Jack And Ralph example essay topic

In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding's characters experience a variety of personal developments. The story develops around a group of British schoolboys that become stranded on an inhabited island when their plane crashed. The story depicts the boys's trug gle to survive without any adult supervision. As the story develops, the boys crave for guidance and more importantly a leader. Dictionary. com defines a leader as, "one that leads or guides... one who is in charge or in command of others". Personal characteristics, dominating presence, and political ideals all shape a leader.

In the novel, Golding uses two characters Jack and Ralph to demonstrate the development of leadership. Further, even though Jack and Ralph portrayed both leadership qualities, Jack proves to be the effective leader. A number of personal characteristics are important in defining a leader. Two important personal characteristics that shaped the leaders in the novel Lord of the Flies, are confidence and stability.

There are no significant similarities on behalf of Jack and Ralph's personal cartelistic, due to the fact of Jack was able to prove himself as the effective leader. The first characteristic that is significant is confidence. Jack's character allowed him to be a effective leader because he was a confident individual, his confidence allowed him to stand in front of the boys and give orders. An example of his confidence was demonstrated during a meeting when Jack shouted, "Choir! Stand Still! ... wearily obedient, the choir huddled and stood there... (p. 16)". As a result of this action, anytime Jack spoke afterwards; the stranded boys listened to him.

Therefore, Jack was a leader because when Jack gave orders the boys followed. Unlike Jack, Ralph was not an effective leader due to the fact he lacked confidence. Throughout the story, Ralph's lack of self-confidence forced him to constantly seek the advice of others. One of Ralph's advisors was Piggy. After Piggy's death, Ralph's lack of self confidence became more evident as he finds himself unable to make any decisions, "What was the sensible thing to do? There was no Piggy to talk sense.

There was no solemn assembly for debate nor dignity of the conch. (p. 218) " This quote exemplifies Ralph's inability to be a leader because he lacked self-confidence. As stated above, an aspect of a leader is someone who is able to lead his or her people. It is evident that Ralph's lack of confidence weakened his ability to be an effective leader. This was because his advice depended on others, he was unable to make decisions by himself.

Confidence is an essential factor to being a leader because it helps distinguishing yourself from the others. And for that reason, because Jack had confidence, he distinguished himself from the others by becoming the effective leader. Unlike Jack, Ralph he did not have confidence, and was not able to distinguish himself as a leader. The second characteristic, stability, played an important role in effectiveness of Jack and Ralph's leadership. Jack's stability allowed him to have a strong influence over the others.

Right from the beginning, Jack voiced the importance of hunting. As the story developed, he continuously worked to achieving his goal. As illustrated in the quote, .".. tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up... (p. 51), Jack readily worked towards hunting. The fact that he stuck to one goal made him a stable character and therefore an effective leader.

In contrast, Ralph was not stable enough to become an effective leader. At first, Ralph's main objective was to keep the fire signal going, and he was against some of the some primal impulses that drove Jack, the desire to kill. However, as the novel advanced, Ralph began to become influenced by Jack. As a result, Ralph's instability was demonstrated when he went on the hunt with Jack and his hunters. This is demonstrated by the quote when Ralph killed the pig. "Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh (p. 125) ".

The fact that Ralph was against killing at the beginning, and then soon after joins the hunt, depicted the fact that he was easily influenced and unstable. Stability plays an important part of a leader, because in order to be an effective leader, he or she needs make rational and calculated decisions. If he or she is indecisive and cannot make decisions by themselves, there is no way that they have the capacity of making decisions for others; which is what being a leader is all about. Since Ralph was inconsistent with his decisions, his instability weakened his position of being an effective leader. As demonstrated by Jack and Ralph's character, an individual's personal characteristics shape their ability to be a leader.

Specifically, and individual's confidence and stability determine the effectiveness of a leader. In addition to personal characteristics, an individuals ability to use their physical appearance to create a dominating presences also influences the effectiveness of their leadership. People who are tall, and stalky give off the notion that they are strong and powerful; therefore, creating a dominating presence. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, Jack and Ralph both had similar physical appearances, however, Ralph was unsuccessful in using his physical appearance to strengthen his leadership. In the novel Jack was illustrated as a boy, who was "tall, thin... and freckled" (p. 16).

Likewise, Ralph also had a similar physical appearance to Jack, he too was tall and had a "golden body" (p. 5). Though, both boys were tall, and similar in physical build, their ability to use their physical appearance, it was their ability to create their dominating presence which was different. Jack had used his physical appearance to create a dominating presence, in order to have control over the boys. The vibe that the boys receive from Jack when they are around him is illustrated by Piggy when he first sees him, "he was intimidated by this... authority... in Merri dew... ". (p 17) As illustrated by Piggy, the boys were intimidated just by his physical appearance. As the boys felt intimidated, Jack was installing fear in them which made them scared to rise against him, and express their views. Therefore by creating a dominating presence, Jack installed fear into the boys; thus making him the effective leader because he had total control over them.

