Leadership In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding creates his stance on fascist leadership and how it can negatively affect others who are inferior to their leader. Jack Merridew is a teenage boy who had been a leader of a school choir when the plane crashed down on the island. This left many teenage boys stranded without adult supervision during the bombings of World War II. After a few days, all of the boys spread out on the island meet up for the very first time. The meeting is signalled by a conch shell and during this meeting, they all vote for a leader. The majority of the boys vote for his peer Ralph, a good looking boy of similar age but has clear better leadership skills than Jack. Throughout the book, Jack tries to gain power

over various encounters, even if it means sacrificing other living things including the boys on the island, which ultimately occurs. Jack evolves from a choir boy into an extremely fascist leader over the boys, making others attracted to him. Golding illustrates that humans can lose the sense of civility and democracy when a savage and absolute ruler arises.
Golding foreshadows the future of the boys as he hints at Jack evolving into a fascist ruler (refine focus).

During the beginning of the book, Golding portrays Jack’s strictness/harshness as the choir boys stand in front of Jack: “Wearily obedient, the choir huddled into line and stood there swaying in the sun. None the less, some began to protest faintly. “But, Merridew. Please, Merridew. . . can’t we?” (Golding 20). The use of language and imagery highlights Jack’s harsh superiority over some of the boys because they begin to protest because of Jack and his abuse of power. Similar to a fascist dictator, Jack has no regard for the thoughts and feelings of others. In a conversation between a few of the boys, it elevates quickly because of Jack’s desire for absolute rule, Piggy kindly states to Jack that he is “talking too much” only to have Jack reply, “shut up fatty” (Golding 21). Jacks diction in this scene reveals his jealousy for those who are more intelligent and powerful than him. Golding also hints at his idea of not paying attention to other’s thoughts because of his feeling of authority over everyone else. A fascist leader will make cruel decisions and promote violence to others who disobey their rule. During Jack’s development from a civil boy into a truculent man, he becomes more inclined to killing pigs; abusing them to the death. On one of his pig killing attempts, Jack “smeared on the clay” and explained it to be “For hunting. Like the war. You know--dazzle

paint” (Golding 63). As Jack’s desire for power increases, his will to impress and show-off for others increases as in this scene he acts like a warrior and believes that is correct and ultimately will lead to his goal; power over others. At this stage of the book, Ralph is still the leader of the tribe and is the focal point at most of the meetings that were held. As Jack became more thirsty for power, Piggy, who happens to be very smart, caught onto this trend based on past events and at a meeting questioned, “ What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?” and again Jack responds to Piggy with, “Shut up you fat slug” (Golding 91). This essential question created by Piggy set the tone and foreshadows the future of the boys; motivating Jack to become the wrathful person he has always wanted to be. Jack’s evolution into a fascist leader and desire to kill, attracts other boys on the island to side with him.
As Jack loses civility, he engages the littluns and others on the island to become part of him because of the enjoyment aspect of savagery.

In the early-going of Jack’s tribe, he engages the boys on the island to be a part of it and questions, “Understand? We are going to have fun on this island! So don’t try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else—" (Golding 144). Jack tries to lure in the boys with fierce commands and the idea of having fun while obliterating others in their environment. Jack is inclined to violence and tries to bring it into the lives of the one civilized littluns. The once innocent boys who have never been exposed to violence thought that “Maurice’s acting of the pig’s efforts to avoid the advancing spear was so funny that the boys cried with laughter.” (Golding 136). This is another instance when Jack trains his boys to think it is correct to abuse pigs and to even laugh as it travails; squealing as it attempts to escape for its

life.
In another occurrence, the boys attempt to kill a sow, a mother pig. During the killing process, “She blundered into a tree, forcing a spear still deeper… she then spurted with her last strength and held ahead of them again” (Golding 135). The boys maltreat the faultless pig and once again cheer and dance to the infamous chant, “Kill the beast, cut his throat, spill his blood" (Golding 152) and the fact that Robert shoves a sharp spear “Right up her ass” (Golding 135). The idea of killing a guiltless mother pig and the way that they end its life is truly incorrect. Jack’s idea which he promotes to his tribe cause a loss of civility in those who choose to abide by him.
When the boys cling along to Jack, they start to lose all of the civility they came with because of Jack’s desire to kill. Golding explores that Jack loves to hunt and kill pigs while on the island. Jack does this in a gruesome fashion and upon putting it to death ,“[Jack] began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling" (Golding 64). The use of imagery provides a sense of the harsh reality of what is happening to Jack as he is losing the civility he had arrived with every day. Throughout his evolution process, he has gotten to a point where Piggy claims,“I’m scared of him” (Golding 93) and that when he sees Jack, he feels that “it’s like asthma an’ you can’t breathe” (Golding 93). These words from a wise young boy, Piggy, are very concerning relating to the amount of civility Jack has left in him. As the civilized boys fear Jack every second of the day, Piggy and Ralph have a discussion and want to “ keep on the right side of him, anyhow. You can’t tell what he might do” (Golding 175). At this point, one of their fellow members, Simon, has already been put to death by Jack’s tribe and now the boys have to fear for their lives because of the unknown status of Jack at any time. Golding uses this type of language to represent fear in their voices because it is one of a leader's most powerful tools for controlling a society. Jack’s desire to be on his own and not follow rules creates a loss of democratic values.
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With Jack’s leadership role, the boys use the democratic values they arrived with as Jack forcefully arises. A democracy is a government in which there is one main leader but the people usually remain content because of their relatively expanded role in their democratic government. Jack evolves into one of his own, leaving the democracy, lead by Ralph. During the beginning of the book, almost all of the boys obey the rules, except for Jack. In an argument with Ralph, Ralph shouts out to Jack, “The rules!...You’re breaking the rules” (Golding 91) and Jack stubbornly responds with “I don’t care” (Golding 91). Golding creates a sense of violence with the language and tone of the two boys destine for power and hints at the future because this is the start of Jack’s own mind about not following democratic rules. Golding has made Jack’s jealousy for Ralph’s leadership status clear. Jack is not happy about the way Ralph leads the entire tribe and hinders that, “[Ralph is] like Piggy. He says things like Piggy. He isn't a proper chief” (Golding 126). The way of Jack’s tone creates the sense of Jack leaving the stable democracy that has been set by the will of the rest of the tribe. Once Jack has became a full-time fascist leader of his own tribe, his boys “found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable”(Golding 152). The boys see themselves as a fence—but this isn't the white picket fence of civilization; it's a fence of their naked bodies, getting ready to reenact their savage pig hunt—before they rip Simon to bits with their bare hands. When Jack becomes the main leader, the boys lose sense of government and order.
Through the evolution of Jack, Golding sends a message saying that when a savage rule arises, they will cause chaos for a group or civilization, while they become increasingly uncontrollable as they gain more support. By the end of the book, it is clear Jack prefers a fascist style of leadership over a civil democracy. The loss of civility was evident in the killings of fellow rebellions, Piggy and Simon, with their bare hands and spears. The book sends a powerful message about human nature and how things can get out of hand as a truculent leader arises. Ultimately, by making Jack Merridew a dynamic character, William Golding expresses the idea that civil rules are essential in running a group or civilization in order to keep away from chaos.