Leadership in The Lord of the Flies essays

Leadership in The Lord of the Flies essays As Donald H. McGannon says, Leadership is action, not position. In the novel The Lord of the Flies, author William Golding shows how one boy, named Ralph, takes action from the beginning and is proven to be the best leader on the island in the end. Even though Jack takes control at the end of the novel, Ralph would overall make the best leader. At the end of the novel Jack takes control over the boys through force and leaves Ralph to fight for himself. Ever since the beginning Ralph is the leader of the boys and then Jack starts to be seen trying to establish order. For instance, at one point Jack and Ralph argue over who called the meeting. Ive called the assembly, said Jack, because of a lot of things. First of all you know now, weve seen the beast. We crawled up. We were only a few feet away. The beast sat up and looked at us. I dont know what it does. We dont even know what it is (125). Jack is leading the discussion and he addresses the fears of the boys, which shows that he is trying to win them over. He is starting to do things that Ralph would normally do. Jack also falsely accuses Ralph of things that he did not actually say just to make him look mean. Ive got the conch. Ralph thinks you are cowards, running away from the boar and the beast. And thats not all (126). First of all him having the con ch shows that he is taking order. He is also trying to make Ralph look bad so that the boys wont like Ralph and they will turn to Jack as a leader. At this point of the novel Ralph is now on his own and everyone is against him, not by choice but by popular demand. Samneric were savages like the rest; Piggy was dead, and the conch had smashed to powder (186). Now that Ralph is alone and has no control over anything, it is clear that Jack has completely taken over. Jack wins power by forcing the boys to beli...