Who Is Ralph A Good Leader In Lord Of The Flies

In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the boys on the island choose a leader for the group. The main choices are Ralph and Jack, who both show good leadership qualities. However, despite Jack’s advantages, Ralph would be the more qualified leader due specific traits, such as his assessment of others, priorities and selflessness.

One of Ralph’s strengths is that he assesses others’ strengths and goes to them for assistance when making decisions. Good leaders think of possible scenarios and consider alternatives while making strategies and plans and all of those strategies should be focusing towards success (Economy, 1). When Ralph creates strategies, he goes to other stranded boys and uses everyone’s ideas to create a winning

Karin Wills states that a good leader is “able to see the ‘big picture’ and act accordingly,” (2). Ralph shows this by looking more into the main priority for the others, which is to be rescued by the Royal Navy and return home. In the novel, Ralph states, “The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going?” (Golding, 80). Ralph knows that all the boys want to be rescued and understands the importance. He knows that if a ship or plane sees the smoke from the fire, they can be spotted and rescued. He is thinking about other’s needs and is using this important topic to help the boys help themselves. When Ralph sets good priorities for himself and the other boys, they look up to him because he focuses on the main problem and branches out from there. When the kids look up to Ralph, they follow his lead and persevere to keep a fire going because they all have the same

Jack is Head Boy of the choir, which leads him to think he should be the chief because he already has power. Jack holds this power over the choir through the course of the entire novel, considering that Ralph offered this power by stating, “The choir belongs to you, of course,” (Golding, 23). Jack has experience with being a leader, but Wills states that, “Truly showing up as a leader is not about the prestige or power of such a role but it is about being a person who exhibits leadership skills when they see that is needed,” (2). This begins to lean more towards Ralph as being a more qualified chief, considering his selflessness towards the boys. Ralph puts himself out to the island many times in the novel for the sake of the other kids. Meanwhile, all Jack is concerned about is hunting and getting