The Leadership of Jack and Ralph in Lord of the Flies: Essay

Words: 2266
Pages: 10

The Leadership of Jack and Ralph in Lord of the Flies

Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies, Ralph tries his best to create a society based on survival. As time progresses, it is clear that Jack's feelings are towards living life and having fun. Jack's society eventually leads to corruption, killing innocent people, while Ralph's prevails as the boys are rescued. Ralph uses a repetition of hope towards being saved while Jack's technique with no thought clearly flounders creating savages out of the once civilized boys.

Ralph's original society is split because of lack of interest with some of the individuals. They begin to loose faith in themselves, and thus seek fun and fortune. In the end the group seeking a long-term
…show more content…
As the story progress', Jack's actions give the idea that he is fed up with the way Ralph governed certain circumstances. Jack changes all the rules that he and the others once followed, and enforces new ones which are much more stricter, where everyone has a job to do. Ralph's older method of having a democracy to follow simply crumbles, as few remain in the group once Jack leaves.

"`I said we could all do without a certain person.

Now I say we got to decide on what can be done. And

I think I could tell you what Ralph's going to say

next. The most important thing on the island

is the smoke and you can't have no smoke without a fire.'"(4)

This clearly sets things straight with Ralph's group, as there are no rules to follow as long as the boys work together as a team to keep the fire going and remain safe until being rescued.

Ralph's method is thus a democratic point of view, where everyone can have their opinion. Only at the meetings, power is shown over others, as the person with the conch has the right to speak. In Ralph's group the boys consider the conch as the greatest power that one can possess. They chose the conch over anything else on the island, because it is what first assembled them together, originating the group. This is what really made Ralph the first chief, as he held the conch when he was picked.

From these two points