Imagine being on a reality TV show which depends on a leader to help the group win as other challenges come into play.Then, let's say that group leader abandons the group's tasks just to do something that won't help the group win.This becomes a reality as the leader Jack Merridew ignores many responsibilities and is faced with the consequences of unethical leadership in the Lord of The Flies by William Golding.This happens as the absence of the leaders ability to maintain order disrupts the groups' ability to cooperate.The groups codependency to work together is change fails to keep hope within the group. When leaders ignore their responsibilities, their actions undermine the group’s ability to function. Whenever those in charge dismiss their …show more content…
Jack believes it's in the group's best interest to hunt, therefore he doesn't help in watching the fire which is what they needed to help them off the island. He doesn't show interest in getting off the island and puts more effort into hunting than keeping the fire, as he uses everyone except Ralph and piggy to hunt for food. Ralph spoke to the skeptics. “You let the fire go out.” Jack checked, vaguely irritated by this irrelevance but too happy to let it worry him. “We can light the fire again. You should have been with us, Ralph. We had a smashing time. The twins got knocked over—” “We hit the pig—” “—I fell on top—” “I cut the pig’s throat,” said Jack, proudly, and yet twitched as he said “Can I borrow yours, Ralph, to make a nick in the hilt?” The boys chattered and danced. The twins continued to grin. “There was lashings of blood,” said Jack, laughing and shuddering, “you should have seen it!” “We’ll go hunting every day—” Ralph spoke again, hoarsely. He had not moved on. “You let the fire go out.”(97-98) Jack doesn't put any importance in the fire which they need in order to leave the island.He believes hunting is more important, which is why he gets “irritated by this irreverence” when Ralph keeps mentioning the fire.Jacks starts “laughing” showing he doesn't care about the fire and doesn't realize the importance of it. Due to Jack not caring about the fire, the rest of the group starts to follow his example. They start to become more like Jack and start to become more violent.Later this leads to Piggy’s unfortunate death as violence becomes their everyday thing. “Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever. Ralph heard the rock before he saw it. He was aware of a jolt in the earth that came to him through the soles of his feet, and the breaking sound of
In Chapter 8 Jack says “He’s like Piggy. He says things like Piggy. He isn’t a proper chief.” He says this because Jack thinks his point of view is the right one, and it can only be the right one. This is similar to dictatorships in the past when people believe their right and anyone who doesn’t agree is the enemy. Later in the book Jack tries to get more followers by promising them psychological needs. Jack states “We’ve killed a pig and we’ve got meat. You can come and eat with us if you like.” Jack is trying to take away any of Ralph’s remaining supporters, so that Ralph is forced to follow him when all he has left is Piggy, Samneric, and a few clueless littluns. Later in this book Ralph is on his own a few hours after Piggy dies, he is considering joining Jack’s tribe because he will have food and protection. In the forest he thinks about the thought of eating fruit, and then remembering the feast and that maybe they would let him back. After that he realizes that the hunters killed Piggy and Simon, so they would kill him
In “Lord of the Flies” Ralph has the goal of getting himself and the rest of the tribe off the island. His plan to execute it is by making a signal fire that a passing ship or boat will see to rescue them. Ralph realizes that maintaining order within their tribe is crucial to their survival and chance of being saved. As chief of their group, he assigns Jack the leader of the hunters. He then puts them in charge of keeping the signal fire lit. During this process, Jack and his boys get distracted from keeping it lit as they attempt to kill a pig. After a couple of hunts, Jack and his boys finally kill a pig and return in cheers. As they get back, Ralph gets mad at Jack saying “You and your blood Jack Merridew! You and your hunting! We might have gone home” (70). Ralph is angry with Jack because he realizes as leader that he has to make sure everyone understands their main goal, and are able to focus on that by blocking out distractions. These actions that Ralph show display why he is successful as a leader and why they accomplish the goal of getting
This first interaction foreshadowed consistent degradation toward Piggy. During the aforementioned feast, during which Simon offered Piggy food, Jack’s intention had been to let Piggy go hungry. Jack claimed “You didn’t hunt,” (74) despite Piggy not being the only boy uninvolved in procuring meat. Due to severe asthma, Piggy was unable to do strenuous work on the island. After the other boys gathered wood for a fire, Jack demeans him again, saying “A fat lot of good you tried,” (42) Jack was clearly unappreciative of Piggy’s condition. At one point Jack even insulted Ralph by stating that he “isn’t a proper chief,” (126) due to thinking and speaking similarly to Piggy. Later on, Jack struck Piggy, breaking a lens of the glasses which both afforded Piggy sight, and afford the ability to make fire on the island. Piggy’s sight, already hampered by the absent lens, was nearly nonexistent after Jack sent hunters to steal the remains of the specs during the night. Jack’s hatred for Piggy was due, in part, to his passion for order, a trait shared by Jack’s other enemy
However, as the plot progresses, Ralph faces both internal and external conflicts; from those conflicts he greatly matures. Ralph always has the strong belief that all the children will be saved from the island sooner or later; he is so sure that he even insists that they should have fire at all times to signal. However, when the boys abandon the fire which is symbolic of Ralph’s hope of getting saved, Ralph faces an internal conflict that makes him fear about their future; perhaps they will not be rescued at all. By insisting that the children should keep the fire going, he creates an external conflict with Jack whose values are different. Jack is enjoying life as a leader of the savages, and he fears that fire will possibly end his authoritarian rule over the savages. Both conflicts are resolved when Ralph finally meets the naval officer.
