Commentary on Lord Of The Flies Essay

In the story The Lord of The Flies we encountered a most interesting situation where a group of young boys are stranded on an island, presumably far away from all other land masses, where three boys stood out as leaders, of those who wanted order of stability. Those boys, Piggy, Ralph, and Jack all went about contributing as leaders, though Ralph was an actual leader, if only for a time, while Jack (a boy who has the whole holier than thou aspect going on and is power hungry) eventually steals away Ralphs power and followers, but before that was the head of his own sect, the choir boys. However though ralph was pushed out of power (except for his few followers, Piggy -till his death-, Samneric, and Simon until his death-) and the fact that jack took over in an occult like manner I suppose, Ralph is the one boy I believe is the proper leader for the boys, because he has rational human emotions like compassion, care, kindness, calmness, level-headedness add to that he is not a crazy narcissistic war monger with superiority issues like Jack nor does he like to control people using fear and other sneaky underhanded methods, and he seemed to be a guy you could get along with.

Though Ralph isnt mad with power or rules using fear or shady ways in general, he lacked the proper leadership experience to handle the boys as shown in the way he lost the vastest majority of them to Jack. In Jacks case however, he seemed to be well in control with his horrid menagerie of children who have succumb to psychosis, irrationality, a basic loss of normal civilized behavior, and such, in the way that they worshipped him, followed his word as if it were law of a command from God and they were devout worshippers of him. They clung to him and acted as if he were made of excrement and they were a hoard of flies (what they loved and lived for and would die/kill for). Ralph lacked in keeping the boys in order i.e. the boys going to the bathroom all over and such, he also lacked the importantness of a leader having his people looking to him for advice, answers, and guidance, while Jack had that essentially But in a very wrong way. Although Ralph was able to keep Piggy, Simon, and Samneric with him, that possibly showing that he is more rational, and appeals as a person of good instead of the evil and chaos Jack represented.

Ralph unfortunately lacked in control but, I believe if he so wished it he could have solidified his rule in much the same way as Jack, however I believe such a thing would not be so appealing to Ralph, so he did not go with said method. This may show that Ralph has a good moral center and believes in honest and other important virtues, as opposed to Jack who only wanted to be on top and have his way and words be right, without any room for dispute otherwise. I also believe that the reason Ralph did not do any screwed up unorthodox methods was that he himself did not believe he had the right or such to control the other boys and may have wanted to guide them in the right direction deep down, but however he had no inferiority or superiority issues unlike Jack, he only took charged possibly because he feared maybe what could happen if the wrong person took charge which happened later on. All in all these are good reasons why Ralph is the better leader.

Jack in this story was the representation of evil in the way that deep down all people wish (weather conscious of it or not) wish to have power, and also believe that they are a better fit in something than others, Ralph was a representation of balance, a person who wished for order and wished to survive and help others do the same, Piggy like Ralph wanted the same things but also acted as a voice of reason and was represented as a person who people easily ignore and brush aside, or that society deems unimportant or a hindrance. If Ralph would have stayed leader he would have most likely come to realize that he would need Piggys moral compass of rightness, rationality, and such to help instill order, though however Jack would have still posed a great issue, but I believe a joint Ralph/Piggy society may have kept the boys from straying towards the tempting darkness that is Jack and his menagerie. In conclusion Ralph would make a good leader because he is kind, caring, well-adjusted morally, down to earth, and has a grasp on himself as a person not a person who wishes to be God like Jack.

~Reference list~

Golding, W. (1954), Lord of The Flies, New York: Penguin Group.