The role of a leader is challenging task to take on, especially when you're a young boy. As proven in the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, in order to be an effective leader, you have to have no moral character. Being a leader without moral character leads to more effective ruling, because your followers will obey you more than a ruler with moral character, who tends to be more lenient with their style of ruling. The challenge was taken by originally taken on by Ralph, who with moral character, tried to keep the island in order, and Jack, who without moral character, ruled more efficiently and had more people listen to his orders. Being a leader without moral character, such as Jack, is more effective than being a leader with moral character, such as Ralph.
There is a strong relationship between authority and character. When you have a leader without any morals and will go to the extreme for their people to obey them, fear is created within their followers. This is the approach that Jack took to lead his group of followers. He lead the group with an iron fist, which created fear within them. As said in The Prince by Niccoló Machiavelli, it is better to be feared than loved. When you are feared as a leader, your followers will do anything that you say, because they fear the consequences. When you're a leader like Ralph who rules with a moral character, people will take advantage of you and will not listen to you. For example, when Ralph needed help building shelters, nobody helped him except for Simon, while the others were hunting or playing around. Also, when Ralph told Jack to keep the fire going, Jack and his hunters disobeyed because they believed it was more important to hunt the pigs instead of keeping the fire going. After a while, the boys on the island started to disregard what Ralph would say, even though it was for them to survive on the island. While people ignored Ralph, they were listening to Jack because they feared him. Since Jack had a more aggressive and fearful character, he held more authority than Ralph, who had a more relaxed and kind character who lost his authority.
To be an effective leader, you cannot have moral character. Jack ruled without a moral character and the boys on the island did whatever he said. It was at first a struggle for him to where he got, but he was able to climb to the top and have the boys go against Ralph at the end, except for Samneric, who tried to defend Ralph, but it did not work as planned due to the abuse from Jack. When the conch is broken, Jack took the opportunity to officially become the leader of the island. Jack used fear to get through to the followers of his tribe, causing them to be terrified if they were to go against him. For example, on page 104, Jack says, “I painted my face—I stole up. Now you eat—all of you—and I—“(Golding 104). Jack demanded that they ate the meat that he hunted for to feed them and got angry when Simon gave Piggy his meat, which caused Jack to give Simon more meat. The boys who were eating the meat feared Jack and did not want to anger him by not eating the meat from the pig he hunted, so they ate it so he did not get too angry with them. As the novel progresses a bit more, Jack begins his own tribe. On page 191, Jack says, “‘We’ll hunt. I’m going to be chief.’”(Golding 191). Jack is now starting to become more like a chief by telling his own people what to do and they're obeying his orders. This establishes a sense of leadership in Jack, because he knows that he will become chief at some point. As the novel further progresses, Jack tries to get more people to join his tribe. On page 215, while they are eating, Jack says, “‘Give me a drink.’ Henry brought him a shell and he drank, watching Piggy and Ralph over the jagged rim. Power lay in the brown swell of his forearms; authority sat on his shoulder and chattered in his ear like an ape.”(Golding 215). In this scene, Jack is demanding people in his tribe to do things for him, such as getting him a drink. Jack also starts to feel the sense of true power and true authority over more people because they fear him so much, they do what he says without hesitation to avoid Jack from getting angry. Jack’s power kept on growing because nobody wanted to make him angry and suffer the consequences, so they did what he wanted them to do. Through all of this, Jack had more control than Ralph because people respected Jack and did not disobey him, unlike what they did to Ralph, where they began to ignore him and disobey him after a while. Being a leader without morals lead Jack to be a better leader because people feared him and did not want to disobey him.
Being a leader with a moral character can lead to multiple consequences. In the beginning, when Ralph was elected leader, everything was fine and the boys would obey him. As the novel began to further develop, people started to disobey him and would not listen to him. One way the boys began to disobey Ralph was when Ralph needed help building the huts and the only one who helped him was Simon. On page 75, Ralph says, “‘And I work all day with nothing but Simon and you come back and don't even notice the huts!’”(Golding 75). Ralph started to get angry with Jack because him and Simon were the only one working on the huts while Jack was hunting for food to eat. This proves that from the beginning, Ralph did not have that much authority because the only person who helped him build the huts was Simon, yet there was an island full of boys that he was the chief of he could of had help him. None of the boys helped Ralph build the huts except Simon, which proves he had no authority from the beginning. As the novel develops a little bit more, the signal fire goes out. Ralph put Jack in charge of the signal fire, but Jack ignores Ralph’s orders and goes hunting instead. On page 99, Ralph says, “‘I was chief, and you were going to do what I said. You talk. But you can’t even build huts— then you go off hunting and let out the fire—‘“ (Golding 99). Ralph tries to reassure authority as chief, but it doesn't matter what he says to Jack because Jack doesn't care what Ralph has to say. Ralph has lost all authority over Jack and his hunters at this point, because the hunters do what Jack says to do, not what Ralph says. Towards the end of the novel, Ralph has lost all authority over the boys. All of the boys have turned against Ralph and want to kill him and the only people who try to help him are Samneric, which fails because Jack forces them to reveal where Ralph is through terror. On page 280, the following occurs,”Smoke was seeping through the branches in white and yellow wisps, the patch of blue sky overhead turned to the color of a storm cloud, and then the smoke billowed around him.”(Golding 280). Ralph completely lost authority of the island to the point that Jack and his tribe were trying to kill him by burning the island down. Ralph did not rule with an iron fist like Jack did, causing him to lose all authority. Having a moral character destroyed Ralph’s chance to successfully be chief of the island and almost resulted in his death.
Having a strong and effective leader is the most important key to survival as a group. Being a leader without moral character, such as Jack, is more effective than being a leader with a moral character, such as Ralph. As proven in the novel, having a moral character will lead to multiple consequences. A leader with no moral character is feared, making them stronger. This was proven through Jack, because he ruled with an iron first and people feared him due to him having not having a moral character, making him the most effective leader.