Ralph is the protagonist of Lord of the flies, a novel that explores the natural behavior of man. Throughout the book, Ralph experiences a lot of character development, being introduced at the beginning of the novel as a handsome, thoughtful, charismatic person who is a natural leader, he quickly gains the support and respect of all the boys on the island and is promptly elected leader of the island. Ralph's election kickstarts a rivalry between him and one of the older boys Jack, who believes he should be the one in charge. Jack repeatedly challenges ralphs authority as Ralph's leadership is repeatedly put to the test. From the beginning of the novel, Ralph's main focus has been to improve living conditions for the boys and find a way out of the island. He builds shelters for a place to sleep and has the boys light and maintain a fire in the hopes that a ship will see it while passing by. It later becomes clear that Ralph, and piggy, are the only ones who care about escaping and building huts. This is shown when Jack and his hunters leave the fire unattended to go and hunt but bear no fruit. …show more content…
Fear of the beast dominates the boy's minds and Ralph is unable to calm them down. I believe this is one of Ralph's failures as a leader. Some of the boys begin an expedition to find the beast, they go to an area not explored yet, and Ralph is scared to enter one of the tunnels. Jack uses this incident to paint Ralph as a cowardly leader and attempts to overthrow him, but fails. Jack secedes from the island and takes some of the boys with him, this shows Ralph's inability to command authority with the