Explain Why Ralph Becomes leader, rather then Piggy or Jack. What are the main problems?

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Emma Gregory

Explain Why Ralph Becomes leader, rather then Piggy or Jack. What are the main problems?

      

    To be a leader, you need a personality compatible with others.  In Lord of the Flies the boys choose Ralph as their leader.  In this essay I discuss why Ralph is chosen, and some of the problems occurring throughout the novel.

    In the first chapter, of “Lord Of The Flies”, the boys voted a chief for the island.  This is an almost unanimous vote as every boy voted for Ralph except Piggy, at first, and the choir.  Obviously, not Jack because he wanted to be leader.  When Ralph was made chief they all cheered even the choir, who didn’t vote for him.  The choir voted for Jack “with dreary obedience”, as they knew they would get told off if they didn’t.    I think Piggy didn’t vote, at first, because he wanted to be voted for, but seeing all the hands voting for Ralph, he thought he wouldn’t get any votes, and Ralph would make a good chief.

    Ralph had fair hair, a prominent tummy, wide and heavy shoulders.  He was the first person to be introduced to us; I think the writer did this because Ralph is the main character of the novel.  We also know that he was athletic, twelve and a few months old, but not yet old enough to have entered adolescence.   We can also tell he is still a child by the language he uses.  Ralph makes a good leader because of his face, the way it doesn’t scare you, it was kind looking.  He had mysterious eyes and “a mildness about his mouth eyes that proclaimed no devil”.  He isn’t fat, or ugly, like Piggy, but portrayed as a trustworthy person.  All the children look up to him as an adult figure, being without parents and adults.  Some of the children, who Piggy called the ‘littluns’ were only five or six years old, they were very young and needed somebody caring, like Ralph.

    I think that another reason the boys choose Ralph as leader is because he was the one who blew the conch, which called all the boys to the platform.  They choose Ralph because he wasn’t rude to everyone; he was kind, “the boy with the conch”.  He takes action at the beginning of the novel, he blows the conch calling the boys together, uniting them; he gave them rules to follow, and a place to meet for assemblies.  

    These are some of the first impressions we get, but as the novel continues we see how his character develops.  We also discover his personality and the sense of responsibility he feels being leader.

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    In the beginning of the novel he thinks it is great without adults and rules, but later on the adult in him takes over, allowing him to see what needs to be done to survive.  He notices from the beginning of the voting, that the boy named Jack would be a problem if not given the highest place, here Ralph gives up the position of Head Hunter and lets Jack hunt.  This shows us how Ralph can understand the different ways in which people communicate, if not by talk but by body language.  

    Ralph cares ...

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