In many cases of life, power is often misused or abused, because someone is greedy or wants something they shouldn’t have. In this case, of Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of boys are stranded on an island and have to make a working society within themselves and their rules, but the power is used in the exact opposite way. Ralph was elected chief, however he often let the group down and Jack would lead most operations on the island. Ralph lets others on the island know when he was scared, and it seemed he always needed someone to help him make decisions. But Jack appeared to be the biggest reason for destruction on the island. Golding suggests that things on the island break up because Ralph does not understand the power thrust upon him and is not able or willing to exercise it effectively.
Fear had a very large role in why chaos came over the island and many of the boys. The boys were scared as it was, being dropped on an abandoned island in the darkness, with no food or any way of being saved, and Ralph’s actions as leader did not always help. Especially when he let the other boys know he was scared they became more frightened not having their chief to look up to, and eventually chaos took more and more of the boys. Ralph, when hunting, told the hunters and Jack, “Of course I’m frightened. Who wouldn’t be?” (Pg.109 Lord of the Flies), to Jack, giving him all the more reason to take over the group and hunt down the beast, instead of hiding and being scared of it. When the rest of the boys foud out about the hunt, Ralph and Jack had one of their first fights, leading to him and most of the boys leaving and making their own camp. Ralph was afraid to make some of the choices and lead the group through all the obstacles they encountered, causing the destruction and disorder on the island.
