Leadership In Lord Of The Flies

Duality of Leadership and its Consequences

Good leadership comes from the desire to better the community but leadership can turn disastrous when power is craved for the benefit of oneself. Willam Golding illustrates this theme in Lord of the Flies using Jack Merridew and Ralph. Both boys are in positions of leadership but different types. While Jack focuses on enjoyment, lives in the present and selfishly gains power, Ralph wants to escape the island and prioritizes the future of the group. His caring nature represents Ralph being a good leader and stepping up to the job. Jack’s leadership causes turmoil and chaos on the island and all of the blame can be put on Jack instead of Ralph because Ralph was just trying to survive and plays no

When Jack invites Ralph to go to his feast and all of Jack’s group is having fun, Ralph laughs and says “Without the fire we can’t be rescued. I’d like to put on war-paint and be savage. But we must keep the fire burning.” (Golding 142). Ralph acknowledges that he wants to be with Jack’s group and have fun, however the responsibility of the survival that the group put on him when he was appointed as the chief weighs more heavily on him than his personal need to have fun. Ralph’s traits of responsibility, maturity and effectiveness are extremely visible during this scene because he is taking all the

The deaths and destruction that happened, only happened because of Jack’s decline into savagery and when he sees that most of the group is taking his side, he grows even more power hungry ultimately causing the downfall of the island. When Ralph is trying to explain to Jack that they go back to the shelters because it was about to rain, Jack had already begun chanting “kill the beast, cut his throat, spill his blood” (Golding 152). Jack starting this chant was a way to gain more power over the boys in the tribe by enabling a vicious part of them that was shown through when they killed the pig and because Jack has such a strong need for power he is willing to do whatever means necessary for him to stay in power even if that means unifying all the boys together to create a mob that only thinks of violence. Since all the boys are in a violent mob-like trance when they see Simon the group do not register that he is not a beast but a human and ultimately killing Simon while chanting. The death of Simon was caused by the chant that made the group feel a sense of security and protection being with Jack which made them unafraid of anything and as soon as they murdered Simon their last shred of civilization was gone and savagery took over. Jack’s selfishness, desire for power and savagery were the starting of chaos on the island and since the group was in