Leadership in the Lord of the Flies

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Leadership in the Lord of the Flies In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, we can see good and evil leadership. There are always people in a group who are better wanting to be a leader than others. The strongest people become the greater influence which the others decide to follow. Not in all cases the strongest person is not the best choice. The best example is Ralph and Jack, when they are willing to do everything to be the leader. Overall there is a big difference between them. In other words, Jack fails to realize the boys need security, stability and order in their society. In William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies Ralph though not the stronger person, demonstrates a better understanding of people than Jack, which gives him better leadership. Ralph shows useful human qualities as a leader by having attention to boys' society. He knows the boys need stability and order if they are to survive on the island. Jack does not treat the boys with dignity and importance as Ralph does. Ralph understands that the boy like for example Piggy, have to be given respect. He creates rules and a simple form of government to achieve this order of being accepted. This makes Ralph a better leader than Jack. When Jack hits Piggy and breaks his glasses, Ralph calls him in chapter five "A dirty trick." (Golding 78). This shows Jack's disrespect, for other humans. Ostajewski 2 While Ralph does prove to have good characteristics, Ralph keeps the boys under order through the meetings which he holds. At meetings a sense of order is introduce because the boys have to wait until they hold the conch to speak. When Ralph says in chapter two, “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he's speaking." (Golding 36) he enforces his role of leader by making rules. By doing this he wins the boys respect and confidence in his leadership

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