Piggy's Leadership In Lord Of The Flies

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Leadership is one of the themes that William Golding uses throughout his novel, Lord of The Flies. Although some characters show potential for leadership, Piggy’s potential is incomparable. Piggy displays the most luminous potential for leadership in Lord of the Flies in view that he abide by what is morally right, and has strong intellectual brainpower. Piggy has the most potential for leadership because he is justful and righteous. There was a small boy, with a “mulberry-colored” birthmark on his face, who wanted to speak to the assembly, but Ralph didn’t give him the conch, and as a result the boy started weeping.

When Piggy and Ralph picked up a conch “among the ferny weeds”, Piggy instantaneously came up with a great plan to put it to use. He spoke with innovation, “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us”(16). This quote explains how clever and quick witted he is because he found a futile-object, and with a great mind, he turned it into an extremely useful tool that could bring everyone together. If he had not come up with this plan, everyone who survived the plane crash would have eventually scattered across the island, and their situation would have also been a big mess. Later on throughout the story, an assembly was held due to inappropriate and lazy behaviors of the boys, and ultimately for letting the fire go out at the most crucial time when a ship passed by, which unfortunately didn’t see them. At the beginning of the assembly, Ralph couldn’t keep his head straight on what he wanted to say, unlike Piggy. The narrator states, “If you were chief you had to think, you had to be wise…” and the narrator continues, “Piggy could think. he could go step by step inside the fat of his head, only Piggy was no chief”(78). Piggy’s potential for leadership was directly being stated by the narrator, as was shown in this quote. The narrator was describing the qualities of a good leader, and compares the similarities to Piggy’s smart and intellect characteristic, to