Leadership Styles between Jack and Ralph

A leader must possess leadership skills, whether good or evil. In Lord of the Flies, Ralph possesses three good leadership skills. Three leadership skills a leader needs to have is responsibility, determination, and initiative.

German journalist John Zenger once stated, “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths”. When one is forced into a situation where a leader is necessary, a person that displays the fundamental attributes will successfully guide the society. Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies, the boys on the island represent various aspects of leadership, characterized by differing strengths. However, the protagonist’s, Ralph, leadership undoubtedly triumph over the other boys because his attributes allow him to be a powerful leader on the island. Throughout William Golding’s novel, he clearly depicts Ralph as an effective leader through his desire for the survival of all of the boys, his adamant

There are many standards that can demonstrate a good leader, such as integrity, accountability, respect, influence, and responsibility. Ralph demonstrates all of these qualities, while Jack does not demonstrate any of them. Because of this, Ralph is superior to Jack. Throughout the book Lord of the Flies, Ralph shows that he is superior countless times. The boys get stranded on an island during World War II and have to learn how to fend for themselves, since there are no adults.

Ralph is regarded as a democratic and charismatic leader. He would base any decision on majority votes and he is all about getting a job done effectively and efficiently. For example, he would crack his head to build shelter and figure out ways to get themselves for being rescued. Eventually, majority of the group members become undisciplined and disobey Ralph’s commands and leave to join jack’s group. Consequently, Ralph, piggy and the twins are left on their own to be hunted by Jack’s tribe. Ralph is also a sensible leader; he only keens on being rescued rather than spending unnecessary time to go for hunting. As the novel progresses, Ralph witnesses the beating of Robert and finds it bizarre in chapter 7. Ralph is forced to hunt a boar for

“If you mean going the right way, we’ll hunt(111).” Jack taunts Ralph into helping him hunt. By doing that Jack gets Ralph to help him. Jack frequently manipulated the boys into doing things for his own personal benefit. Jack has total control and implements his beliefs in the other boys. Even if a boy in his tribe didn’t agree with him, his tactics kept them from speaking up. Peer pressure influenced his tribe tremendously. Jack represented a dictator throughout the novel.

In many groups, leadership is a quality that stands out the most. People tend to prefer the strongest

In the Novel, Lord Of The Flies there are two clear leaders of the population of kids on the island, which are Jack Merridew and Ralph. To fully analyze who was the best leader, we need to know what a good leader is. Both Ralph and Jack were leaders and it is arguable to which is the better leader. These leaders represent the kind of leaders that appear in our world because of their wildly different characteristics. In all, these two leaders pursue leadership in completely different ways, but that does not make them bad leaders.

Many people consider themselves a good leader, but that is not always the case. In the book, Lord of the Flies, there are two types of “leaders”. Throughout the story, there is a clash between the two types of leaders. Ralph, the original leader, is overthrown by Jack, a savage tyrant. If Ralph was a better leader, Jack may not have taken over.Some traits of a good leader that Ralph lacks are optimism, confidence, and awareness. Ralph would have been a better leader by keeping the boys busy and focused, being open to new ideas, and enforcing his rules.

For example, following Ralph’s election as chief, he sought to distribute power, “Ralph looked at him [Jack], eager to offer something… ‘Jack’s in charge of the choir. They can be一 what do you want them to be?’” (Golding 23). As Ralph comes to power, he immediately delegates some of the power to his opposing candidate to create a literal democratic structured government on the island. This decision shows that a democratic government in the real world, contains structure and a distribution of power to seek the will of the majority. In addition, Samuel Hynes, in his Several Interpretations of “Lord of the Flies”, comments that, “He tries to establish and preserve an orderly, rational society; he takes as his totem the conch, making it the symbol of rational, orderly discussion,” (Hynes 59). Possessing an “orderly, rational society”, remains one of the key elements in any democratic governing body in the real world. The rational and orderliness allows for equality among voices and presents everyone the opportunity to speak, one of the fundamental qualities of democracy, as seen with the conch. In a like manner, Ralph establishes the freedom of speech in assembly on the island early in his, “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking,” (Golding 53). Wisely, Ralph establishes a system that allows anyone to speak their mind, they only need the conch and everybody else must listen. Although different from a conventional free speech policy, Ralph’s method still works, giving everybody the chance to voice themselves, regardless of whether Ralph or anyone else agrees or disagrees with them. Much like a real democracy, any can voice their opinion, indirectly with large populations, creating the defining principle of successful

