Lord of the Flies: Leadership

Leadership is commonly defined as somebody who inspires people, rather it be strong non-verbal communication or standing up for someone in their team. Leaders are important because without a leader you’d be lost or misguided. With a leader you’ll have somebody to show you what to do and how to do it. Ralph and Jack are very different in their approach to leadership. Jack is impatient, strict, and harsh. Ralph on the other hand, is cooperative, patient, and less-harsh.

Both leaders should be, in my opinion, strict which they both are but on varying levels. Ralph is the better leader of the two.

Ralph took control of the situation on page 67, where they were unable to start a fire. The children on the island know that they need fire, but are unsure how to start one. Ralph has the idea of using Piggy’s glasses to ignite some flammable materials. Ralph is also very confident in his leadership and is sure of his ideas or orders. Ralph is fair as-well, he came up with the idea of using a conch shell for speeches. The conch rule is simple yet effective, whoever holds the conch is able to speak. Those who aren’t holding the conch don’t speak.

Ralph is outgoing and friendly, such as when he stood by Piggy instead of letting Piggy stand alone. He is able to recognize Piggy as being less-than able than the others. Ralph is also smart and responsible by giving Piggy his glasses back, when he could have kept them and started as many fires as he wanted too. Ralph displays his confidence by being able to speak fluently in-front of the other boys, and gets what he needs to say out.

Tough, smart, and independant are words you could use to describe Ralph. He doesn’t seek validation from his peers, instead they seek validation from him. He’s also able doubt others who are not as capable as him. Ralph has leadership qualities and knows he must order the others around for certain things, otherwise they will not be completed. To quote pg 52 “we need shelters in case it rains” which proves he has his priorities set and knows what he must do. He also has a natural talent in certain aspects of life such as when he got into the water he was already an experienced swimmer and appeared to belong there. The book says on pg 65 “Ralph who slid into the water, of all the boys he was the most natural there.”

Ralph is a strong leader, he is able to communicate with the rest of the group very well to finish whatever task they need finished. He is also able to complete tasks on his own, instead of sitting back and letting everybody else do all the work. Jack on the other hand does not do his own work other than hunting. Jack didn’t help build the huts even after Ralph asked him too.

Leadership is the ability to lead and gather your followers to complete whatever task must be completed. Jack is a very tough, strict, and lazy leader who doesn’t show professionalism when he should. Ralph is the opposite, he shows professionalism when he must, he’s also tough and strict but he’s not lazy. He’ll tell somebody to do something and if they don’t he’ll make sure the task is completed one way or another. It’s evident that Ralph is the stronger leader in the novel. 

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