Jack let out the fire their only way of survival and Ralph's main priority. Jack tells Ralph and Ralph takes all of his anger out on Piggy by punching him. Ralph and Jack start of well agreeing and helping each other but soon start to make accidents and break up they are all up and down friendship wise until the rescue fire is put out my Jack accidentally. Ralph and Jack don't really have much in common with each other, this means that each character takes different obstacles and challenges in a different way from the other, so it is easy to break up with each other.
Jack and Ralph’s motivation is used in the novel to show their interest and needs expecting from the island through the narrative; for Jack, it is mostly to impress the boys with his singing and hunting skills. The two foil characters Jack and Ralph have different desires. Jack who thinks one of the ways to survive on this island is by hunting pigs and he gives no importance to the rescue fire. Ralph who is eager to get back to his parents is always keeping an eye on the fire hoping to be rescued. After Ralph was disappointed because they missed the ship that could have rescued them, Ralph called an assembly to do a small speech. “‘The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep
Towards the end of the eighth chapter it became very apparent that Piggy and Jack both had two very different ideas on how they would survive. Jack thinks that hunting and having fun is key, Jack is more worried with instant gratification and doesn’t worry about what will happen off the island he worries about having fun and living on the island. Piggy is only concerned with keeping the fire lit and getting off the island. Unlike Jack, Piggy believes more in thinking about the future, how they will be saved and how they can endure the time they are on the island. When the fire goes out Piggy cries out at Jack, who was in charge of the fire, “ You and your blood, Jack Merridew! You and your hunting! We might have gone home.” This shows the extent of Piggy’s will to be rescued.
Upon the arrival of the boys to the island Jack immediately found himself in the center of a power struggle. Although the conflict was brief, there was still a very obvious confrontation between Jack and Ralph. Once the boys had assembled themselves there was an election to see who was to be chief. Despite the fact that Ralph was voted leader, the desire to be in command never left Jack. Jack already had some leadership skills, being head choirboy at his old school, and he continuously challenged Ralph. The greatest source of conflict between Jack and Ralph was the debate over the necessity of maintaining a fire. Ralph felt that it was necessary to keep it burning at all times while Jack believed that hunting pigs and getting meat was much more essential.
The boys’ beginning on the island starts with a very positive and playful atmosphere. To begin, Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell that they think will help call the others to bring them together and keep them safe before they get lost and hurt. Piggy says, “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us” (Golding 12). Once they all gather together in their first group meeting, they start to feel safe and relieved that no one is hurt and they are together as a whole. They will always stay together while they hunt and play. Next, the boys come to a conclusion that they have to build some sort of signal fire to help indicate that they are on the island and get everyone off it so they do not eventually die there. They work together as a group to get it done by some little boys going to get some dead wood. The rest help to build the fire up high to get enough smoke to eventually signal a nearby ship. Jack has the idea to start the fire and uses Piggy’s glasses against the light to spark a flame. As it lights, the boys excitedly run to get more fire wood as the hope of rescue lurks the air around them. No fights happen as they...
Once this happened Piggy started to care less and less about the boys and more about his own safety and getting himself off the island with or without the boys. Jack had taken Piggy’s glasses to start his own fire and Piggy was very upset and he took Ralph and the twins over to Jack’s tribe and demanded his glasses back, but Ralph got a little sidetracked so Piggy brought him back. “‘Ralph remember what we came for. The fire. My specs’”(177)
Jack hates Ralph because Ralph is popular and the leader. So instead of attacking Ralph, Jack picks on Ralph’s friend, Piggy. He humiliates, shames, and dehumanizes Piggy. Jack tells Piggy that he cannot go on the expedition around the island with him, Ralph, and Simon. When Piggy tries to argue with Jack, Jack tells him to “shut up, Fatty” (Golding 27). Jack also steals Piggy’s glasses and refuses to give them back, and when Ralph tries to do the right thing, Jack and Ralph start fighting. Jack again doesn’t come to his senses and do the right thing. After Piggy dies, Jack screams that he is really the chief now because the conch is gone. Jack then throws his spear at Ralph and it is clear that Jack is planning to hunt Ralph. He has truly become evil. According to Philip Zimbardo "evil is the exercise of power. And that's the key: it's about power. To intentionally harm people psychologically, to hurt people physically, to destroy people mortally, or ideas, and to commit crimes against humanity." This is exactly what Jack does; Jack has lost all traces of his
Jack fails to realize that the boys need security, stability, and order on the island Jack was a leader of the choir before the boys landed on the island. These boys, who were in the choir, still want to follow Jack; however, they have no discipline at all. The only thing that is on Jack’s mind is hunting. He doesn’t care about anything else, except capturing and kill the pigs for some food.
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others” (Welch). Leadership is inspiring others to learn more, do more, and become more. Ineffective fail to possess certain characteristics which effective leaders do. Willingness to help others, selflessness, and strictness; these are the qualities of a both good and effective leader. Without these qualities, leadership would fail and being a leader would mean nothing.
Ralph had yelled at Jack saying how the fire is the most important thing on the island. Jack did apologize but he wasn't upset as the rest of them, he was more proud of the fact of killing the pig, showing that his savagery unleashed. Jack seems to be aggressive and doesn't think twice. He begins to feels aggressive after being humiliated or thing have not gone his way. “He took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach.
There are always people who, in a group, come out with better qualities to be a leader than others. The strongest people however, become the greater influences which the others decide to follow. However, sometimes the strongest person is not the best choice. Authors often show how humans select this stronger person to give an understanding of the different powers that people can posses over others.