Ralph is changed by his experiences on the island. How does Golding show this?

At the end of the book Golding writes in the first person, “Perhaps he can hear my heart over the noises of the fire.” Golding also writes about many of the other events from Ralph’s point of view, like when at the beginning of chapter 5, Golding describes the scene that Ralph could see, “The tide was coming in…”  

Also, in Chapter 5 Ralph realizes that he “Can’t think. Not like Piggy” and he “could recognize thought in another.” This shows that events, such as the conflict between himself and Jack has changed him; when at the beginning of the novel we see that Ralph tries to distance himself from Piggy as he “stole away through the branches”. We also see that Ralph doesn’t view Piggy as a whole human being, instead he tries to ignore Piggy and at one point Ralph actually “looked through him” and thought of Piggy as an “irrelevance”. These events also make him notice how the Island is changing himself and everyone else on the Island. He suddenly become more serious and tries to deal with the problems faced by everyone, like fear of the beastie. However, as the novel progressed, Ralph began to realize Piggy’s importance and the relevance of his ideas.

Ralph responds to most situations by calling a meting, for example at the end of chapter four, after Jack’s outbreak about the meat and hunting, Ralph says “I’m calling a meeting even if we have to go on into the dark.” He tires to take charge at every possible opportunity; I think that talking to the boys might be his way of dealing with personal problems that he is facing.

Overall, I think that Ralph is a quite a strong character because he managed to deal with all the problems that arose, although he did seem very childish and immature at the beginning of the book. Ralph is the only person who survives to the end of the novel that realized how important Piggy really was. I think that Ralph is very determined and dedicated because he realizes that the Island was changing all of them and in my opinion it is very difficult to accept this. Also, Ralph was a fair and just leader because he tried to lead using the conch, he tried to remain civilized and planned for the groups’ survival because he build shelter while the other were away hunting. On the whole Ralph is a reasonably moderate, because he isn’t as lazy as Piggy but isn’t as violent and savage like Jack either.