Lord of the Flies

compare raulph and jack. who is the better leader at the beginning of the story ?

compare and contrast 

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Ralph really represents responsible leadership. He organizes assemblies, creates rules, devises a democratic process...Ralph quickly matures on the island. He becomes a 12 year old with a conscience. It is interesting to watch Ralph muse about responsibility and leadership in the later chapters. Unfortunately, most of the boys are not looking for a responsible leader. The boys want to be told what to do; they want to have "fun" and they are easily manipulated. Ralph tries hard to establish some kind of working order. He truly is respectful of most of the boys. To be fair to Ralph, he spent most of the time trying to prevent Jack from turning their island into a living hell. As stated before, most of the boys did not want to invest energy into Ralph's ideas (like shelters or signal fire). Ralph is not forceful by nature and could not manipulate like Jack could. Although Ralph is a good leader, Jack is more effective. Jack is naturally aggressive. Early in the book we see this through his repeated stabbings of trees. Later he learns to channel his aggression through rather clever manipulation. He learns to give and withhold when it benefits him (the giving of meat to Ralph). Jack learns that ruling by fear is much more effective than leading through consensus.

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