First Impressions of Ralph

What impressions do you get of Ralph’s character through Golding’s writing at the beginning of the novel?

Golding’s initial descriptions of Ralph provided the reader with mixed impressions of how his character would develop throughout the novel.

The way in which Golding describes Ralph’s natural assumption of the leadership gives the reader the impression that he is a natural leader yet also has his weaknesses.  

Ralph is immediately presented by Golding as being strong, for example when he writes "You could see now that he might make a boxer”, this immediately provides the reader with the impression that Ralph’s character is strong not only physically but morally and is easily assumed to be in control of the situation. This idea is then supported by Golding when Ralph accepts responsibility for all of the children on the island without hesitation, “Ralph counted. 'I'm chief then’” the way in which Ralph says this so nonchalantly suggests he is a natural leader and can handle taking care of all of the children, however it could also suggest that he does not understand the extent of the role he is undertaking, thus making him seem immature.

Ralph is also made to seem immature through Golding’s description of his character on multiple instances throughout the first chapter of the novel. Ralph’s immaturity is immediately conveyed when he is first attempting to play with Piggy by “[standing] on his head and grin[ing] at the fat boy” this seems like a very childlike action and certainly not something a serious, mature leader would do, thus presents the various nuances in Ralph’s character when juxtaposed with him easily accepting a huge amount of responsibility. This childlike presentation of Ralph is again apparent when he teases Piggy because of his nick name, something that relates back to school and being bullied which is most often linked to children and immaturity. The lack of in depth thought Ralph is presented as having is not only visible when accepting responsibility a chief but with phrases such as “until the grown-ups come to fetch us we'll have fun”, again demonstrating Ralph’s clear naivety at the entire situation.