Ralph In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

“ “Shut up,” said Ralph absently. He lifted the couch. “Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things around here.” (Chapter 1, Page 22) Ralph immediately notices the boys need some leadership his natural choice is to help guide these boys. He, however, lacks this responsibility. He doesn't continue to command respect from the boys. Ralph grows up faster in the book due to Jack. Later Jack breaks the tribe apart with his appealingly savage ways. Jack ended up establishing a hunting tribe. Once the tribe breaks Ralph tries to bring it back together, but since he didn’t have solid leadership skills even though he might have developed some compassion. He tries to convince Jack that he is still in charge and has power over the boys. The changes Ralph undergoes, from self-centered to group centered, doesn't reflect the island as a whole. They are all too elated to abandon the trappings of society.

(79) Ralph actually cares about how civilized the boys are, as well as their health. He was one of the only ones that helped with the building of all of the huts they made. “Look at us! How many are we? And yet we can’t keep a fire going to make smoke.

During their stay on the island, the kids decide on many rules and leaders. The leader that they voted for was called Ralph. Ralph represents leadership and control in the group. Also, he is intelligent and fair to his followers. Lastly, he demonstrates common sense.

Ralph- Ralph is the main protagonist in the Lord of the Flies. He becomes a chief when everyone who survived the plane crash voted for him. In addition and in my opinion, Ralph is a dynamic character because when Ralph first meets everyone he treats everyone with kindness and equality. However, towards the middle of the novel, discipline is injected into his behavior and attitudes. Overall, Ralph is a kind boy who cares for people around him by trying his best to provide them to help everyone survive. He sets a main goal to help everyone on the island survive.

Ralph was voted as leader in the early portion of the book and it becomes clear that he wants to lead others to do what is right. He becomes the voice of moral reasoning and laws on the island. Unfortunately, Ralph suffers from mental lapses later in the book as a result of the stressful encounters with both Jack and the savage tribe and the beast fighting for control in his mind. “Ralph tried indignantly to remember. There was something good about the fire… Then, at the moment of greatest passion and conviction, that curtain flapped in his head and he forgot what he had been driving at,” (163). Ralph struggles to grip what he once so firmly enforced and this is a result of his mental battle with the beast. Throughout the book, Ralph continually is the driving force to keeping a fire ablaze on the island. He was always the character who reminded everyone why the fire was a necessity, until the end of the book when he began to have mental lapses and Piggy had to take on the role to remind Ralph of the importance. The task of keeping an optimistic outlook on the chances of getting rescued, the power struggle that occurs between him and Jack, and the deaths of friends were are all key components that lead to the cause of “that curtain flapped”

Through Ralph being the leader on the island, it shows him as a morally ambiguous character struggling with man’s innate evil. Ralph is clearly struggling to maintain calm when he says, “‘I was chief, and you were going to do what I said. You talk. But you can’t even build huts--then you go off hunting and let out the fire--’” (Golding 70-71). Ralph talks about him being chief in the past tense as if he no longer is because from the ways the boys are acting, he does not feel that he is being respected. Ralph is annoyed that instead of building shelter the boys play in the water and that instead of manning the fire, the only chance for the boys to be noticed, they decide hunting is more important than being rescued. Ralph means well by these orders, he wants to see that every boy on the island survives. At the same time he is struggling to be calm and he is not doing a good job at it. Also as the leader Ralph is not the one

At the beginning of the novel, Golding depicts Ralph as the natural leader. However his only claim to leadership is his good looks, and that he, first blew the conch. From the start of the novel Ralph is forced to take responsibility through the symbolic conch, being voted “chief”, and possessing a natural propensity for leadership as he is confident, eloquent and attractive. Additionally, on page 31 Ralph progresses to the realisation that the boys need order. ‘There aren’t any grown-ups. We shall look after ourselves…We’ll have to have ‘hands up’ like at

All throughout the story Ralph shows us heroic qualities like: blowing the conch and having all the boys run to him. It shows that the boys look up to him as their hero to get them off the island. Even at at the end when all the boys chased him down trying to kill them. He still lead them all right to the naval officer. Showing us that he is the true hero of the story. At least Ralph stayed moral that meant he could live with himself without the weight of a person's death on his

Ralph knows what he is required to do and, even when he doesn’t like what that entails, does it. Ralph also always has the other boys’ best interest in mind, even when the others forget what they should be doing. " [I]f we have a signal going, they'll come and take us off. And another thing. we ought to have more rules.

