Lord Of The Flies Leadership

The Cost of Contrasting Leadership In the 1940s, William Golding experienced the Second World War - a grave time of horrible happenings. Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, witnessed the different approaches to leadership during war, and how these approaches shaped society in various ways. The theme of differing leadership types is evident in Lord of the Flies, set during World War II, in which a plane crash leaves a group of British school boys stranded on an island. In the book, we are introduced to two boys in pursuit of power - Jack and Ralph. The contrast of their leadership portrays Jack as a Machiavellian and Ralph as a democratic leader which displays their struggle for power to either destroy or benefit the community.

Ralph gains

Throughout the book, Ralph’s intention as chief is to create a stable society with rules, with the ultimate goal of getting rescued. One of Ralph’s first actions as leader is to build a fire, as shown in the quote “There’s another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire.” (38). In addition to this, Ralph tries to establish rules like regular meetings, in which the person with the conch can talk. In the quote, “‘And another thing. We can’t have everybody talking at once. We’ll have to have ‘Hands up’ like at school... I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it while he’s speaking,’” (33) we see that Ralph’s focus on rules is key to his ability to control democracy. In the quote “‘I’m chief,’ said Ralph, ‘because you chose me. And we were going to keep the fire going...’” (150), we see Ralph not only asserting his democratic and fairly gained power, but also trying to refocus the boys on their long term goal of rescue. Jack’s first manipulation over the boys is by focusing on killing the pig to eat as food. In the quote, “‘He’s not a hunter. He’d never have got us meat...He just gives orders and expects people to obey for nothing.’” (126), Jack is manipulating the

Over the course of the book, Ralph wants to create a positive society for the boys in which they will get rescued, while Jack as a Machiavellian, manipulates and twists the boys into a problematic society. In the quote, "The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don 't keep a fire going?” (80), we see Ralph fighting hard to focus the boys on the bigger picture of getting rescued. Despite Ralph’s valiant efforts, we see in the quote, “Ralph was on his feet too, shouting for quiet, but no one heard him. All at once the crowd swayed toward the island and was gone—following Jack.” (38), that the boys find Jack’s cunning offer of immediate gratification more compelling. Through meat and the beast, Jack draws the boys into activities more interesting than building shelters and watching over the fire. He knows exactly what the boys are drawn to, and is able to manipulate them into following him by focusing on immediate gratification. Towards the end of the book, Ralph’s group of followers dwindles as more boys turn to Jack as their new chief, and we see the symbol of the conch losing power, and Ralph doubting it’s authority - “If I blow the conch and they don’t come back; then we’ve had it.” (92). Jack’s gain of power and leadership greatly affects the community, making his group more and