Leadership In Lord Of The Flies

Leadership is an essential quality in anyone, especially in those we choose to lead us. Like the leaders in The Lord of the Flies, our own world leaders try to do what they think is best for their people, sometimes in the wrong way. The leadership qualities in our leaders today reflect the qualities in the characters of the book; Jack shares aspects of Hitler’s leading strategies. A good leader must have certain qualities that will help them lead. These might include empathy, so the leader might listen to the people and heed their plights, patience, that they might handle situations in a collected manner, and emotional strength, that the leader might not collapse under the pressure of leading. These are just a few of
the critical qualities that would make up a good leader in reality and in the book. In The Lord of the Flies, Jack was one of the “bigguns,” or the older kids.
He took charge when nobody else knew what to do and did what he thought was best for the kids. Jack decided that surviving was the most important thing to do, rather than try to be rescued. He made weapons to hunt the pigs on the island and gather fruit. He has good leadership qualities; he was emotionally strong and didn’t break down; instead he took charge and thought of the most important thing for the kids first, which was to survive. This action saved more lives than were lost, and prolonged their health until they were able to be rescued. Jack, however, was not all good. His method of getting the resources he needed was not a healthy one, as it eventually killed Piggy (thats his name right?). The fight over Piggy’s glasses and his constant teasing were not good leadership tactics, nor was his decision to beat up Wilfred over not doing something. Jack started all the fights with Ralph, and tried to control everyone to do exactly as he wanted. This is not a good leadership tactic; he basically made himself a
dictator.
It is clear that Jack has some personal issues that could affect how he lead, it seems to me he might have been abused due to all the violence he caused. His personal flaws interfered with the way he lead by making him impatient and explosive when something was not done or a task was not completed in the way he wanted it done. A good leader should keep their personal flaws at bay for the good of the group, which is not something Jack did. Jack reminds me of Adolf Hitler, the fascist German dictator that began World War II.
Hitler was a great leader in some ways; he was excellent at public speaking and good and rallying people through propaganda. Hitler was obsessed with getting more resources for the “Aryan” race and expanding their territory. He was doing what he believed was best for people by creating a “pure” race. Hitler did this in the most evil manner though, by destroying the lives of millions of Jews and citizens of other countries in his hunger for power. His bad leadership tactics can be traced back to his “daddy issues,” as his father wanted him to enter civil services rather than become an artist. This caused the two of them to fight bitterly, which is reflected in Hitler’s leading when someone doesn’t do that he wants them to do, or does an inadequate job, they are killed. Hitler let his personality affect his leading, much like Jack
did. Hitler and Jack are very alike in their leading; they both did what they thought was best for the people they were leading, but in the wrong ways. They let their personalities get in the way of their leadership tactics, as they both injured those who displeased them. Jack, like Hitler, went in search of natural resources to help the younger kids survive, which is essentially what Hitler attempted to do when he was in power. They both lead like dictators; they only did what they wanted to do and didn’t listen to anyone else. Both Hitler and Jack had massive flaws in their leadership techniques, making them both bad leaders. Leadership is important in societies both real and fictional. The decisions of leaders in the book were the difference between life and death, rescue or demise. The all but three of the kids in the book survived, but perhaps more would have made it had it not been for the decisions of their leader(s). The same goes for our society in reality, our lives are affected on a daily basis by the people who lead us; like how the decisions of Hitler caused a war that destroyed millions of lives. There are good leaders in our world too, people that brought up great nations and ended suffering; their leadership tactics need to be remembered and heeded for the future, their example is what every leader should strive to be.