Compare and contrast Ralph and Jack as leaders. Who is the better leader?
Ralph is a democratic leader but Jack is a dictatorial leader. Ralph’s power lies in the conch that calls the boys to assemblies. Whoever holds the conch has the right to speak, no matter how young or insignificant that person is. This shows that Ralph values everyone as a human being who has the right to be heard. He tolerates the boys’ differences and is willing to hear them out patiently. Jack, on the other hand, controls the boys by terrorising them. He has no respect for human life and individuality. He cannot stand the power the conch gives the person who is holding it and usurps its authority as much as he can, saying that some people should keep quiet and leave the talking to others. Ralph’s leadership style is much more fragile than Jack’s because it depends on the conch and the boys can decided to not recognise the authority of the conch anytime they choose to.
As a result of their respective outlooks, Jack places a lot more importance on rank than Ralph. At the first assembly, when Jack arrived with the choirboys, he fully expected to find a man taking control of the situation. Ralph said that there was no man and invited Jack to join the meeting. This “did not seem to satisfy” Jack. Jack will only submit to the authority of someone senior to himself.
One of the littluns had a nightmare about fighting with “twisty things in the trees”. He woke up terrified and “started to call out for Ralph”. This shows that Ralph is an approachable leader and that the littlun knows that Ralph will be sensitive and compassionate enough to help him. Ralph respects even those who are younger than himself and cares for them a lot, unlike Jack who does not worry about the survival or death of the littluns and sees no point in trying to calm their fears.
Ralph’s priority as a leader is to help the boys to lead a civilised life on the island and to get rescued as soon as possible. He likes an organised, systematic way of life, like “the northern European tradition of work, play, and food right through the day”. He places a lot of emphasis on building huts for shelter, keeping the area around the food trees free of contaminants, keeping a fire going at all times as a signal to passing ships and generally maintaining order on the island. His job as chief is made difficult by the boys’ fun-loving and irresponsible nature. They want to play all the time and will not work when the novelty wears off. For example, the first time the boys made a fire, they did it so enthusiastically that they burnt up part of the island, along with the mulberry birthmark boy and probably several other littluns. However, this enthusiasm soon wore out and the boys missed at least one chance of rescue because they did not have a smoke signal.
Jack does not care for rescue at all and speeds up the boys’ decent into savagery. He satisfies his own desire for fun instead of looking after the boys as a responsible leader should. He leads the boys in anarchy and rebellion against Ralph. He has a definite advantage over Ralph because the boys naturally want to play instead of work and obey rules. Jack starts a tribe, which is at first a game, but later becomes reality. He also leads numerous hunting expeditions and places hunting as his top priority on the island.
Ralph and Jack were the obvious candidates for the position of chief at the start of the story. The boys warmed to Ralph immediately because “there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, and yet most powerfully, there was the conch.” Ralph has an aura of goodness that makes other people, especially the littluns, trust him. Jack does not have this kind of attraction and is openly hostile and arrogant but he immediately commands respect because of his personality force. He has the elusive quality of charisma that proves in the end to be more powerful than Ralph’s attractiveness.
Ralph matures and develops as a leader in the process of life on the island, whereas Jack already had his leadership qualities in place at the start of the story. Jack has always been charismatic, aggressive and assertive as a leader. This can be seen in the way he marches into the first assembly. The choirboys were not used to the tropical heat and were suffering a lot in their layered clothes. However, they were disciplined and orderly. Jack was able to control them so well that they voted for him as chief although they disliked him. The only way that Jack changes throughout the story is that he is bound less and less by the laws of a civilised nation as time goes by. Ralph was childish and immature at the start of the story. He thought of everything in terms of toys, fun and games, such as the conch, “a worthy plaything”. However, his way of thinking becomes so much more like the adults he despised at the start of the story that it is quite remarkable for a twelve year old. He becomes aware of Piggy’s worth and intelligence and stops looking down on Piggy for his obesity.
It is Jack’s physical bravery that wins him support from the boys. He is not afraid of hunting and rushes headlong into any adventure that he sees. As the boys are constantly fearful of ghosts, “beasties” and the supernatural, this type of display of courage is particularly effective in making the boys stick to Jack. Ralph has a different kind of courage. He is morally brave in standing up for his principles, namely the importance of rescue, amid the opposition of the boys.