No one had the confidence, to rise against him. In comparison, Ralph was not able to use his physical appearance to create a dominating presence. Whenever the boys were around Ralph, the feeling that they perceived from him was the contrary to Jack's", You could see now that he might make a boxer... but there was a mildness... [he] proclaimed no devil" (p. 5) As demonstrated, the boys felt emanicpated because of Ralph's mildness, they assumed they could do whatever, and no action would be taken if they disobeyed the rules. The boys felt more freedom, and felt they were obligated to do whatever the could. As a result Ralph began to loose control over the boys, and loose order in the society, which proved that Ralph was the ineffective leader. Beyond personal characteristics, political beliefs also influences the effectiveness of a leader.

Both Jack and Ralph leadership skills were based on political beliefs, each had different ideals. In the novel Lord of the Flies, both the ideologies of dictator and democratic leader were evident. A dictator is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as, "One holding complete autocratic control... one ruling absolutely and often oppressively". # Whereas, a democratic leader is defined as someone who always is, "favoring social equality... ". # In the novel, Jack was the effective leader because he was a dictator.

The power that Jack had over the boys was illustrated in the 1963 version of Lord of the Flies. As a result of the power Jack had gained through dictatorship, he was able to manipluate the boys to do anything he commanded. For example, in one of the movie scenes the boys were huddled around the fire, when Jack ordered Roger to beat some members of the tribe. (1963, Peter Brook) Jack ordered Roger to hurt the innocent boys because he wanted to demonstrate his control and authority.

If Jack did not use dictatorship, he would not have been able to have the boys obey his orders. As a dictator, he was able to influence the boys to do anything he commanded. Being a dictator is important in defining a leader because, it was the method which was used by Jack, the effective leader. As Jack being a dictator he kept the boys in order, and proved himself to the effective leader. Another illustration of Jack's effective leadership was his ability to continually convince the boys to hunt for a beast that they never found. "Hunting, he said.

He sized them up. Each of them wore the remains of a black cap... We " ll hunt, I'm going to be chief. They nodded... ". (p. 146) As demonstrated by this quote, Jack was able to have absolute control the boys and their actions.

They would go out on a hunt, whenever he instructed them to. Furthermore, Jack reinforced his leadership position among the boys when he stated, "I'm going to be chief" (p. 146). By stating this comment, Jack clearly defines his leadership role among the group. He therefore clarifies and uncertainty that might have existed about who was in control.

As a result, through dictatorship Jack controlled the boys, therefore becoming an effective leader. In contrast, the democratic style of leadership used by Ralph proved to be ineffective. This lack of leadership was apparent at the meeting which Ralph held to discuss the building of the huts. The huts were Ralph's first priority, however, he failed to convince the boys about their importance. Since Ralph believed social equality, he allowed the boys to make their own decisions, instead of making the decisions for them. As a result the boys go off and play, and the huts were solely completed by Ralph and Simon.

Had this been Jack's desire, all the boys would have followed his orders. Ralph acknowledged his inability to lead the boys when he stated, "People don't help much... all the rest rushed off. He's (Simon) done as much as I have" (55). As this quote exemplifies, even though Ralph tried to lead the boys, he was not taken seriously. Most of they boys would go off and play while Ralph and Simon were left to complete the tasks that were required for the group's survival. Ralph was not successful in getting the boys to listen to him and work on the huts which would benefit the boys.

Ralph's democratic belief allowed the boys more freedom, to make their own decisions. He never forced the boys to follow his orders. As a result, the success and survival of the boys was sacrificed for their freedom to make their own choices. The democratic leadership enforced by Ralph was ineffective because he was unable to keep the boys under his control.

Ralph's democratic beliefs were further embellished by the establishment of the conch. Ralph introduced the conch, to keep assembly in order. Ralph formed the rule, only the individual holding the conch had the right to speak during assembly. "I'll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when's speaking". (31) The conch signified Ralph's democratic belief, because the conch allowed the all the boys to state their own opinion.

Ralph allowed the boys' to decide for themselves, instead of him making the decision for them. The use of democracy to keep order, proved to be ineffective. In conclusion, Jack's dictatorship proved to be the effective leadership style. Jack had control over the boys, and was able to have follow his orders. Whereas Ralph found himself, completing tasks on his own.

Political beliefs play an essential role in defining a leader, because (have to connect this factor to thesis) don't know how?? As discussed above the political beliefs of an individual has a huge impact on their ability to be an effective leader. As depicted many factors can influence the becoming of a leader, specifically, physical appearance, dominating presence, and political beliefs. In the novel, both Jack and Ralph had both leadership qualities, however Jack had proved to be the one and only leader for the boys.

This was mainly because Jack had a strong mentality, and because of the way he had controlled his people. Even though Jack was inhumane and savage like, he somehow became the person the boys had needed-a leader. (need connection of each factor to thesis).