Lord of the Flies: Why Ralph Is a Good Leader

The existence of mankind on earth relies on various factors. The basic needs for us humans to survive are food, water, shelter etc. These though, are only the physical needs of man. Humans also have social and mental needs. These needs require us humans to have law and order to be able to coexist peacefully with ourselves, nature and the environment. The only way that law and order can be achieved in human society is by a higher authority, or some form of government and/or leader. William Golding tries to touch on some of these aspects of our civilization through the various characters he creates in his novel, Lord of the Flies. Leadership plays a very important role in the novel as it does in real life for us, because the characters need to feel some sense of security in order for them to survive. The two main leaders in the story, through their similar and different leadership characteristics and objectives fight back and forth to gain the discipline of the other boys on the island. This is to generally gain the power to make the decisions that they feel should be made, sometimes for the better of the entire group, and sometimes for their own purpose. The leaders which are presented throughout the novel all have their own method of leading, and serve different purposes. The elected and democratic leader is Ralph, the self-appointed leader who tries to run a totalitarianist society is Jack Merridew, and the logical leader who tries to lead with his common sense and knowledge is Piggy. In the beginning they work towards common goals, but eventually their different views on how to lead the group lead them into conflict.

Ralph is amongst the first few characters mentioned in the story and he quickly takes the role of gathering the survivors. He does this by using Piggy's idea of the conch. When the boys arrive in the island they automatically seek for some kind of law and order, since there are not any grown-ups. They want to belong to a group, with someone in