What is a leader?  Well this question can be answered many different ways.  Leadership can change with whatever situation a person finds themself in.  Leaders can differ from an explorer leading his/her men/women through the jungle, or the captain of a sports team leading their teammates to a championship.  Every leader has a vision and it is that leader’s job to inspire people to make them see that vision as well so they can gain followers.  People expect and rely on certain leaders to take charge and accept success and failure personally.  

In the book, Lord of the Flies by William Golding there seems to be a battle of who is going to become head honcho between the characters Ralph and Jack.  When another character named Piggy finds a conch shell on the island they were stranded on, Ralph blows into the shell and the sound attracts other kids on the island.  “But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch.”(22)  In this scene of the novel, the conch is giving Ralph power and authority.  It also develops a the thought that the best thing for them right now to have is a leader.  In the boys’ heads the conch is setting Ralph apart from everyone else, and this is the reason why Ralph becomes the leader over Jack.  

This same kind of situation can relate to any sports team in a way.  On sports teams there can be one one leader, or several leaders that play different parts on the team.  The role of a locker room leader would be to get everybody pumped and hyped to play the game and make sure everybody is ready.  Where a performance leader would take control during the game and most of the the they want the game to be in their hands.  Or there could just be one leader.  This role brings the most pressure and all depends on how you deal with it.    

In the novel, situations start to come up that test Ralph’s leadership.  A dead pilot has fallen from the sky and as the boys see the body but don’t know what it is.  The minds of the paranoid kids disguise the body to be “the beast.”  The tension of what it could be was eating away at the group, so they all decided to go hunt the so called beast.  The boys were hunting the beast and they decided to stop and reevaluate their decision.  But Ralph took the responsibility of being a leader and told the group that he would go after the beast himself.  When Ralph made the decision to go himself, that really stuck with the group and it showed them that he was being a true leader and taking on that responsibility that comes with taking charge.   

The same concept applies to sports.  No matter what sport it is no matter if it is basketball, baseball, soccer, etc the star player or captain of the team wants to be in the win or lose situation.  They are willing to go into either success or failure situations head on and deal with the outcome no matter what it is.

In the world we live in today, children are not safe all the time. Without their parents, children can not grow up and survive correctly. Life was made for children to have parents to guide them through the struggles of life. A lot of children die on their own and this is a common event. According to ABC news, there are some children that have gone missing up to 15 years ago that have still not been found. This relates to Lord Of the Flies by William Golding, because the kids in LOTF prove multiple times times that they are not ready to be without adults. They seem very civilized in the beginning, but shortly after that, many savage events occur and the children take a lot of mental damage from that. Children think they can do anything and that's exactly why they need the supervision. That’s why they need their parents, to learn that they aren't invincible or they'll grow up making terrible choices.

In Lord Of The Flies, there are these kids stranded on an island without any adults. One of the first things that you hear the character piggy talk about is where the adults are. This is foreshadowing that something bad will happen without them. And this is proven to be true when the boys all get in a big arguement. It doesn't help that they're all boys so there will always be an argument over power. They were all obsessed over this conch which had no true purpose but to call others into a gathering. But they are all so content on thinking that it means power and that whoever holds it is a leader. However, this argument ends in Piggy's death. He was holding it and someone threw a rock at him and he fell to his death. They boys also lose someone prior to this. They are also always talking about a beast, but if they had an adult, they would know better. This is because once a child’s mind is on something, that becomes all they think and act on until it is no longer important to them.

If they had adults with them, then Piggy most definitely would not have died. There would be much more structure to their rules and living habits. Now the kids can just be savage without any authority. Kids simply can’t just raise themselves. Adults can have a big influence on kids lives. Some kids even go back home with their parents after college. There is a CBS News story by Erin Donaghue that many are familiar with where 3 young women were kidnapped for over 10 years. Luckily one escaped and ran for help. Some of these women were adults. So when it gets to the point where young adults can be kidnapped, then you know kids need adults to be safe.

Now the kids In Lord of the Flies think they are in danger from a beast, when they are actually in danger from themselves. This obsession causes some to die. As I said earlier, an adult would be able to identify that what the children saw was not anything to worry about. The adult would be the leader no questions asked. The adult would protect the kids and feed them, and leave no one behind. They would probably find a way to contact someone much sooner and would have been rescued much earlier.

