Leaders In Lord Of The Flies

As a base of human desire and need, power has always been one of the number one desire of mankind since the dawn of time. To place yourself above others, or gain control over your followers or a situation brings safety and comfort to a leader. A well written example of this concept lies within the twisted world created by William Golding in his, “Lord of the Flies”. Throughout the story, Jack seeks power above all else, and stops for nothing in this lustful quest of dominance. We can get a glimpse of Jack’s desires through his iron grip within his choirboys, how he clashes with Ralph, and how Jack’s actions bring about a deeper symbolism underlying within the story.

The Lord of the Flies is a story about a group of boys who are stranded on an island. There aren’t any adults with them because the plane they were on had crashed and the pilot died, he had been the only adult with them. That main character Ralph is elected chief of the boys and is supposed to be in charge, but finds it hard to keep control. Ralph believes the most important thing is to keep the fire going, so that if a ship passes by they can get rescued. As the story goes on dissent begins to form among the other boys. The leader of this dissent was Jack. He had wanted to have control from the beginning and was fed up with Ralph’s rules.

Ralph concentrates on being rescued and Jack goes along taking on the responsibility that he and his choir will mind the fire. “We’ll be responsible for keeping the fire going-”, (Page 38) but while Ralph remains focused on being rescued, Jack’s new-found interest in hunting leads him to forget about rescue. “Jack had to think for a moment before he could remember what rescue was. “Rescue? Yes, of course! All the same, I’d like to catch a pig first-.” (Page 58) This also starts to show that Jack has entered the realm of savagery.

Despite the fact that Jack’s fear of not being chief ends badly, Ralph’s fear of not surviving has another whole level of bad endings. Ralph’s main concern when the boys crash into the island is being rescued, but because of this, he neglects other problems such as looking out for littluns. “’That litte’un – ‘gasped Piggy – ‘him with the mark of his face, I don’t see him. Where is he now?’” (Golding 46). Ralph is so blinded by the idea of being rescued that he forgets his priorities. He should be watching the littluns, but instead, he is being selfish and cares only about the fire. As a consequence to his poor action, an innocent life is taken away. Also when a ship comes by and Ralph realizes that the hunters let the fire out, he loses it and he yells at Jack, but “his voice was loud and savage, and struck them into silence. ‘There was a ship’” (Golding 74). This is the first time that Ralph shows any sign of savagery, which tells the readers that evil and savageness is

Jack Merridew’s intricate personality and its multiple layers are explored quite thoroughly in the William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, arguably more than that of any of the boys. Jack is a natural leader but considering his other qualities, is he really suitable to lead the boys? Even though Jack is more influential than Ralph is, he is a horrible leader and role model due to his negative traits such as his savagery, irrationality and a megalomaniac.

In the novel Lord of the Flies, Jack Merridew is seen as a character that wants to be leader and have power over everyone. His presence seems to terrify all the boys on the island, and uses this to his advantage to control the boys and manipulate them. As evil as he already seems, Jack is known to be the character to experience the most change out of anyone involving the change from civilization to savagery. He begins as an arrogant choirboy, who is actually seen cry when Ralph is elected leader of the island instead of him. Jack's original feelings were to keep an organized group on the island, and also mentions that he is not a savage, and that he will always do the right things. When Ralph brings everyone in the group together, Jack says, "I agree with Ralph. We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are the best at everything. So we've got to do the right

One day while one of Jack's hunters were supposed to keep watch over the fire, they went on a hunt with Jack to kill a pig. Meanwhile on the beach, Ralph, Simon, and Piggy are building forts when they realize that a ship is passing over the island. Then, they realize that the fire is out, so they sprint up the mountain but by the time they get there, the ship was gone. At the same time, Jack and the hunters had just come back from the hunt. They see Ralph and know exactly what their mistake was. So, Jack tries to lighten up the mood by saying to Ralph that he should have been there because it was so much fun. Ralph gets very angry at them and says that they could have been rescued if they had been watching the fire. In retaliation to Ralph's anger, Jack takes Piggy's glasses and breaks one of the specs. Then they try to rebuild the fire while Ralph is blocking them, and Ralph doesn't move. (Golding 65-75). "No one, not even Jack would ask him to move and in the end they had to build the fire three yards away and in a place not really as convenient. So Ralph asserted his chieftainship and could not have chosen a better way if he had thought for days. Against his weapon, so indefinable and so effective, Jack was powerless and raged without knowing why. By the time the pile was built, they

In the novel “Lord of the Flies” there are two kinds of leaders that are being loved or feared which is Ralph and Jack. From a leader’s perspective, the two boys are both infectious and full of authority. However, I cherish the belief that as a leader it is better to be loved than to be feared, and this lead to a further and deeper discussion.

