Ralph: Character Analysis
(Lord of the Flies by William Golding)
There are many interesting characters in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, but the character that stood out the most to me while reading the book, was Ralph. He is the protagonist in the story. Ralph is an outstandingly smart, young boy. He resembles various traits of a leader, and a person of power, including the unfortunate bossiness of many leaders. Although he is barely a decade old, Ralph undergoes an important lesson when he finally comes to learn the ugly truth about people. He starts to see the evil sides of the other boys, and even of himself, and finally he comes to the realization that there is evil in everybody.
Ralph is portrayed with intelligence straightaway. You can easily see he is observant when he is first introduced and he states, “This is an island. At least I think it’s an island. That’s a reef out in the sea.” (pg. 2) Later on Ralph suggests touring around to make sure that they are on an island. After figuring out that they were, in fact, on an island, Ralph is quick to figure out that rescue is not going to be particularly easy to come by. On multiple occasions, it seems as though he is the only one who really understands the importance of making an effort of getting rescued. He puts a great deal of effort into trying to make sure the fire is kept alive, although the others tend to fail him. Ralph also makes an effort to teach the other boys why it is so important to have a signal fire, which he also does not have much luck with. His high intelligence is part of what leads him to learn such an important lesson about life, while on the island. Ralph’s intelligence and wisdom is also what makes him an excellent leader for the boys.
Ralph becomes leader quickly after all the boys come together, and he wins the “election” between Jack and himself. At first, it seems as though many of the boys are more concerned with playing and adventuring