The book Lord of the Flies illustrates many issues and important topics for us to think about. It answers the question, “What happens when a bunch of young boys are stranded on an island. It shows that people should know better than to leave their kids alone in this world. People just don't understand that this is not a perfect world. Little kids can be heard all the time saying I can fly, but if their parents never showed them that they couldn't, they would go too far one day and jump from way too high up. Kis fantasize all the time about being superheroes, which is good. It is great to have an open mind. As long as children realize sooner or later that not everything is possible before they try something dangerous.

So after all of these facts concepts, and examples there are core values. William Golding's core value and lesson in Lord of the Flies are that power is not everything and that power thirsty people usually go mad. Arguments over power are simply not needed. Everyone wants to be on top, but not everyone is deserving of the top because they use those who are lower than them as a staircase to the top. Adults can be very civilized over power, but given the right circumstances, they can also be very savage. The show survivor is a good example of this point. Now when you take these same circumstances and use children instead of adults, they will go from civilized to savage in seconds. Children's minds work much differently than the minds of adults. They often act like they are ready to be adults but are never ready to be and they never have nearly enough experience to do so. So the main message of this essay is very simple child equals an adult protecting them and helping them grow. So this what to take out of this essay, Children are not gods and no matter how confident they are, they will never be ready for or understand true adulthood until they have kids of their own.

Works Cited

ABC News Staff. "Missing Children In America: Unsolved Cases." ABC News. ABC News Internet Ventures, 8 May 2013. Web. 7 Apr. 2016. <http://abcnews.go.com/US/missing-children-america-unsolved-cases/story?id=19126967>.

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2003. Print.

Donaghue, Erin. "Cleveland Kidnapping Update: A Timeline of Events in the Dramatic Case of Three Long-missing Ohio Women Found Alive."CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 6 May 2014. Web. 08 Apr. 2016. <http://www.cbsnews.com/news/timeline-of-events-the-cleveland-kidnapping-case/>.

People can always depend on others to help out, right? Not all the time. Some people just jump to conclusions without thinking,  just turn on you, or they don’t believe you. Sometimes jumping to conclusions or hurting people for no reason isn’t a way to solve problems, but people some people don’t think about the situation at all. When they notice things  are not right, they don’t stop and think for a minute. Some people think that the only way to get rid of a problem is to take out the problem at its source or to ignore someone if they need help.

           In Chapter 9 of Lord of the flies Simon finds a dead person with a parachute and the others believed it was the beast, so he went back to tell the others that what they saw wasn’t the beast. In the stage Ralph and the others were in they thought Simon was the beast so they violently attacked him, Simon was trying to tell them what he found and who he is, but they already killed Simon before he had a chance to say anything.

      The reason why they thought Simon as the beast is that Ralph and the others were in savage mode and when they saw a shadowy figure in the woods, they thought it was the beast, so they attacked what they so called the beast, they attacked without hesitation. They tore and bit of pieces of flesh off of Simon and when Ralph and the others thought they killed the beast, they realized that it was Simon who was dead after the fact. The reason why the boys came up with this conclusion was the fire they made, made Simon’s shadow a beastly figure and they weird noises such as like screaming and growling. After they brutally killed Simon they were upset, so they put Simon’s body on a piece of wood and let drift to sea. The quote I found from Lord of the Flies was “ Only the beast lay still a few yards from the sea. Even in the rain they could see how small the beast was” Pg. (153).

     The reason why the thesis related to this situation is because Ralph and the others jumped to conclusions when they saw a shadowy figure of what they believed was the so called beast. They didn’t for a moment to make sure that everyone in the group was with them before they attacked. The way the fire made the shadow look made Simon look like the beast so they assumed it was the beast by the way it looked. So they attacked the so called beast, they did not

think for a moment where Simon was.

        A scenario I found that relates to this situation was that one morning a black teenager was jaywalking across the street towards a bus station when a cop saw him jaywalking across the street, so the cop stop him and he was aggressive about it. The cop pushed, shoved and pulled him onto to plants, so the teen said he was sorry, but the cop thought the teen was retaliating back so he called some other cops to help him. When they got there, they dragged and pushed him on to the ground and started to assault him and the teen cried out and said and I quote “ Get off of me” , but they stilled continued what they were doing.

      A second example from the Lord of the Flies was when Ralph and the others did not tell Piggy there was a boulder heading his way. This is how it happened. Ralph and Jack were arguing about who was a dirtier thief, then it turned into a confrontation between each others and the twins playing around as usual. When Ralph and Jack were fighting they hit the wall and made the boulder fall, so Ralph, Jack, and the others jumped out of the way the boulder, they didn’t tell Piggy to get out of the way. Because of Ralph and Jack, Piggy got hit by the boulder, fell forty feet on the red rock, when Piggy landed, his head snapped open and blood started to pour out of his head and mouth. His legs started twitching and he fell towards the ground and the waves dragged Piggy’s body into sea until his sinked in the sea. The reason why this thesis relates to the situation is because nowadays people do not help other people anymore. If someone was being raped or brutally being stabbed to death, they just stand there and take videos of the situation and failing to call the police.

