Ralph’s Powerful Leadership in Lord of the Flies
Ralph’s Powerful Leadership in Lord of the Flies
In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of schools boys are traveling on a plane when it is hit and crashes on a small-uncivilized island, they but learn how to survive on the island. Ralph is elected the leader and that he is a very powerful leader because he boosts the boys hope up of being rescued, knows about the wilderness and has the respect of the other boys.
In the first chapter of the book Ralph establishes his power by gaining the respect of the boys. He was elected leader because he got all the boys together by using the conch. He treats everyone fair. He boosts everyone’s hope of being rescued by telling them, “We want to be rescued: and of course we shall be rescued” (Golding 37). In the first few chapters Ralph establishes a powerful leadership.
Ralph becomes a more powerful leader but Jack and the choir have less respect of him but all other people still have the same amount of respect for him if not more. He has an idea on how to get rescued; he has the group build a fire on the mountain so that when a ship goes by they will see the fire. He puts Jack and the choir in charge of the fire but later in the novel they do not take care of it and it goes out when a ship travels by the island. He tries to have people to start building shelters but no one want to finish them. Also he takes care of the neglected little ones. At meetings he has the conch represent the right to speak so, when someone holds it they have the right to speak in front of the group. After a while, Jack does respect the conch and Ralph blows up at him, “JACK! JACK! You haven’t got the conch! Let him speak!” (91)
Ralph becomes very upset at Jack and his choir because he tries to establish himself as a leader using fear and this starts the decline of Ralph’s power. Ralph becomes very upset at Jack for many reasons. The fire goes out when a ship goes by and because the fire was out the ship did not know that anyone was on the...