Ralph's Leadership In Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the flies written by William Golding in 1954, was based on group of boys who were forced to find ways to survive on their own on a tropical island. They have no adult support and no clue how to survive on the island by themselves. Which leads to the boys wanting to select a leader to guide them to find ways to survive. Their relationship start to break and they end up forming two competing groups that have two very different values. One group is led by Ralph who tries to hold onto common sense and does things best to keep everyone safe. The other group is led by Jack who act like “savages”. It will be examined how the boys change on the island losing their sense of being civilized over the period of time, by wanting power resulting

into savagery.
In the beginning of the book with Ralph being a main character in the novel, Ralph symbolizes as civilized, calm, and confident.

Ralph has a powerful knowledge to know what needs to happen to enhance the group’s chances of being rescued. As a group of boys come together they had no idea what happened, found themselves upon a tropical island, without adult supervision, and no rules. The group decides they need to elect a leader to bring organization and leadership to their situation. Ralph being a very knowledgeable person states the obvious potential for leadership, which leads to Ralph being elected for Chief. ” Shut up, said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. "Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things.”A chief! A chief! I ought to be chief," said Jack with simple arrogance, "because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp." (p. 18). However, Jack who plays a main character in the novel, who desires power above leadership, Jack was furious of the decision made by group. Ralph as chief, he felt obligated to be civilized with Jack, resulting in the decision for Jack being leader of the boys for the use of hunting. This soon results in Jack’s love of authority and violence enabling him to feel powerful, as the novel progresses the civilized boys slowly start

changing.
As time progresses the boys adapt to their surroundings and split into groups. The symbols that are used in this novel, show how they are tied to its social power relations. Those symbols that I have found are always important items that either Ralph or Jack use intentionally or unintentionally. The use of symbols is crucial to this novel, Golding shows us that an item is more powerful than it first seems. A central symbol at the beginning of the novel is the conch shell. It is Piggy who finds it. He has seen this shell before and he has heard that it can be used as an instrument to make a loud sound. This gives him the idea to give it more purpose than just a sound machine. Whoever holds the conch in their meetings has a right to speak, and everyone accepts that.
Ralph was introduced as a fair and likeable boy whose was self-assured made him feel secure even on the island without any adults.

His interaction with Piggy demonstrated his pleasant nature as he did not call him names with hateful intent as Jack had. The overarching theme of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between the human impulse towards savagery and the rules of civilization which are designed to contain and minimize it. Throughout the novel, the conflict is dramatized by the clash between Ralph and Jack, who respectively represent civilization and savagery. With Ralph being civilized and Jack being savage there was just no working together as a team. It resulted in violence and

murder.
In conclusion the theme of savagery versus civilisation is shown. Ralph represents civilisation as he wants to enforce rules and let everyone have an equal say. Ralph represents civilization as he wants to enforce rules and let everyone have an equal say. Whereas Jack who represents savagery as he rules over the boys and he is not interested in what they have to say. Through the boys actions Golding shows us that we need rules and to consciously impose them to make sure society functions properly.