In Lord of the Flies, Golding presents two contrasting forms of leadership. Who do you think makes a better leader and why? What do you think Golding is trying to tell us about the qualities of a good leader? Leadership is defined as a person who rules, guides or inspires others, a person who is looked up to, and followed. A leader is either a person elected, or a person who takes control, which will now guide their respective group of people through a period of time.
In the novel “The Lord of the Flies”, they present to us a weird situation in leadership, about how a group of boys lost in an island, who need rules and some sort of organization to try and keep themselves alive, need some sort of a leader to guide them in their way of freedom. In the essay afterwards, I will be describing who the best leader is between Jack and Ralph, the 2 main characters in the play, as well as describing what the best qualities of a leader should be, according to William Golding.
In the first chapters of the novel, Ralph, main character of the novel, is elected as the leader of the group of lost boys. These group of minors see him as a model, as a role model to follow, a tall man which has the qualities to serve them as a leader. His leadership is presented as an organized leadership, he has the quality of having everything as good as it can be, structured in a civilized manner.
It is thought that Golding tries to tell us Jack, the antagonist of the play isn’t formally elected leader, but after a period of chapters start revealing himself against Ralph, showing his own rebellion as he didn’t see the need of running in an organized and civilized manner, he acted in the complete opposite way, he saw the need for hunting, an uncivilized practice in the purpose of the gaining of food, and didn’t see the need of being controlled by anyone he himself wanted to be his leader.
After a short period of time, almost all the kids controlled by Ralph start revealing against him and setting off to Jack’s hunting camp, where no rules were needed, they went with the only purpose of having fun, not having to follow rules, and to have good meals. I think Jack is an unsuccessful leader such because he runs in an uncivilized and an unorganized manner, and we all need rules for a group of people to be organized and so that everything goes well.
It is then, by this descriptions clearly shown what leaderships applies best to this situation, It is Ralph’s way of leadership that determines the best way of dealing with the situation, dealing with having to be stuck in an island with a group of people with no adults, no authority. Being organized and civilized is the best way to deal with it. If everybody started having no rules the world would be a disaster, and this applies to this case as well. From this we can deduce that Golding was trying to let us know how being uncivilized and having no rules can be fun, but can lead to serious disasters.
In conclusion, Ralph is thought to be a better leader than Jack, he presents his way of organization as being civilized, as well organized as it can be, which makes him a better leader as without a way of organization it will all be disastrous and they might not even make it out of the island, and this was, in contrast, what Golding was trying to tell us by developing this novel, telling us how civilization beats fun, how being organized but not necessarily having fun will, at the end, lead to a better future.