“Jack made a rush and stabbed at Ralph’s chest with his spear. Ralph sensed the position of the weapon from the glimpse he caught of Jack’s arm and put the thrust aside with his own butt. Then he brought the end round and caught Jack a stinger across the ear. The were chest to chest, breathing fiercely, pushing and glaring.”(196). Two strong types of leadership can lead to devastating outcomes. This is shown in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Ralph and Jack have two very different types of leadership that are at different ends of the spectrum. The qualities of Ralph and Jack are different, Jack’s beliefs contrast those of Ralph, and the styles of leadership that Ralph and Jack use are as different as night and day. To begin, it takes

Ralph, the protagonist and the ‘leader’ of the novel, has always tried to keep the peace on the island, but when heinous act are committed it is hard not to just follow the instincts and ways of others. At the beginning of the novel, a conflict quickly arises, when the stranded boys have to make a decision on ‘who will be the chief?’. This is between Ralph, and the choir boy leader,

In these quotes, it shows a similar theme about having laws in society and how it would affect our behaviour. In the first two quotes, Ralph created a system where people can talk in an orderly manner without having everyone talking all at once. However, in the third quote, Jack began to disobey the rules that Ralph made before thus, modeling how a society would look like without any laws. For example, with Ralph's rules, it allowed everyone to talk in a well ordered way, where everyone’s concerns and comments are heard. Which is similar to a democratic government because they use a voting system to hear everyone’s opinion. On the other hand, with Jack changing and disobeying the rules that was set before, it shows that in a society without

The conflict between Ralph and Jack shows how lack of civilization can result to savagery. Ralph states, “We need shelters” contrasting to Jack who says, “We need meat” (Golding, p.42). The lack of civilization in Jack shows because he thinks hunting is more important than shelters although he has yet to catch a pig, while on the other hand Ralph thinks it’s more important to build shelter for a sense of home and protection from the rain and the beastie that all the littluns are afraid of. “Let him be chief with the trumpet-thing”(Golding, p. 15). This quote states that Ralph should be in charge because he has the conch, and Jack gets upset since he is not voted chief but then Ralph puts him charge of the choir boys who later on become the hunters. Ralph creates civilization when he is given power to become the chief on the island, and he has the power with or without the conch. Later in the novel when Ralph realizes he doesn’t like being dirty and “disliked perpetually flicking the tangled hair put of his eyes,” it shows that Ralph is used the civilization he had before and wants to return to that civilization (Golding, p.66). Then Jack becomes an example of savagery when he shows up to the fire in chapter 8, “stark naked save for the paint and a belt” (Golding, p.125). Ralph and his followers show the civilized and orderly side of the island, but on the contrary, Jack and his tribe show the savagery of man and barbaric side of the island.

A good leader is one who knows how to lead with control and has strong leader characteristics. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, some readers support the fact that Jack was a better leader than Ralph, but others feel that Ralph was the better leader. Although many supporters feel that Ralph is the best leader, it is evident that Jack is the better leader because he can effortlessly control the group on the island.

As one can see from the start, Jack's tribe changes their lifestyles to a primitive state, while Ralph's seeks the future in life. Ralph thus thinks on a more matured level by learning from past mistakes, while Jack only seeks the fun out of life. This is the main reason why Ralph's group, even though lonesome, still prevails. Ralph and Jack indeed set different rules under each other's turf. The two leaders follow different beliefs, and thus have different lives to live, and groups to lead.