How does Jack’s and Ralph’s personality affect their leadership styles?

Jack and Ralph are very different in many ways. Ralph believes in a democratic society, where everyone has a right to express their issues, but he has a rather weak personality. This means that he might not be as strict as he should be, giving place to “rebels”. By the other hand, Jack has a stronger personality; he wants to have everything under his control, but he is arrogant and proud. To Jack, the opinions of the others don’t have an important place in the take of decisions. In this essay, I will explain how their personalities affect their leadership styles by looking at the relation between the two of them in different parts of the book, then contrasting it with their way of being.

The relationship between Jack and Ralph started off well. They both considered each other as friends on who they could count on. “Jack and Ralph smiled at each other with shy liking” is a quote that tells us how they both felt when they met. The quote uses the words “smiled” and “liking”, which are words that represent positive elements in this first encounter. Even after Ralph was elected chief, he lets Jack in charge of the hunters and then they go wandering off in an “expedition” to see whether the island was really an island, smiling and laughing; happy to have found each other. At this point of the book, Jack is willing to follow what the majority of the people want and to be part of this democratic society, represented by the conch. “They turned to each other, laughing excitedly, talking not listening” is another quote that describes accurately the start of this relationship, which would have some problems later on, due to various aspects, including Jack’s personality.

Golding describes Jack as an arrogant and proud boy who is used to having everything at his reach, reason why he wants to have the control of everything on the island. Jack surely comes from a very upper class school, where he is the head boy of the choir, which distinguishes itself by the use of fancy outfits. This may be a reason why Jack feels superior to all the others on the island and why he thinks that he ought to be chief. As he thinks himself as superior to all the others, he is rude with some people like Piggy. In the quote “You’re talking too much. Shut up fatty”, we can see this aspect of Jack’s personality. By the way that he talks to Piggy we can see that he doesn’t care much about the other’s feelings, just taking care of his personal image towards the rest of the boys. Jack also likes to take decisions by himself, even if he was given different orders.

Opposite to Jack, Ralph is a more humble and caring person. He does care about what the other kids want to be done although it is not what he actually wants. This is proved when in the book Ralph says: Ralph raised his hand for silence. “All right, who wants Jack for chief”; this when all the boys were cheering his name, making it clear that they wanted him for chief. This is a proof that Ralph believes in a democratic society and this is why he decided to use the conch as an element that would enable an organised speech, where everyone would have the chance to say whatever they thought that was necessary discuss. Although Ralph has all this good qualities as a chief, He has a rather weak personality compared to Jack’s; this is shown when Jack lets the fire go out while a ship was passing by, due to the fact that he only says: “You let the fire go out”. This shows certain weakness because he would have needed to be more strict with Jack, who moments after breaks one side of Piggy’s specs.

As the story flows, the relationship between Jack and Ralph has to go through some issues that become more frequent as serious each time. They passed from being friends that “smiled at each other with shy liking” into silent enemies. The first serious discussion that they have is the one I had mentioned in the last paragraph, where Jack had let the fire go out while he went hunting. After this argument, Jack and Ralph seem to get along in a different way, less friendly as their hair continues to grow. “We need shelters”. Suddenly Jack shouted in rage. “Are you accusing...” is a quote that shows one of the many arguments that Jack and Ralph start to have. It could be that the most important word used in this quote is “rage” because it tells us about the violent reaction of Jack, who is starting to get annoyed from following orders of an “inferior”. This would cause the “break up” between Jack and Ralph, afterwards. The arguments start to be more frequent since Jack paints a mask on his face and finds himself being an “amazing stranger”. The mask could represent the “inner savage” that everyone has inside them, or in other words, their predisposition to violence.

There is a certain level of tension, which a person can stand, and if this level is reached, almost anything can trigger an explosion of wrath. This happened with Jack while talking about the beast with Ralph. Jack talks about the magnificence of his hunters and that they would be able to kill the beast. Ralph is not so sure about that and tells Jack “What can boys with sticks do?” The moment that Jack heard this, the level of tension was more than what he could stand, storming away and calling a meeting. In this meeting he uses phrases against Ralph such as: “He isn’t a proper chief”, “He’s a coward himself” and at last he tries to take the position of chief away from him by saying: “Who thinks Jack oughtn’t be chief”. This quotes show how Jack is unable to take orders from someone else, and when no one supports him, he storms away into the forest, but no before inviting Ralph’s lot to join his tribe: “I’m going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too”. This last quote is one of the most important due to the fact it represents the rupture between those who had been friends and at that point harsh enemies. The hunters end up in Jack’s lot and not so long after, they kill Piggy and then try to kill Ralph.

In conclusion, I think that both Jack and Ralph have totally different leadership styles, Jack representing a dictator and resembling Hitler, while Ralph represents a democratic and good side of the society. As Golding wrote this book while WWII was going on in the world, the island could be like a small representation of the world in which Jack and his group of savages could represent the Nazi Germany and Ralph’s rational group could represent advanced, democratic societies. The painted faces of Jack’s group could represent the “Nazi that we all have inside us”, due to the fact that, in certain situations, everyone is capable of doing things that they thought that they would never do; just like Jack. It is true that Jack has a stronger personality, a personality needed to be a dictator, while Ralph is a more sensible person, with a weaker but rational way of being.

Pedro Carrasco-Zanini Sánchez
5V