First off, Ralph is a better leader because he ha goals. “Great leaders have a long-term vision of the future, and they avoid getting bogged down in the here and now”. This quote is from Top 10 skills every great leader needs to succeed written by Peter Economy. “You remember the meeting? How everyone was going to work hard until the shelters were finished?” (Golding 50). This shows how Ralph has a goal of working on the shelters and getting them done. They maintain the strategic outlook necessary to accomplish their goals. “A fire! Make a fire!” (Golding 38). This shows how ralph thinks strategically in a way to get rescued. He does what it takes to accomplish the goal by taking Piggy’s glasses. This is one huge reason that I believe that Ralph is a better leader.

When Ralph does take charge he does it silently and does not flaunt his intangibles, like Jack Merridew did, saying he is the lead choir boy amongst other things. Ralph took control of the castaways and won the boys over without being aggressive, without disrespecting Jack, and without arrogance and self made pride. He wins the boys over with his calming presence and his ability to get everyone on the same page. It is for all those reasons, that Ralph was able to win over the boys and ultimately take over the island, but doing so in a well balanced, fair democracy. While Ralph does lead the boys, however, there is still no love loss between Jack and Ralph. Later on in the novel, some of the boys have begun to lose interest and faith in Ralph's leadership. But instead many boys are becoming intrigued with by what Jack and his hunters are doing. It is for that reason that Ralph must give into the ways of these barbaric actions by the hunters. While out hunting one day, Jack and his fellow hunters are accompanied by Ralph who wants to contribute, learn, and feel the rush of hunting. The hunters and Ralph see a scurrying animal trot across the jungle, “ ‘Through here’ ‘But he’d do us!’ ‘Through here!’ Jack said… ‘I hit him!, said Ralph again’, and the spear stuck in a bit … ‘I saw you. Right on his snout, Whee!’ “ (113)

Ralph specially cared about keeping the fire burning as a distress signal since he believed there’s no better way to help them be rescued. “The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep the fire going?” (80). Ralph common sense to determine what is best for the group as a whole further demonstrates his superior leadership skills. He insisted on keeping the fire and exasperated when the boys ignored their mission. Ralph is not easily distracted person like the other boys, especially Jack when he tried to hunt the wild pig and let the fire out.

Although Ralph seems to be more masculine than the others, he doesn't quite focused on trying to overpower the other boys on the island but tries to find a way to get rescued. Because of the fact that he tries to find a way to be rescued instead of trying to be the most dominant you can really consider him truly their leader because he symbolizes civil society.he focuses on what's important instead of selfish wants.

Ralph cares for the greater good of the group of boys rather than just for himself which signifies one of the traits a leader should have.   Golding tries to show that leadership is an important part of keeping an island civilized and from keeping it stable.  Ralph’s leadership is the only hope the boy’s have to be able to survive on the island while they wait to be rescued.  Ralph's leadership starts to change as he and Jack have a power struggle because he starts to lose faith in himself as well as the boys.  In a sense, it would seem as though Ralph’s leadership was the one to cause the boys to rebel against being civilized because they didn’t want to listen to someone who would tell them what to do when they could do whatever they wanted and become savages without morals.  Ralph’s leadership helps the boy’s civilization have stability.  Leadership relates to the meaning of the work as a whole because leadership is what keeps a civilization from going into ruins, but the boys instinct to do what they want is much greater than that of living a life with rules.

Ralph's common sense and ability to recognize what is best for the group also shows his excellent leadership skills. His main focus throughout the book is getting rescued and tells the boys to make a fire and to keep it burning to make a signal. However, the boys do not listen and he becomes angry. "The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don't keep the fire going?" (p. 86) Ralph's determination to get rescued is not only for himself, but for everyone else