Lord Of The Flies: The Liability Of Leaders

In the past and in the present and most likely in the future, we’ve seen countless examples of leaders, such as: Alexander the Great and Martin Luther King Jr., stepping up to the plate, to lead his/her followers; while also being judged on how well they react to the necessities of their people. Therefore, because of the fact that leaders have to be able to think on their feet, and have an obligation to the public, the constant definition of what a “good” leader needs to be simultaneously changed alongside with the necessities of the public. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Machiavelli's “The Prince”, Wills’s “Certain Trumpets”, Forde’s “Leadership Scenarios” and also Plato’s The Republic:Book VI, we can clearly see the liability certain leaders

In Wills’s “Certain Trumpets” where he talks about how a leader merely carries out what the public has decided, he states: “he or she does what the community says when it ‘speaks’ through the election”(Wills. 17) Therefore, from this new idea which states that a leader merely, voices what the populus says, we can then assume that the leader isn’t a leader but rather a follower, because he just follows and carries out what the people say, which is why he must be able to put his own needs under the the populus;s need. Moreover, in Lord of the Flies, when the fire went out, and Ralph is urging the hunters to go and restore the fire he said, “‘There’s no signal showing. There may be a ship out there. Are you all off your rockers’”(Golding, 108). In the pattern of Ralph always being able to show leadership qualities, this time he is able to not just giving up and ‘calling it a day’ like the rest of the boys. Instead, Ralph is able to muster strength/will to go to start the fire, because he is keeping his people’s needs, escaping the island, his number one priority, even while it came with some sacrifices he had to make, for example: pushing him and the hunters forward even though they’re already tired. Likewise in Plato’s “The Republic”, when he is talking about what a leader should stand for

In “Certain Trumpets” where Wills is talking about a personal experience of a business venture he has with his dad he realized that, “he had separate motives for wanting me there, and I have motives for not wanting to be there”(Will. 17). In this case where although both people were interested in the success of the business, they both had different motives for being there. In such manner, a leader, the dad, should be joining with his followers, his son, in the common goal, which in this case was the business. This example should be followed in real life, because a leader should join his followers in a goal, which as I’ve previously stated is to fulfill their needs. Not to mention, in Lord of the Flies shortly before Jack’s savages kill Simon, Jack leads them to start chanting “Do our dance! Come on! Dance!”(pg. 159). In this continuous pattern of Jack joining his savages to combat their fears. In this case where he joins his followers to combat their fear of the beast. Although, they fight for the wrong reasons, Jack is in fact a good leader because he is able to personally connect with his followers, because he joins them in their quest. This is very similar to Hitler’s leadership, he was able to join his people in a common goal, which was to purify the Aryan race. What’s more is that in the leadership