Lord of the Flies- Leadership Analysis on Ralph

A leader is someone who directs or guides a group. However, good leadership is the ability to set priorities and accomplish what needs to be done with the feelings of the group in mind. In Lord of the Flies, Ralph demonstrates many traits that would be considered good leadership. At times he also lacks them, and if he had demonstrated them he could have helped the situation greatly. Ralph understands how people feel and has the ability to respect that and make decisions based off of people’s feelings. He also has the ability to be very serious, which is a good leadership trait if you want to accomplish something. Ralph was also very wise and always made the decisions that he thought were best for the group. In addition, Ralph is very hard working, once he knows what needs to be done he will work very hard to accomplish that task. Throughout the book Ralph demonstrates he is empathetic towards other people’s feelings, he is serious towards his goal, he makes wise decisions, and he is hardworking towards the task at hand.
In the book, Ralph was empathetic and showed understanding towards the boys’ feelings. “‘Trouble is, we haven’t got enough people for a fire. You got to treat Samneric as one turn. They do everything together-’” (138) This shows that, even in a time of crisis, Ralph will consider everyone’s feelings before he acts. This trait also hinders Ralph because he does not realize how unproductive it would be to treat the twins as one boy until Piggy explains it to Ralph. This is an example of how he may understand the boy’s feelings, but he must use his wisdom to make the best decision for the whole group. Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that's assault, not leadership.” This is a perfect example of the difference between Ralph and Jack. Jack lacks the quality of empathy, which is what divides Ralph from Jack and leads Jack’s group to chaos while Ralph’s still holds onto some civilization.