When civilization is lost and order is disrupted, a leader must be appointed. A world plunged into chaos causes a group of young boys to crash land on a deserted island where they must fend for themselves and establish order. Lord of the Flies, novel written by William Golding, tells the story of lost English boys who must do their best to find rescue and over their time on the island, prove Golding’s hypothesis that humans are all evil on the inside and the darkness is brought out in them only when you subtract law and order from the equation and there is no punishment for action. In order for the boys to keep their class and civil lives on the island, they must appoint a chief. The chief gives the boys a sense of comfort in having a leader who is able to look out for their needs and give them tasks to keep them occupied. The choice is between, Jack, and Ralph. Ralph ends up stuck with only his loyal companion, Piggy, staying by his side until the end. Jack is able to create a tribe against Ralph and his very few followers because the younger children feared Jack and decided to go with his leadership, which never made them any progress to get rescued due to Jack’s obsession with killing and his personal satisfaction. Their performances all will show to the children which is the better leader to follow. The first step in the story is for the boys to elect their leader, based off of their first impressions.

Ralph is the one person who first introduces order to the lost boys and is only able to keep it for as long as he did because Jack was able to twist the minds and behavior of the younger boys and turn them against Ralph. With the first blow of the conch, civilization on the island began and their first meeting commenced. Ralph gives off his first impression to everyone that he was very open to the new people coming in and ready to have a plan be made by stating “there’s no man with a trumpet. Only me… We’re having a meeting. Come and join in” (pg. 16). This is his first example of leadership when he gets the meeting together and is able to give the boys (some as young as five) comfort and reassurance, especially for those still in shock from the previous event that occurred. When chaos goes too far, Ralph is brave enough to blow the conch for a final time to order a meeting so that he may stand up to Jack’s tribe of savages. When he finds the tribe, Ralph makes a statement: “Which is better, law and order, or hunting and breaking things up?” (pg. 200) in a final attempt to persuade the others to give up their acts and follow him again. The only reason that Ralph’s plea is not effective is because the minds of Jack’s followers have become far too corrupted and their brains can no longer let them listen to reason.

With Ralph taking control of the group as chief, he’d have to have the proper priorities. While Jack was out hunting a pig for his own maniacal satisfaction, Ralph is focused on the survival of the group. Ralph recognizes that the other boys are frightened so in order for him to make them a little more comfortable, he states that “we need shelters as a sort of – home” (pg.53). Ralph prioritizes huts because it’ll give the boys a sense of belonging and he realizes that “if it rains like when we dropped in, we’ll need shelters” (pg. 52). Piggy, being the only person on the island with some decent intellect and maturity, recognized that Ralph was the better leader for the group and stated it by saying, “He’s the only one who ever got anything done” (pg. 188). Since Piggy was the most mature of the boys on the island, it’s a huge sign that Ralph was superior because the only person with a mind to comprehend progress stated that Ralph actually made advancements for the group. Although Jack is the first person to mention the boys “have got to decide about being rescued” (pg. 18), it is Ralph who is the first to take action and get a search party together so that they’re able to assess their situation and figure out if they are on an island or not.

Ralph is able to quickly recognize the skills and traits of others around him and he is able to task them with jobs where they will be the most effective. He is also very good at keeping the morale of the group high and reassuring them of their safety to keep panic to a minimum. When the chief is first elected, Ralph quickly notices the kind of character Jack is and that he will not be happy with the decision. To keep everyone happy he assigned Jack a role: “Jack’s in charge of the choir. They can be – what do you want them to be?” (pg. 19) to still be in charge of his choir as he previously was and then gives Jack freedom to choose their role on the island. This shows that Ralph can make everyone happy and is able to notice someone who may be future trouble and he starts them off on the right foot. In order to keep panic at a minimum, Ralph assures the boys very assertively that “there isn’t a snake!” (pg. 35). Ralph knows that for order to be kept, issues like a possible snake must be shot down before panic erupts. Jack states in his own way that if there were possibilities of a snake, the boys would hunt it down and kill it. This is not Ralph’s style and he isn’t wanting to make his first impression as a leader as him being a murderous psychopath so he just assures the group that there is no snake.

Ralph is able to gain the trust of the boys, understand who they are and is able to lead as a kind person because that is effective for him and it’s the best way that he can have people follow him. The only reason that Jack has boys follow him is because he would hurt them if they didn’t, so Jack would quite often need to be wary about a knife to his throat as he sleeps. Ralph is able to keep on task about getting rescued and surviving while Jack is busy being a sociopath, trying to kill a pig. Ralph gains the respect from these boys on the island and Jack basically just whips them into following him. With the book being an allegory, this just proves the obvious point that Ralph being a better leader. Jack being a symbol of dictatorship, corrupts the minds of the young in order for them to follow him which turns the society into that of savagery and incompetence. Ralph was a symbol of the western worlds, order being overthrown by corrupted minds of dictatorship which had never made any advancements to the group’s survival or rescue. Put quite simply, order and good leadership is able to advance people into new eras of technology and time, while dictatorship and ruling with an iron fist only turns people to savages and takes a step back in evolution.