The Lord of the Flies is a gruesome story about young boys stranded on an island, who underwent a transformation from polite British choir boys to savage hooligans. One of the main difficulties the boys face during their adventures upon the island, is their method of government, they either follow the path of Ralph, the democratic leader whose main focus is to escape the despairing island; or Jack a power-hungry monarchical leader who won't ever take no for an answer. The two boys are constantly bickering and arguing over who deserves the leader-position. We all understand Ralph wants to be leader so that he can ensure that the boys will return back home, but in Jack's case, it is a constant mystery to us about why he

In the words of William Shakespeare, “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” In William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, many of the characters are faced with the responsibility of authority. Throughout the events of the novel, Ralph tries to keep his power. Jack works to gain power and the role of chief. Piggy, as opposed to Jack and Ralph, works to achieve respect. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding effectively conveys the idea that the responsibility of leadership can weigh heavily upon those unfit for power, resulting in fractures throughout society.

It is no secret that Lord of The Flies by William Golding is a complex book .There are countless areas in the book meant to symbolize human society due in part to Golding’s participation and horrific experiences in World War II .All of the characters from the book undoubtedly depict different aspects of human nature however, this is most evident in the character Jack Merridew . Jack is above all , a bully . He clearly portrays the theme of Power vs Powerlessness , however whether Jack has the power or not depends on which character he is interacting with. For example when Jack interacts with less mighty characters such as SamnEric and Piggy , he uses his intimidation and bully behavior to make them afraid of him.

In the novel “Lord of the Flies”, written by William golding, is about a group of boys that crash land on an unknown island and have to survive. Two boys, Jack and Ralph, are shown to be leaders, both with their own ways of leading. Ralph is a better leader than jack, because he shows traits of being selfless, democratic, and fair.

When Ralph sees a ship passing by the island and that the fire is not burning, he starts to run to the top of the mountain and "by the time Ralph [reaches] the landward end of the scar he [is] using precious breath to swear. He [does] desperate violence to his naked body among the rasping creepers so that blood [is] sliding over him.” (Golding 67). Although it is Jack’s and his hunters’ responsibility to keep the fire burning, which they neglect, Ralph sacrifices himself and does not mind how painful journey to the top of the mountain is because that can be their opportunity for

Murders, deceit, and deceiving dreams.“Lord of the flies” “AKA: LOTF” it has betrayal, evil, and murder; written by William Golding, the book is realistic fiction, Is Jack or Ralph the better leader. Ralph is the better leader because how he feels saying you don’t follow me then survive out here alone without protection or shelter and bend to Jack’s will and listen like sheep.Jack is also a Determined leader but he is so power hungry it makes me feel like he’s a dictator and yes he also couldn’t be one either, but he makes me think he just wants to be more powerful than Ralph.6. Ralph is going for the most obvious goal which is, get off the island or get rescued either one will work in his eyes but he almost ends up kilt by Jack in the uttermost end Ralph loses his group or followers to Jack as well so Jack has become a savage killer but here’s my vision on the difference between these leaders...

Now that Jack is the new leader, he became increasingly greedy and mean and exiled Ralph and Piggy from the rest of the group and left them with nothing, except the symbolic origin of fire, Piggy’s glasses. But instead of using fire to divide the group they really needed everyone to come together to create a controlled fire so they can get off the island. While Ralph and Piggy were away Jack tried to create a signal fire, but instead he created a bonfire that ended up burning a quarter of the island down. Piggy walks up to Jack and told him (because he was mad): “‘You got your small fire all right.’ ...the boys were falling still and silent, feeling the beginnings of awe at the power set free below them” (55). Jack knew they needed a fire, but in reality Jack did not understand how destructive a fire can be, and ended up killing one of the members of the group with the fire he started. With the group divided and life in danger, the symbolic meaning of fire is displayed in this quote because it demonstrates the order and or chaos that is on the island and how nearly all of the social structure on the island could be lost as quickly as the time it takes to snap Piggy’s glasses in half.