Leadership in Lord of the Flies Essay Sample

In the world, leaders and followers influence each other opinions, even if it’s not in their morals.  When a leader influences a follower, it can change a lot of things about them.  It can change how they act, their personality, and their overall goals in life.  William Golding explores these concepts and ideas in his writing.   In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Golding communicates the ways in which leaders use fear to manipulate followers into following orders and committing acts of atrocity and aggression devoid of any sense of personal responsibility.

At the beginning of the book, Golding sets boys on an island seeing how they would react.  When the boys first arrived everyone was good and pure.  The boys were set on finding a way to go home.  Ralph was the leader in the group, however, Jack claimed he “ought to be chief” (Golding).  Jack became upset and went off the start his own group.  Jack claimed that he’s “not going to play anymore” (Golding), which created fear for a lot of the little’uns.  Because most of the boys were “scared of him” (Golding) they followed and joined his group.  Jack was using his fear to convince everyone to follow him.  This happens a lot in the world too.  World leaders will use fear to get people to agree with their beliefs, even if they don’t actually believe in what they proclaim.  For example, when Hitler was trying to get rid of all Jews in the 1930s, he created posters to get the Germans to fear the Jews and agree with the rest of the Nazis.  Even if not everyone agreed with what Hitler was doing, they helped because of how Hitler used fear to get people on his side.

Most of the boys were now on Jacks’s side.  Because of this, the boys believe what Jack has to say.  Even if they don’t believe it, they go along with it because they are scared of Jack.  Jack saw a figure and thought it was the beast.  Jack starts to beat the beast chanting “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood” (Golding), not knowing who it actually was.  One by one, others started to join in because they were scared of what Jack would do if they didn’t help. Because more and more boys were joining in, the rest of the boys were influenced by each other to follow their leader.  Eventually, all of the boys including Ralph and Piggy started to beat Simone thinking it was the beast.  They beat the beast until they heard a “gasping squeal” (Golding). The boys had killed what they thought was the beast.  “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages” (Golding) is what everyone started to think after they found out who they were really beating.  However, everyone still took a part in the killing, all because the boys were influencing each other.  Some of the boys didn’t want to participate in beating the beast, but they did because everyone else was doing it.  People in the world are scared to be different.  People are scared to be the one different person.  Normally, society frowns upon people who are not following the crowd, so people stick with the crowd.  

With a group of people, most of them like to stick with the crowd just like the boys did.  The boys were influencing each other to do something no one would ever imagine doing.  Ralph claimed that “I don’t know what I was” (Golding) after he found out they killed.  The boys were in shock and tried to cover up the fact that it was a murder.  Because all of the boys participated in the killing, the boys said: “it was an accident” (Golding) and moved on.  When something bad happens with a group, people tend to not take personal responsibility for what happened.  This happed in the Lord of the Flies book.  The boys refuse to believe that it was a murder.  However, if only 1 or 2 people participated in the killing, the other boys would call it murder.   When something bad happens in the world you can’t cover it up, even if it wasn’t your idea.  Even if you were influenced by others to do something unimaginable, you still need to take personal responsibility for the acts you committed. 

 In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Golding communicates the ways in which leaders use fear to manipulate followers into following orders and committing acts of atrocity and aggression devoid of any sense of personal responsibility. Jack, one of the leaders of the island, was able to use his power to influence everyone else.  As the book progresses, the boys do things they wouldn’t ever imagine doing.  They do all that because Jack uses fear, and once one follower follows someone, everyone does.  The influence of each other, and the lack of society, caused the boys to act out and be afraid of different opinions.  In the world, leaders and followers influence each other opinions, even if it’s not in their morals.