Preview

Ralph Vs Jack Leader

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
709 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ralph Vs Jack Leader
Ralph vs jack

There are always people who prove to have better leadership skills than others. The strongest of these people can often influence the weaker people into following them. However, the strongest person is not necessarily the best leader as it is proven in William Golding’s novel,
The Lord of the Flies. Although Ralph is the weaker person, he is still able to demonstrate a better understanding of people than Jack who is stronger. Ralph demonstrates his excellent leadership skills throughout the novel by keeping order among the group, treating everyone with respect, and having the sense to keep his focus on getting rescued.

While the boys are under Jack’s control, they quickly turn into uncivilized savages.
However, Ralph manages to keep the boys under control by holding meetings. At the meetings, a sense of order is brought on to the boys because the boys are not allowed to speak unless they have the conch. “l will give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking.” (p. 31) By enforcing this sense of order, he gains respect from the boys and becomes more confident as a leader. Ralph uses his power to make the boys feel more comfortable on the island. He demonstrates his understanding of the boy’s needs by building shelters. “They talk and scream. The littuns. Even some of the others.” (p. 53)
Ralph is referring to the fact that the boys need the shelters because they are afraid and the shelters will help the boys feel more secure. This demonstrates his knowledge of people making him a better leader than Jack who does not understand this. Jack does not realize that the boys need to feel secure and require a sense of order in their society.

Ralph shows his understanding of human nature by the way he handles the boys. Jack considers the boys inferior to him, meanwhile, Ralph treats all the boys equally and with respect. Ralph’s leadership qualities are shown when he defends Piggy since

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Ralph and Simon were a perfect example of innocence lost and the morals that tend to protect and even advance society as a whole. The savage boys, Jack and Roger, are the idea of objectivity and personal gratification that use methods such as fear and violence to control those around them. Human nature gravitates towards primal instincts when removed from the morals imposed by modern society. Only when modern society suddenly appears in the form of the Naval Officer does Ralph understand that he will never be able to revert back to how he was the day he set foot on the…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ralph makes himself a loved leader and he cares for the well-being of the people. Jack is not concerned for the welfare of his subjects. In the end, Jack wins because the boys follow him out…

    • 1003 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ralph is also better as his is democratic and seeks the opinions of the boys unlike Jack who is autocratic and just makes demands of the boys, forcing things to be done his way and his way only. Ralph listens to the boys’ opinions, he is willing to give the conch to anyone who wants to speak in public. However, Jack “started to protest” when a vote was called. Jack does not want the voices of the boys’ to be heard, even through a simple vote that would not take up much time. He only wants things to be done his way and not any other…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ralph was the only civil guy left in the end. Although savagery came sometimes to him, he managed to stay civilized for the most part, even though the others became more savage. He is a reasonable leader, but lacks the experience and the knowledge to lead. Jack is an example of a leader, as he can easily get the bigger, more knowledgeable boys to go with him, while Ralph ends up with Simon, Piggy, and the litte’uns.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Controlling a group of boys is like the weather, you never know what’s going to happen. Ralph got to experience this first hand when he was…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ralph is the elected leader of the group. He continues throughout the whole book to try to keep the order in the book. He first understands that he needs to set up a structure of rules to allow for the group of boys to remain civilized. The first great leadership skill that Ralph has is that he compromises. Ralph is a compromiser. The smartest compromises makes is that he instead of having Jack be upset about not being elected leader he makes Jack be the leader of the hunters. This would allow Jack and Ralph to have a good relationship until the middle of the book where having Jack be the head hunter would cause a split in the…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    rest of the boys to reject him also. Jack is so intimidated by Ralph that…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    this pattern and that character is the protagonist Ralph. Rather than become lower in the progression of…

    • 778 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the start he is looked up to by the other boys due to his leadership-oriented qualities of being sensible and confident. However, with the deaths of Piggy and Simon comes Ralph’s overwhelming loss of self-control. The loss of Piggy essentially represents the loss of civilization and this is what causes Ralph to gradually lose his focus of trying to escape the island and changes that determination into feelings of anger as he begins to become more aggressive. His personality begins to change, which is described in the scene where he overhears the hunters talking about capturing him: “[Ralph] felt the point of his spear with his thumb and grinned without amusement. Whoever tried that would be stuck, squealing like a pig” (237). This shows how he begins to find comfort in violent behaviour and this also describes his conversion from civilization to savagery. He lets his emotions start to take control and lets out his inner beast, quickly resorting to aggressive confrontation in a difficult situation: “Ralph launched himself like a cat, stabbed, gnarling, with the spear, and the savage doubled up” (240). This describes how he begins to become more animalistic, being brutally violent when his life is threatened, and is even compared to a cat. This shows the corruption of his personality and behaviour without the external forces to help him contain…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Ralph, this change can first be seen in the beginning of chapter five: Beast From Water. Previously, Ralph was depicted as all the other boys were- someone who wanted to have fun. But after they missed potentially being rescued by a passing ship by a “fault at the fire,” the reality of their situation dawns on him. He gets serious about getting things done and fully embraces his position as leader, a position which alienates him from many of the other boys. He quickly…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ralph represents orderliness and tranquility. He is the one who brings the boys together. When they vote for a chief, they elect Ralph, as he is in possession of the conch who brought them together; "There was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch." (Goulding 22). The conch has given Ralph authority and sets him apart from the other boys. As the novel progresses, he finds himself at competition for power-- with Jack. When the boys are tempted to engage in his savage…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Golding emphasizes certain characteristics of Ralph through Ralph’s words, “‘He’s not Fatty,’ cried Ralph, ‘ his real name’s Piggy’” (21).. Ralph does not mean to really hurt Piggy’s feeling, but in his words he embarrasses, betrays, and torments Piggy. When Ralph realizes how much he hurts Piggy’s feelings he does nothing to fix it. That is what The lack of action reveals the mean, harsh, and immature side of Ralph. Differences in ages cause vast diversity in the level of maturity and knowledge on the island. At twelve years of age Ralph is one of the older boys on the island (10). The younger boys look up to Ralph because of his age, and they automatically look towards him as a leader. Ralph’s age also gives him more knowledge and experience than the younger boys. The boys vote Ralph over Jack for chief (22). Despite Jack being the obvious leader, Ralph is voted chief because the young boys are drawn to his appearance and…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of the novel, Ralph is confident that he and the boys will be rescued by his dad, but Piggy tells him that no one knows they are there, which makes Ralph feel unsure. Ralph is just like the other boys on the island, but he begins to change as the story progresses. Throughout the novel, as the theme turns from civilized to savage, the events Ralph experiences slowly change him emotionally, physically, and psychologically.…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jack Vs Ralph

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Jack and Ralph each want to have power and will do anything to get it. Both want so much for the others to see them as their leader, and are in constant argument as to who should be the leader. Jack is envious of Ralph, as he is the chosen leader. There are significant differences between the two also cause many more conflicts to arise.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ralph's obviously ineffective statement caused an eruption of laughter within the boys, which allows the boys to believe that the need for rules is not a serious issue. As leader, Ralph is not placing any consequences on the breaking of rules, therefore, the boys essentially have nothing to fear, and thus, feel free to do whatever they would like. The boys' inability to duplicate British society is seen next when the boys show no concentration towards their assigned tasks.…

    • 1343 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays