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 a lot for the smaller children on the island, much more than the other older children. He allows them to talk at meetings, and hears what they have to say when they are scared to talk in front of the other boys.
“I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak.
He can hold it when he’s speaking.”
The conch indicates who is speaking and allows the boys to speak uninterrupted. He also makes the boys feel secure, and he gives them security and confidence. Ralph has a stillness about him, which made the boys respect him.
“…the most obvious leader was Jack. But there was a
stillness about Ralph, as he sat that marked him out.”
Ralph has pride in his father being commander in the navy, when he is telling Piggy, and being commander he has the ability to rescue them from the island. Even though Piggy sits and listens to Ralph talking about his life, Ralph shows very little interest in Piggy’s life, and also his name. When Piggy asks Ralph’s name he expects to be asked back but Ralph doesn’t bother. So to try and get Ralph’s attention he boasts about his asthma (ass’mar) and glasses. Ralph doesn’t really care that he has asthma, and had glasses since he was three. But when Piggy starts talking, casually, about his name it grabs Ralph’s attention.
“I don’t care what they call me,” he said confidentially,
“so long as they don’t call me what they used to call me
at school.”
By saying this Piggy has grabbed half of Ralph’s attention. But when Piggy actually says what his old nickname was, Ralph was in hysterics and was so caught up in the hilarity, he wasn’t bothered to listen to Piggy, shouting above the laughing, saying that he didn’t want to be called Piggy. Ralph didn’t care about Piggy’s real name. Piggy also tells Ralph not to tell anybody his nickname, but when Jack calls him ‘Fatty’ Ralph springs in saying “He’s not Fatty, his real names Piggy”. This is rude of Ralph, but I think Piggy only told Ralph his nickname, because he wanted to be Ralph’s friend, and first he had to get his attention.
Ralph is one of the only people who understands the great importance of being rescued. The other children don’t realise that they if they don’t get rescued they will die on the island. One of the things Ralph finds very important, is them being rescued and any chance of that happening is remote, so they have to do everything possible to be noticed on the island. Ralph decides to make a fire, and the ships passing by will see the smoke from it. But when it is not kept alight, because the boys are off hunting, he gets very angry. The problem is that the boys like hunting more than keeping a fire alight, because with hunting there is a reward even if they don’t kill, they have the excitement of tracking down the pig (or animal they are hunting). The boys ‘lean’ towards Jack, now, because he seems more fun, (the boys are interested in fun). He likes hunting, and that interests all the boys. They don’t like the boring jobs, for example keeping the fire alight, so they have a better chance of being rescued. Also, building shelters, so they have somewhere safe to sleep at night.
Ralph starts to take it for granted, that when the conch is blown the boys come to the assembly. What makes the boys come to the assemblies is the fun, the assemblies were fun. But later on Ralph starts to order the boys around; he starts handing out orders. When he starts to say ‘you’ve got to do it because I’m boss’ he has lost the boys co-operation and his skill of being chief (being able to understand what people want). Things are breaking up. This quote shows how Ralph is firing orders at the boys, showing how he has lost his skill, trying to get the boys to do what is needed to survive (the boring things).
“‘To many things.’ There came mutters of agreement. Ralph overrode them.
‘And another thing. We nearly set the whole island on fire.
And we waste time, rolling rocks, and making little cooking
fires. Now I say this and make it a rule, because I’m chief.
We won’t have a fire anywhere but on the mountain. Ever.’”
Another problem, which comes out when the beastie is discussed, Ralph ponders on the thought. Take the example of the Beast from water. First of all he definitely thinks there are no beasts because Jack has searched the island. Then when the boy said it came from the water he thinks that there might be a beast. Instead of saying, of course there can’t be a beast because it won’t be able to breath on land if it came out of the water. But he wonders, thinking well there probably is a beast because we can’t explore the sea. The waiting and anxiety disturbs the boys especially the ‘littluns’. Also the assembly in which this issue is discussed is at sunset in the dark. One fault which Ralph hasn’t considered is that none of the boys are really going to listen when its dark and also the discussion of a scary beastie in the dark is a mistake, as scary and dark instil fear into the children’s minds.
My first impression of Jack is that he is powerful and his cloak promotes this. Also that perhaps because he peers he is somewhat snotty and arrogant. I think the cloak was used very effectively, to his advantage and made me tremble inside. I don’t think Jack frightens Ralph but he does Piggy. “Secure on the other side of Ralph, Piggy spoke timidly.” Here the entrance Jack made has had an effect on Piggy. But right from the start Jack is rude and horrible to Piggy.
Jack obviously wants to be chief. He thinks he will be leader because he’s the best.
“I ought to be chief”, said jack with simple
arrogance, “because I’m chapter chorister
and head boy. I can sing C sharp.”
Here he is trying to impress the boys. Jack is too proud and stuck-up. When there is a vote Jack is positive everyone is going to vote for him because he was head boy, and he’s chapter chorister, and this and that, the list goes on. But none of that matters now.
The novel describes Jack as “ugly without silliness”. This basically means that the others resort to make-up and masks to look ugly, but Jack doesn’t have to bother. Jack takes his role of headhunter very seriously, and will take the other boys out of their designated jobs to go off hunting. This annoys Ralph. Ralph cares for the ‘littleuns’ unlike Jack. Jack thinks they are useless because they can’t hunt or keep a fire going, all they do is play in the water all day. If Jack had his way the little ones would be completely ignored. Jack would drop and leave anyone who couldn’t keep up. This is why Jack fails to be chief. He is too proud. He is bossy and mean. Even though he has titles and can sing in C sharp, none of the boys care about that. The boys don’t choose him because he is ‘evil’, horrible and Ralph has the conch (the conch is quite important throughout the novel). Ralph is also nice, trusting, logical and sensible. Jack would blurt out any secrets and humiliate people. You couldn’t trust him with anything.
Piggy is fat, weak, has glasses and asthma. He is very sensible, practical, clever, logical and wants attention. To get this he says some silly things. As the novel develops Piggy is still thinking of the past, when Ralph realises that there are no parents and they can do what they like, Piggy is still thinking of the old rules they had to follow.
Piggy is always being teased because he is fat, has asthma and glasses. He can’t influence people the way Jack and Ralph do.
When Piggy first meets Ralph, he helps Ralph to get the conch out of the water. Piggy does this because he can see Ralph is ‘popular’, and has a certain edge to him, which makes him sophisticated. Piggy knows that he is going to get teased because that’s what happened before, but he thinks if he gets ‘in’ with Ralph he might not be teased. But I know that he is inclined to be teased. Sometimes, Piggy gets in the way and gets shouted at by Jack, mostly, for example in this passage:
Piggy had settled himself in a coin between
two rocks, and sat with the conch on his knees.
“We haven’t made a fire,” he said, “what’s
any use. We couldn’t keep a fire like that
going, not if we tried.”
“A fat lot you tried,” said Jack contemptuously.
“You just sat.”….
“I got the conch,” said Piggy indignantly.
“You let me speak!”
“The conch doesn’t count on top of the
mountain,” said Jack, “so you shut up.”
“I got the conch in my hand.”
“Put on green branches,” said Maurice.
“That’s the best way to make smoke.”
“I got the conch---”
Jack turned fiercely.
“You shut up!”
Piggy wilted.
Piggy is only following the rules, Ralph set out, but Jack is rude to him because he thinks Piggy isn’t worth listening to. But Piggy is probably the most clever and logical out of all of them.
Piggy isn’t chosen by the boys to be chief because no one would listen to him. Nobody would give him respect the way the do with Ralph.
I think Ralph is the best leader because he is the only one who understands the boys, Piggy does too but the boys don’t take him seriously. Jack would get the boys to follow him, but he doesn’t care for them, like Ralph. Only Ralph is capable of leading a group of boys, and getting them to respect him. Ralph is trustworthy and caring. I would vote for Ralph as the leader.
