Leadership In Lord Of The Flies

There are many qualities a leader must have in order to consider him a good leader. In Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, good leadership and bad leadership are both profoundly demonstrated. Two boys, Ralph and Jack, are fighting about who should be leader when their group of boys get stranded on an island and need to survive until rescue. These two specific boys possess qualities that some would say qualifies them as good leaders, and others not. Ralph ends up being chosen as leader and he truly knows how to lead by prioritizing the group’s most important goal; being rescued. On the other hand, Jack is solely focused on hunting animals for the thrill of the kill; and to eat meat as a food source. Jack critically lacks the traits

As Ralph’s tribe was assembling their fire on the beach, “Piggy was so full of delight and expanding liberty in Jack’s departure” (Golding 129). The minute Jack left the group, Piggy seemed to regain his confidence in himself. A crucial component to Jack’s character was shown here as Jack intimidates, and almost limits the abilities of others. In a real situation in which Jack needed to lead, he would be very ineffective in doing so, as he shuts down others and does not contribute to accomplishing the goal of a group. Jack leads in his own way, but this way is not the ideal way in which one should lead their followers. Jack has put the group’s chance of being rescued in jeopardy here. Ralph was trying to keep a fire going to produce signal smoke, and made the mistake of leaving it up to Jack to tend to it, “There was a ship. Out there. You said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out!” (Golding 70). Evidently, Jack cannot be trusted to perform the simple task of keeping a fire going. He was too focused on his own personal goals and prioritized those, rather than the bigger picture that would have secured the rescue for the group. The most essential characteristic to being an effective leader is putting the group’s goals and priorities first. It is clear that Jack cannot be trusted to do just

Jack was a major victim of the transition from civil to savage. A “prison” experiment was conducted to show how humans would become if civilization was diminished. Some men played the roles of prisoners while others played the roles of guards in a mock prison, “One of the third guards began to show an extreme and imbedded streak of sadism” (Shuttleworth). It has been determined that when humans are left unchecked by the rules of society, it is only a matter of time until they will turn wild. Unfortunately, the savagery consumed Jack and hindered him from being an efficient leader. Jack has proven himself to be a poor leader as he is a selfish person and lacks reason. Ralph on the other hand, has common sense and reason. Ralph felt the need to build a fire on top of a mountain to alert any ships that may have been passing by in the area, “If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain” (Golding 38). Ralph really comes to his senses here as he recognizes the most important goal of the group of boys; being rescued. Jack simply lacks in this area and for whatever reason, he prioritizes his objectives over the ones of the