Lord Of The Flies

3 Pages 788 Words

In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Jack and Ralph as leaders differ from general to the very specific areas. The uninhabited jungle island that the boys crash – land on forms them into very inhumane creatures. While the young boys struggle for guidance and the need to be civilized, two boys assume leadership roles. Jack develops into a very impulsive, hot – tempered little savage. Ralph, on the other hand, never fully diverges from his civilized persona and becomes a reliable, hard – working, and steadfast leader of the boys.
The leadership roles of Jack and Ralph clash on the subject of impulsiveness. Ralph uses a calm and cool demeanor while assessing the current situation on the island and giving a course of action. Jack goes on hunts and plays in the lagoon while more important work needs to be done. Ralph thinks of being rescued off the island and going home above everything else and thinks of the “big picture” first. To him playing and going off on hunts for long periods of time are useless and do not help in getting off the island. Conversely, while Jack does agree that maintaining a fire will aid their cause in being rescued, he contradicts this point of view by setting off in the jungle to hunt and the idea of killing a pig consumes him. “Rescue? Yes, of course! All the same I’d like to catch a pig first.”( ) This becomes the start of Jack’s formation into hunter and savage.
The roles of Jack and Ralph as leaders also conflict as Jack becomes more savage and Ralph tries to stay in touch with civilization. Ralph always tries to keep ties with civilization through the use of the conch to call assemblies or by keeping on task and yelling at the other boys when they are playing and not doing their tasks. When Ralph tells Jack that a ship has passed and that they could have been rescued, Jack replies “You should have seen the blood.”( ) Jack has now become savage enough t...