The Lord Of The Flies: Character Analysis

When life throws scary and dire situations at you, some believe it is a test to see a person's true colors, and how that person reacts under extreme pressure and conflict. In situations like these, leaders are born. In The Lord of the Flies, Ralph becomes a frontrunner as the “chief”, or leader in the story. Ralph struggles to maintain a civil relationship between all the boys, but still remains the more appropriate leader, including his civility, his conflicts, and his purpose. Ralph remains civil while all the other boys diverted to savagery. When Jack challenged Ralphs chief skills nobody voted for him, he ran away and started his own tribe across the island where everyone went leaving Ralph and Piggy behind. Jack and all the boys became
savage and did horrible things. They killed Piggy and Simon leaving Ralph with no one, he was on his own panicking and hiding from the others, “Ralph screamed, a scream of fright and anger and desperation” (Golding 199). As they were all trying to kill Ralph he stayed true to the person he once was. Ralph made the decision to not attack them back, he needed to protect himself to stay alive. At that moment he had the choice to either attack or run, he did not want to turn into what the other boys had become. Ralph is a static character, but still gains the competency to survive and to realize he needs to lead effectively, “There aren’t any grownups. We shall have to look after ourselves” ( 33). Although Ralph is showing strong leadership he faces tough conditions on the island. Ralph encounters life changing harsh conflicts while stranded on the island.
All the boys deserted Ralph, Piggy, and Simon and chose Jack’s tribe. While the two tribes are separated at the opposite sides of the island they still run into each other with conflicts in hand. Jack’s tribe did not have fire so they snuck up on Ralph's tribe and attacked them while sleeping. They stole Piggy’s glasses and left them with nothing against the spine-chilling night, “We’ve had a fight with the others” (167). Another issue was with the group of hunters that made their first kill when hunting while in charge of keeping the fire going. All the hunters that stayed back decided to leave the fire and to go kill the pig. With no one there to keep the fire going, it extinguished. Meanwhile, on the beach Ralph is looking out to sea and spies a thin line of smoke move across the sea, everyone jumped for joy, but then realized there was no smoke signal to catch the ship's attention. Returning from the forest, the hunters yelling out excitedly, “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood” (69). Ralph realizes that he can not do everything and feels the heat of being
chief. Ralph being chief is the only thing keeping the island sane.
Ralph takes on the role as the adult on the island as there is none. He constantly thinks of survival, having fire, and building shelter because he is concerned about everyone's safety, “Been working for days now. And look!” (50). He’s been working on the shelters with the other boys, but then soon tire and leave him with Simon to finish the shelter. He tries to make sure a fire is always burning, constantly thinking ahead for warmth, cooking food and the possibility of rescue. Jack is a problem, he is becoming more and more barbaric, never thinking things through or supporting others, selfish and unworthy for chief, “He isn’t a proper chief” (126). Ralph would like for everyone on the island to be in one tribe so they can all help each other using all of their strengths, some are better at building shelter, others are better at hunting. Jack does not agree and resists that idea, stealing their food and making their lives even more difficult. Jack is making Ralph’s life unbearable, but Ralph perseveres to be a leader on the
island.
Ralph endures so much while on the island. Through all that he spies and encounters, he stays true to himself and is a natural poised leader. He never wavered from what he thought was the right thing to do, he started on a path and at times that path changed but Ralph still did what he thought was right. He is a civil human being with admiral leadership qualities. These experiences will help Ralph to continue being a strong individual and a leader throughout his life.