Ralph In Lord Of The Flies

Submitted By Dthana
Words: 376
Pages: 2

James Cass

12 February 2012

The Essence of Civilization

Ralph was an excellent leader who had several key qualities which led to the boys rescue. Ralph displayed these useful traits, by working towards the enrichment of the boy’s society living on the island. This is evident, when Ralph creates rules that were beneficial to the boy’s survival such as building shelter, maintaining the fire, and finding food. By doing this Ralph creates stability and order to the group.

Ralph’s motivation was to maintain a civilization among the group until their rescue. He handles many of the boy’s disputes in non-violent means. Another key quality that Ralph displays to the boys was respect. Ralph values the effort and contributions of all the boys. This is evident, when he defends Piggy throughout the movie when others were insulting him. Even though Ralph was a strong leader, he was still naïve. This ultimately led to the downfall of there civilization and to the tragedy.

Ralph had contributed to the tragedy when he allowed the killing of Simon to go unpunished. By doing this, Jack’s tribe then knew that they were more dominant, and that they could kill anyone else on the island without consequences. This unfortunately led to the murder of Piggy.

Ralph could have prevented the deaths of Simon and Piggy if he did not allow Jack to divide the group. Jack turned the boys into savages with the gruesome mentality of uncivilized