph became chief of the stranded boys, Jack eventually rose to power through scare tactics, confidence, determination, and control. When Jack demonstrated his leadership skills, it was evident that he was superior to Ralph and would use his sense of Social Darwinism (survival of the fittest) and his oratory skills to surpass and isolate Ralph completely. Regardless of Ralph’s strengths, such as his conch, democratic maneuvers, firm motives, and kind demeanor, Jack’s mere presence ousted Ralph’s chances of taking effective leadership. By using propaganda against Ralph, gaining support from his partisan tribe members, and overpowering Ralph through his persuasive techniques and appearance, Jack clearly demonstrated how his leadership of the island was inevitable.
In William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies Ralph though not the stronger person, demonstrates a better understanding of people than Jack which gives him better leadership qualities. Ralph displays these useful human qualities as a leader by working towards the betterment of the boys' society. He knows the boys need stability and order if they are to survive on the island. He creates rules and a simple form of government to achieve this order. Jack does not treat the boys with dignity as Ralph does. Ralph understands that the boys, particularly Piggy, have to be given respect and must be treated as equals. This makes Ralph a better leader as he is able to acknowledge that he was not superior to any of the other boys. Ralph's wisdom and ability to look to the future also make him a superior leader. Ralph has the sense to keep his focus on getting off the island. He insists on keeping the fire burning as a distress signal. Ralph's leadership provides peace and order to the island while Jack's leadership makes chaos.