Leaders or No Leaders

In William Golding’s novel, ‘Lord of the Flies’ Golding raises a lot of questions about leadership and roles. Is it reasonable to have a leader or is it arrogant? People might say leaders are nothing but make us be in their “system.” Other might say leaders keep society together and it keeps people in place by making rules and laws. So does having a leader really matter in people’s eyes or does leaders mean nothing to them. Leaders or no leader, should people still obey any types of rules?

In the beginning of  Lord of The Flies by William Golding, there was these group of boys who crashed onto an isolated island. When they ended up on the island, there was this argument that broke out on who should be chief. Ralph and Jack wanted to be chief badly because each one of them fine themselves better than the other. “‘Shut up,’ said Ralph absently. He left the conch. ‘Seem to me we ought to have a chief to decide things.’ ‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance.” (pg. 22) Ralph and Jack are arguing about who should be chief because each one of them said they’ll make a better leader. People chose Ralph because he was better looking than Jack, Jack didn’t approve of this because he saw Ralph as a joke, but what happens if Ralph turns out to be an amazing leader? No one knows if he’s going to  be  an amazing leader, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Having a leader for a bunch of children that are stranded on isolated island to be honest is kind of smart because they want to have some they can listen to.

Just like in the real world, leaders are the reason why the society is still standing and running. President Obama for example, has brought job rates up. In an article it said that jobs have been increasing for the past two years and it has been the “longest streak” of job growth. Last month (March) data shows that 215,000 jobs were added. The Labor Department data showed that unemployment rate went up by 5% from last month. Wages has also gone up from the last month, 7 cent to their average hourly earning which is 25.45 dollars. People gave negative feedback/ comments to Obama, saying that he hasn’t done enough for this country but for minor things. But some other people say he has done a lot for this country. Having a leader like Obama, helps keep this society up and going, but what will happen if there was never a leader,  this society would probably go insance. Leaders are what everyone needs when the government are messing up, then that leader can step in and do something about it, just like the jobs and money issues.

In Lord of The Flies, everyone didn’t have a clue what they were going to do. They wanted to make a rule where they have a group to watch the fire and they wanted them to do anything possible to get rescued. “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything. So we’ve got to do the things.” (pg. 42) Jack agrees with Ralph’s idea, but savages? At this point of time people can be a savage because they want to find a way to live. It’s like survival of the fittest.  But at the same time it is kind of crazy. Why do they want to be a savage when they’re on a stranded island with their classmates and they’re planning to help each other out? That’s why Jack said that they should have rules and they should obey them because he said their “English” meaning that they are good at everything. But they’re still children, so maybe having rules could help them survive.

In the real world, people need to have a leader because they do great things for this country. Obama as an example again, he made a huge decision on whether or not they should invade Osama’s compound and assassinate him, people like Mitt Romney finds this a waste of money on trying to catching this one person. Mitt Romney for example, is Jack for a sense, he find Obama’s decision kind of stupid and pointless. But Obama made a decision on sending out serving and former US Navy SEALs to assassinate him, while he watches it live on T.V. In a video call ‘One Chance’ Bill Clinton said that Obama took “the harder and the more honourable path.” Meaning that he took a path where people might hate him if the SEALs were going to raid Osama’s compound and if he ends up not being there or it ends up not being him or supposedly the SEALs got caught and got held hostage or killed, then that puts a really bad reputation on the President. But he reasoned with himself and made that decision no matter what, and he got what he wanted and he assassinated Osama bin Laden and gain a huge reputation for himself as a leader of this country.

Leaders plays a big role in this society, they help us through many things and they help keep this society standing. Even though some leaders can be bad and all, it does not mean they aren’t important as other older presidents. Just like Ralph and Jack they had a fight over who should be leader, so they both ended up made a separate group, but as in the real world there’s only one big leader, the president and he plays a major role. Leader are almost everything we need when they want to do something big, like passing rules.

Works Cited:

  • Golding, William. Lord of The Flies. New York: Penguin Group, 2003

  • Toby Harnden for the Daily Mail. "SEALs Slam Obama for Using Them as 'ammunition' in Bid to Take Credit for Bin Laden Killing during Election Campaign."Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 2012. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

  • "FACT CHECK: The White House's Private-Sector Job Streak." NPR. NPR. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.
  • "U.S. Economy Adds 215,000 Jobs in March, Jobless Rate Ticks up to 5 Percent."Washington Post. The Washington Post. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

Comments (5)

Deja Harrison (Student 2018)
Deja Harrison

I agree with the comparison because I do think having leaders helps things not be so chaotic. ¨Leaders are what everyone needs when the government are messing up, then that leader can step in and do something about it, just like the jobs and money issues.¨ I like this quote because this is how it should be but it´s not always what happens.

Ethan Halprin (Student 2018)
Ethan Halprin

I like the comparison of Jack and Mitt Romney because they are both people who lost to the person who became leader at one point, and also are both people interested by the wrong things and find the important things to be a waste.

"In William Golding’s novel, ‘Lord of the Flies’ Golding raises a lot of questions about leadership and roles."

I think this sentence does a really good job hooking the reader and leading into your essay, and makes your topic clear.

Ajanae Mills (Student 2018)
Ajanae Mills
  1. I agreed with their comparison and thought their real world examples and book examples went well with their thesis statement. 2.Having a leader for a bunch of children that are stranded on isolated island to be honest is kind of smart because they want to have some they can listen to.
    1. I like that writing because it gives the reader an example of how having rules can be smart and could actually be a good thing instead of trying to degrade the point of a leader.
Mackenzie Harrington (Student 2018)
Mackenzie Harrington

I agree, leaders are what make people not become savage. But I liked "At this point of time people can be a savage because they want to find a way to live. It’s like survival of the fittest. " because its true. They want to find ways to live and if they cant they go savage. I like this writing because it has a lot of good information put intot it, and its a unique comparison.

Conor Meier (Student 2018)
Conor Meier

I do agree with Addison's comparison. Just like in the real world, leaders are the reason why the society is still standing and running. President Obama for example, has brought job rates up. In an article it said that jobs have been increasing for the past two years and it has been the “longest streak” of job growth. i like this writing because it has a lot of good ideas, and comments