Ralph As A Good Leader Analysis

The age-old question of what truly makes a good leader can be answered in many different ways. In William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, the contrasting personalities of the boys stranded on the island serve as a setting for this dispute. The three oldest boys have vastly different personalities as leaders: Piggy is the smartest, Jack is ambitious, and Ralph is charming. Some would argue that it is thirst for power, like Jack has, that is most important; others might say that intelligence, seen in Piggy, is the most crucial element of a good leader. However, neither of these boys become the leader on the island, and Ralph is the one that the other boys choose to rally around. Ralph has the potential and general qualities to be an excellent leader, but he struggles with the …show more content…
Ralph first begins to lose his innocence when he participates in the brutal murder of Simon along with the other boys. Although he tries to justify it as an act of fitting in and feeling safe, Ralph knows that what he did was wrong, and both the action and the realization of its immorality tarnish one of the most important parts of Ralph’s character. However, it is when the hunters turn their attentions to Ralph that he truly becomes “savage”: he doesn’t think about honor or morality, but rather survival. He feels no qualms about stabbing a boy to get away from the hunters, and he is ready to kill to stay alive. It is only when the naval officer finds the boys on the island that Ralph is portrayed as a child, a “little scarecrow” (201), which serves as a grim reminder he grew up at too young an age. When Ralph is faced with civilization, he is forced to accept the fact that he has lost his childlike naïveté, and he “wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy”