Lord of Flies

This is a novel by Golding that presents a great conflict that exists in our societies between the two wide groups of the civilized instincts of community members and the uncivilized instincts of the community members. It illustrates vividly the struggles that are always present in the community elements these are between the orderly elements of society such as power struggles, morality, laws of the land and people’s culture and customs, and the disorderly elements of society such as bloodlust, violence, selfishness, anarchy, amorality and the greed for power. These the author describes with the help of an example of the rise and fall of an isolated, makeshift civilization that is brought down by the greed and instincts of those who tries to rescue it. The novel has four main characters, Ralph, Simon, Jack and Piggy who young boys are taking an adventure in an isolated island. The author uses several symbols to illustrate and explain the conflicts that exist. For example he portrays the different characters of the four characters that reveal their different leadership qualifications and how the boys continuously conflicts in their arguments and in their desires. When the boys decide to elect their leader, one stands out to be the best leader than the others. All the four boys represent the different personalities of human beings which are power and instinct, kindness, rationality and wisdom. Ralph stands out to be the best leader in the island when he was voted in as the chief. This is because he portrays the following vital qualities of a leader.

First Ralph is noted to have a rational mind. In my opinion, a good leader should be someone is very organized and sober in his reasoning and in decision making. He should be someone that is respectable and treats people fairly especially his juniors. He demonstrates his abilities of authority in how he organizes his sessions and treats the kids when he inquires about their opinions when he wants to act or do something. He said and I quote, “We can’t have everybody talking at once, we’ll have hands up like at school” this is a quality of a good leader as it portrays his ability of organizing the kids in an orderly manner to prevent rowdiness and this gives each of the kids equal chance of expressing their views on the matter. This therefore makes the kids to give him respect as he also respects them. Ralph became very clever and wise in his strategy which slowly built up his reputation. He said “we’ll all have rules! Lots of rule!” the statement is very authoritative and has a voice of order which is a quality of a good leader. He must be able to have authority over the juniors’ n order to gain the respect and the good reputation. Ralph tries as much to bring the boys together as united because he knew that if he employs anarchy form of leadership, the boys will be divided and they turn against him and eventually, they will revolt. When the boys are united, then they can work very effectively and efficiently. Even in the building of the huts, they will unite and work very fast (Golding 1962).

Another important aspect of Ralph’s quality is that he knows how to prioritize his activities. He says, “We need shelters as a sort of home” since they were anticipating to be rescued from the lonely island, Ralph knew that there was need to be organized and be protected from some harmful eventualities that may arise in the future in the jungle such as attacks by wild insects or animals and also there was need to protect the boys from the harsh weather and cold of the night. This portrays Ralph as logical, mature and visionary than the other three. When the boys had hunted, they used the fire to roast their food and some had the view of putting the fire out after that. Ralph through his wisdom, insisted that the fire be kept burning even if there was no meat to be roasted on it. This is because he believed that the only way they could be noticed and rescued is by the help of the fire as the island was a lonely place that people rarely visited. Jack is portrayed as just concentrating in the hunting careering not on the fire as a source of help. This boosts Ralph’s leadership skills as someone who cannot be easily swayed from his ideas (Golding 1962).
Among other qualities of Ralph is that he is moral and he acts fairly to everyone. When he notices that an individual is hurt by his sentiments, he apologises to maintain that unity. He understands the feelings of the boys. This is noted when he showed sympathy for Piggy when he was hurt. He therefore gains the respect and moral support of the boys by equal treatment, compassion, love and his empathy. These are not portrayed by the other boys (Golding 1962).

In conclusion therefore, I wish to ascertain that Ralph is a great and qualified leader than Piggy, Simon and Jack. His ability combines and supersedes those of the other three boys. He is rational, clever, wise, organized, visionary, sensible, moral, humble, courageous, authoritative and able to keep justice. These make him the best chief for the stranded boys in the island (Golding 1962).

References
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies, New York, Coward- McCann, 1962