I need some opinions on this essay I had to write for english. I'm handing it in tomorrow. Anyway, post your thoughts and opinions on the topic. I'd like to know what you people think about this topic. By the way, this is copyrighted material!
The Necessity of Leadership
Kevin Haag | English 11/D
Jan. 30/07
What is it about human nature that requires us to need a leader to survive and flourish? We as humans require leadership, to suppress our basic primal instincts and live in a civilized manor. This point is illustrated well in the novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding. It tells us that when we have a leader interested in creating order it works out well for us, and when we have a leader interested only in having total control, circumstances arise that cause chaos and bring out the natural instinct to kill or be killed.
The definition of a good leader must be outlined before the reason leadership is a necessity can be discussed. What makes a good leader? Is it a strong personality? A strong desire to cut the trail instead of follow it? Although these qualities are vital, neither is the most important. The quality that a good leader needs to have is the ability to understand people. If a person cannot display this quality, how can they be expected to lead one person, let alone a group of people? In examining the two characters in The Lord of the Flies who seem to be the most influential, Ralph and Jack, Ralph displays this ability. His desire to improve the boy’s society and well-being on the island is what makes him a better candidate to be the leader of the society. Under Jack, chaos seems inevitable. Although surprising, Piggy also displayed some good leader-like qualities. He had something that most of the boys on the island didn’t. Rational thinking: “Which is better – to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill? Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?” (pg.200). However, he lacked the strength required to be a good leader. He had the thinking, the desire to better the society, and the understanding of human nature, but was not a strong enough person to lead.
In the novel, the conch that Piggy finds becomes a symbol of leadership and order: “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking… And he won’t be interrupted” (pg.31). At first, this seems to work. Things soon change, however, when Jack begins to protest at Ralph’s plans to build shelters and keep the fire ablaze, and instead wants to hunt pigs and provide meat for the boys. This event is what essentially begins to build tensions and rivalries on the island. One group wants to be rescued and create order, while the other is only interested in killing pigs and running wild around the island.
Throughout the novel, Ralph and Jack’s “tribes” grow further and further apart and rivalries flare up amongst all the boys. Boys move back and forth among the tribes undecided as to whom they want to follow. This “undecidedness,” so to speak, is a large factor in the idea that humans need a leader to function. Near the end of the novel, only Piggy remains in Ralph’s tribe. The other boys had been drawn to Jack not because he was the better leader, but instead by fear and peer pressure. When Piggy is killed and the conch is destroyed, it signals the end of civilized society on the island. Ralph is on his own, and virtually all civilization that was once there dissolves.
In conclusion, no matter how one looks at it, people need a leader to maintain order and survive in a civilized manor. Throughout the world’s history there have been many leaders, not all of them good, but many nonetheless. These leaders had and have been put in place for the sole purpose to maintain order amongst society. Whether they achieved this goal was only the doing of the specific leader. William Golding paints a clear picture of what leaderless society is like in some of the novel’s final words when he writes: “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart…” (pg.225). Basic human nature is dark, but with a true leader, this darkness can be lit.
Khaag