The main competition for chief is between Ralph and Jack however there are other significant leading figures, Simon and Piggy, the competition is too serious for Jack. Simon and Piggy are killed in the process of Jack’s descent into savage, despotic leadership. There are 4 types of leadership explored in this novel democratic, despotic, spiritual and scientific and there’s constantly a battle between them.
It is quite strange for Ralph because for a while Jack and Ralph are getting on well and working together “ grotesque dead thing…laughing with triumphant pleasure,” Ralph is the democratic leader he became chief through voting, however why he was voted is unknown “ toy of voting” suggests it’s a game for some of the boys and the little ones are going with the majority, the little ones are represented as fickle voters however Golding’s ideas also suggest it was because of his appearance, at the beginning of the book he is constantly referred to as the fair boy whereas Piggy is referred to as the fat boy, Ralph is pleasing to look at however when we first meet Jack he is red headed and freckled, Golding describes him as “ ugly without silliness”, this suggests that Jack is a very serious boy. Ralph is a democratic leader and a thinker “ Ralph chose the firm strip as a path because he needed to think; and only here could he allow his feet to move without having to watch them. ” However Jack is a boy who takes action.
At first Jack has trouble killing a pig but once he accomplishes doing it he can’t stop, “ the opaque, mad look came into his eyes again. ” he’s an action person the consequence of this is it affects other people, an example of this would be when he left the fire to go hunt and ruined a rescue opportunity, as the book goes on we see Jack cares less about being rescued “ Jack had to think for a moment before he could remember what rescue was. ” because he is happy with the life he has created on the island, whereas rescue means everything to Ralph the first time we really see their different opinions is in there conflict regarding the fire and the rescue, which is also where we see Jack beginning to get accustomed to the island .
At the beginning of the book he is quite civilised “ We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages, we’re English,” however Jack seems to have eaten his own words because at the end of the book one word springs to mind to describe Jack, Savage. Jack becomes the despotic leader. Piggy is the one they laugh at, the one that is just there. In Jack’s eyes he is a waste of space, a liability, and unable to help because of his asthma and generally being fat, he is lower status and to Jack he means nothing “ we don’t want you,” We can see he is lower status from his speech “ all them other kids” Ralph knows him from the very beginning however he never seems to appreciate Piggy’s contributions.
Piggy is a smart boy and a organised leader however he has no social skills and doesn’t do well in crowds he often backs down when trying to make his points, due to his physical weaknesses he isn’t able to help though he very much wants to, we see this from the fact that he wants to stick with Ralph and go on the mission to find out whether or not they are on an island “ Piggy stirred. “ I’ll come”” although he was intimidated by Jack he still wanted to help. Piggy is always contributing the truth, when there is no chance of rescue this is brought forward by Piggy, the idea to blow the conch came from Piggy, he is very bright, but underestimated, and he is quite happy to take the backseat, when he does speak up because he wants his glasses back from Jack’s gang he is killed. Piggy is the scientific Leader.
Simon is never really seen to be a leader, he is the first to find out the truth about the lord of the flies, and his death is where the rest of Ralph’s boys are lead to find the truth so he leads them to the truth but he is not a very significant character to begin with, he is also weak, always fainting. Simon is later seen to be the spiritual Leader. He is also overlooked by Jack, Jack doesn’t care for those who can’t look after themselves, and he has a survival of the fittest mentality. Simon becomes a more important character after his death as we see Ralph go through some self-discovery because of the deaths taking place, but clearly this self-discovery comes too late because very soon after he finds himself alone being chased through the island by savages.
No one person in this novel would make a good leader because there are many personalities explored and you need a mix, to make the perfect leader you would need, Ralph’s people skills, Piggy’s thinking skill, and Jacks acting upon what has been said ability. Simon doesn’t have an ability like this however what he did was take a step back and really look at what’s going on, sometimes everyone has to slow down, and because of the fast-paced journey of the boys throughout the novel, we do not see this happen except with Simon, and that is only when he is alone, a good leader most importantly needs to be able to stop and take a look at what’s going on like Simon did.
