Lord Of The Flies

Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies there were a few candidates for being the leader of the island. These boys were Ralph, Piggy, Jack, and Simon. Jack was able to become the most successful leader out all of them. Not only was Jack smart, leader wise, and a leader who led with terror, the other boys were unable to become a leader who could surpassed Jack. The traits of Piggy, Simon, and Ralph made them unable to surpass Jack and take leadership of the island.

Piggy did not have as much potential for leadership as the other boys. Piggy's main flaw was his appearance. None of the boys wanted to follow this "bag of fat" that Golding once describes him as. "...his knees were plump... he was shorter than the fair boy and very fat... looked up through his thick spectacles," was how Piggy was described in the beginning of the novel. As the boys were making the fire "acting like a bunch of kids," Piggy showed his maturity and logic. Another one his flaws was he was easily intimated especially from Jack. On top of the mountain "Piggy opened his mouth to speak, caught Jack's eye and shut it again," showed how easily he backed off. His final flaw was that was the scapegoat of the island. He was the main target of the island. When Jack was accused of letting the fire out "he took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy's stomach" to quickly change the subject and Piggy was the easiest target to hit of who was there. If Piggy wasn't fat or had glasses he could have easily lead the boys back home because his intelligent and science. Piggy in many ways was unable to become the leader of the island.

Simon another qualifier of being the leader was the next physically unable boy on the island. Simon was the next physically unable boy because he was epileptic. He knew that one of his times were coming on," as Golding states. "One of his times" refers to one of Simon's epileptic seizures. Simon was also the only transcendent boy on the island. This meant that he was beyond and outside the ordinary range of human experience or understanding. Because of this he was closely connected to nature and was very solitary. No one wanted to follow a person who is always reflecting about the past all by himself. Another big flaw of Simon's leadership was that he was shy. When they were talking about the beast and correctly stated that "maybe it's only us," and "his heartbeats were choking him" as stuttered throughout his whole speech. This shows he is unable to speak to crowds, which is an important factor of being a leader. The only transcendent boy on the island, Simon, was also unable to become the leader of the island.

Ralph