Leadership In Lord Of The Flies

Student Example

Ms. Staples

English 9, Block A

14 March 2022

Leadership vs. Power People across the world need leaders to keep them in order. For example, presidents are elected to lead the United States and teachers are leaders in classrooms, so no one can get hurt under their watch. William Golding takes this perspective and uses it in Lord of the Flies through the main protagonist and antagonist. The antagonist, Jack, wants to be the leader just to prove his power. He does not care for the boys on the island, unlike Ralph. Ralph is the main protagonist, and he gives the boys hope that they will get home. He uses his authority to make sure things around the island get done, so the boys can all go back home. In Lord of the Flies by William

On Ralph’s first hunt, he goes with Jack and the rest of the hunters. There he gets excited about hitting the boar, but he is able to pull himself back and restrain from getting too savage. Ralph controls himself and tells the boys, “‘Well. We shan’t find what we’re looking for at this rate … We’ve got to start the fire again’” (Golding 115). When Ralph goes hunting for the first time, he hits a boar and is proud of himself because this is an accomplishment for him. The rest of the hunters reenact the hunt, using one of the boys, Robert, to be the boar. They get so caught up that they nearly kill Robert. Ralph is able to pull himself back to get back on track to find what they are “looking for at this rate,” while the rest of the boys are still on their high from the hunt. Ralph keeps the boys on track because as a leader, he knows what is best for them. Ralph says to the boys that they need to “start the fire again” because Jack let the fire go out prior to this hunt. He knows why they are on the mountain to begin with, and he does not want to be there longer than he has to. As Ralph pulls himself back from reaching the same point as savagery as Jack, he demonstrates how focused he is on why they are there in the first

Jack’s tribe steals Piggy’s glasses so Ralph, Samneric, and Piggy go to retrieve them. Piggy however is met with an untimely death along with the destruction of the conch. When Piggy dies and takes the conch with him Ralph is left with no one but himself: “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (Golding 181). When “the rock struck Piggy,” Ralph feels as though he has just lost the one person who felt like his best friend on the island. Piggy had remained loyal to him till the end before he died because of Roger. Piggy holds the conch at the time which “exploded into a thousand white fragments,” and the second the conch is destroyed, it marks the end of Ralph’s leadership. All the order he has been trying to maintain ends up getting destroyed. Ralph was able to use the conch to maintain his leadership and allow everyone to speak their mind. Jack did the opposite of that, since he would torture and force people to do things for him. As Ralph maintains order on the island, he demonstrates how people need a good leader to help them instead of hurt