All things said, Jack is the better leader. He is much better at getting the boys to do what he wants than Ralph is. Jack got the boys to tie Wilfred up and beat him without telling them why Wilfred deserved a beating. He had a lot of power to start with and would have had even more power by the end because the boys would fear punishment meted out irrationally by him. Ralph can never hope to possess such power because he does not have the heart to treat people so brutally.
Ralph is a better person, but unfortunately, the odds are against him and it is Jack who is the better leader.
As a result of their respective outlooks, Jack places a lot more importance on rank than Ralph. At the first assembly, when Jack arrived with the choirboys, he fully expected to find a man taking control of the situation. Ralph said that there was no man and invited Jack to join the meeting. This “did not seem to satisfy” Jack. Jack will only submit to the authority of someone senior to himself.
One of the littluns had a nightmare about fighting with “twisty things in the trees”. He woke up terrified and “started to call out for Ralph”. This shows that Ralph is an approachable leader and that the littlun knows that Ralph will be sensitive and compassionate enough to help him. Ralph respects even those who are younger than himself and cares for them a lot, unlike Jack who does not worry about the survival or death of the littluns and sees no point in trying to calm their fears.
Ralph’s priority as a leader is to help the boys to lead a civilised life on the island and to get rescued as soon as possible. He likes an organised, systematic way of life, like “the northern European tradition of work, play, and food right through the day”. He places a lot of emphasis on building huts for shelter, keeping the area around the food trees free of contaminants, keeping a fire going at all times as a signal to passing ships and generally maintaining order on the island. His job as chief is made difficult by the boys’ fun-loving and irresponsible nature. They want to play all the time and will not work when the novelty wears off. For example, the first time the boys made a fire, they did it so enthusiastically that they burnt up part of the island, along with the mulberry birthmark boy and probably several other littluns. However, this enthusiasm soon wore out and the boys missed at least one chance of rescue because they did not have a smoke signal.
Jack does not care for rescue at all and speeds up the boys’ decent into savagery. He satisfies his own desire for fun instead of looking after the boys as a responsible leader should. He leads the boys in anarchy and rebellion against Ralph. He has a definite advantage over Ralph because the boys naturally want to play instead of work and obey rules. Jack starts a tribe, which is at first a game, but later becomes reality. He also leads numerous hunting expeditions and places hunting as his top priority on the island.
Ralph and Jack were the obvious candidates for the position of chief at the start of the story. The boys warmed to Ralph immediately because “there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, and yet most powerfully, there was the conch.” Ralph has an aura of goodness that makes other people, especially the littluns, trust him. Jack does not have this kind of attraction and is openly hostile and arrogant but he immediately commands respect because of his personality force. He has the elusive quality of charisma that proves in the end to be more powerful than Ralph’s attractiveness.
Ralph matures and develops as a leader in the process of life on the island, whereas Jack already had his leadership qualities in place at the start of the story. Jack has always been charismatic, aggressive and assertive as a leader. This can be seen in the way he marches into the first assembly. The choirboys were not used to the tropical heat and were suffering a lot in their layered clothes. However, they were disciplined and orderly. Jack was able to control them so well that they voted for him as chief although they disliked him. The only way that Jack changes throughout the story is that he is bound less and less by the laws of a civilised nation as time goes by. Ralph was childish and immature at the start of the story. He thought of everything in terms of toys, fun and games, such as the conch, “a worthy plaything”. However, his way of thinking becomes so much more like the adults he despised at the start of the story that it is quite remarkable for a twelve year old. He becomes aware of Piggy’s worth and intelligence and stops looking down on Piggy for his obesity.
It is Jack’s physical bravery that wins him support from the boys. He is not afraid of hunting and rushes headlong into any adventure that he sees. As the boys are constantly fearful of ghosts, “beasties” and the supernatural, this type of display of courage is particularly effective in making the boys stick to Jack. Ralph has a different kind of courage. He is morally brave in standing up for his principles, namely the importance of rescue, amid the opposition of the boys.
All things said, Jack is the better leader. He is much better at getting the boys to do what he wants than Ralph is. Jack got the boys to tie Wilfred up and beat him without telling them why Wilfred deserved a beating. He had a lot of power to start with and would have had even more power by the end because the boys would fear punishment meted out irrationally by him. Ralph can never hope to possess such power because he does not have the heart to treat people so brutally.
Ralph is a better person, but unfortunately, the odds are against him and it is Jack who is the better leader.
posted by Canopy | 12:01 AM
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