The Lord Of The Flies: A Leadership Analysis

"There is no one-size-fits-all approach, answer key or formula to leadership. Leadership should be the humble, authentic expression of your unique personality in pursuit of bettering whatever environment you are in." (Qtd. in Post) In William Golding’s The Lord of The Flies the one character who continually tries to better the environment the boys are living in is Ralph, therefore he is a better leader than Jack who tries and succeeds at tearing the group of boys apart. The boys ended up on the island after their plane was shot down in the middle of the second World War. Two of the older boys Ralph and Jack fight for power on the island, Ralph motivated to get home; while Jack wants to hunt, kill, and have fun. All great leaders throughout history have done everything in their power to better the situation their followers are in.
A true leader wants rules and order, Ralph shows his desire for rules and order by shouting “We’ll have rules!” (Golding 33) Ralph wanting rules shows that he wants order and not chaos. Order betters the environment the boys are in because it makes them work together in a civilized manner. This
shows Ralph’s ability to be a successful leader. Ralph also says “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking.” (Golding 33) Having people take turns speaking makes it so the meetings are not chaotic, meetings without chaos get a whole lot more done. Thus bettering the environment the boys live in. This is all because of Ralph’s decision to created rules and order on the island. Establishment of rules and order is a big goal of any good leader.
All of the greatest historical leaders were willing to sacrifice everything for their people. Arguably one of the greatest leaders of all time, Nelson Mandela once said “Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people”. Ralph almost is killed because he makes Jack so mad with all the talk of needing to get rescued and keeping fire going. When Ralph and Piggy go to Jack’s camp to get piggy specs and tell them to keep the fire going he knows their is a risk to his life. He was ready sacrifice to open the eyes of the boys to see the importance of being rescued. Another great historical leader named Martin Luther King Jr. once said “Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” Ralph never stopped stressing the importance of getting rescued and keeping the signal fire going, which almost got him killed. So his tireless efforts to get the boys rescued almost caused him to have to make the greatest sacrifice a human can make, that being the sacrifice of his life. Ralph was never afraid to sacrifice throughout their time on the island, he time and time again risked it all for the betterment of the boys on the island.
Some may say that Jack is a leader because he commands respect from the boys, and is a very tough leader who forces his ideas onto other people.
Which in some cases is a form of leadership that works. However Jack’s style of leadership doesn’t always work “Every single person in your team is unique. They are all motivated by, disappointed by, worried about, excited about, and skeptical about different things, each to varying degrees” so therefore each person responds better to different types of leadership. So some of the boys on the island may respond well to the Jack’s commanding forceful leadership style, while others may respond better to Ralph’s passive and understanding leadership style. So this point really doesn’t benefit either side of the argument because it does not have any reason to suggest that either Jack or Ralph is a better
leader. All great historical leaders were ready to sacrifice everything for the betterment of the environment their followers were living in. For example Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated for standing for the rights of african americans. This is similar to the case of Ralph in the sense that Ralph was almost killed because he made Jack mad by stressing the importance of a signal fire and being rescued which would better the environment the boys were living in. Ralph is essentially the fictional embodiment of a lot of great historical leaders. This proves that Ralph not only is a better leader than Jack, but has the potential to be one of the greatest leaders of all time.