      A second scenario I found that relates to this situation is when a woman was being raped and brutally assaulted. Twenty people that were watching the incident were recording the entire issue and some people were even laughing at situation and none of them had the a good soul to call the police and report the problems that is going on right there and now. The people who reported it said that they saw people walk by the issue like it was nothing and they failed to report to the authorities.

These examples of real life situations that are in the book as well, are cruel people that are mean, thoughtless, and didn’t care about other people’s well being. People just jump to conclusions or don’t people as much as they use to do anymore. They are just heartless, cruel, thoughtless people in the world and I am not one of those people. I don’t jump to conclusions in all situations and I always help a friend or anyone the has a problem that they are dealing with in their lives. When they just jump to conclusions, they go over the top with their answers. Also, when people ignore other people’s pleads for help they are just hurting the victim more by not helping them. I say “Let’s talk and help it out, not fight it out or ignore it”.

“The pen is mightier than the sword”. This famous quote has been passed around through historians, authors and teachers. In the book, “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, Jack and Ralph have many argumentative confrontations in which diplomacy never works. Jack whom is a bloodthirsty individual cannot be connected too when it comes to diplomacy. Jack is strictly a war like person. Throughout the course of history, society can see that bloodthirsty individuals cannot be diplomatic, and people like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin could not be diplomatic and craved power through fear, and violence. A bloodthirsty person is someone who might resort to violence and killing rather than, a peaceful solution. Throughout time, history has seen its fare share of bloodthirsty people. Death is the result of power in a bloodthirsty person's hand.

Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party and began to take of Europe which led to World War II from 1934 to 1945. He came into power through a democracy and although he was voted into power his true intentions seemed to be hidden. As his time in power went on, war started due to his craving for power and the refusal to gain power in a diplomatic way. He put Germany’s problems on the Jews and used them as scapegoat so he could mask who he really was. As tensions grew, more and more people reached out to Adolf Hitler in a diplomatic way in order for him to stop his reign of terror. All of these attempts were futile because of Hitler’s bloodthirsty mindset. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a german pastor who vocally objected to Adolf Hitler’s movement and what he preached. He openly spoke out against Hitler and instead of being confronted by Hitler or Hitler’s followers, he was killed in 1945. Someone who resorts to killing and violence is someone who cannot see a diplomatic solution or a peaceful one.

In chapter 9 of “Lord of the Flies”, the boys have captured and feasted on a pig and are celebrating their accomplishments. Jack sits on his throne like a king while the boys wait on him hand and foot. Ralph attempts talking to him about the fact that they do not have a shelter and a storm is coming butthis does not seem to worry Jack. Instead, Jack and his followers started a war dance, in which they get very riled up. Simon then comes out of the forrest and Jack and his group begin to kill him in their crazy frenzy.  In the beginning of the book, Ralph attempted to calm down Jack and bring him back to his senses. He did this by calmly talking to him about shelters and the upcoming storm. This attempt at diplomacy was to no avail as Jack did not listen. Jack who has had a thirst for blood since arriving on the island, continues to show his savagery and lack of thought put into himself and his people. Then as he has instilled fear, and a false sense of power into his people much like how Hitler did to his people. They killed Simon, a defenseless person who had good news. Piggy and Ralph were not near and could not have stopped the onslaught, but Jack could have. But being the bloodthirsty individual that he is, he decided not too.

Joseph Stalin was the head of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1952. In that time, he killed twenty million people. Essentially, Stalin create a dictatorship in the Soviet Union. He did this by eliminating his competition, controlling the media and pushing propaganda onto his people. As his power grew continue to increase, people were slaughtered. This person clearly was not capable of being diplomatic and having a good sense or morality was impossible to connect to in a diplomatic way. Only a savage could kill twenty million of his own people and continue to rule. Due to this,  Joseph Stalin could be defined as a bloodthirsty individual.

From what society can deduce through multiple examples of close minded, bloodthirsty and overall bad people is that those kinds of people are not capable of change nor capable of being diplomatic in any way. Both in “Lord of the Flies” and in the real world examples, people died because of these kinds of people, and not just a few but millions. Imagine how many more people would be alive today if Stalin and Hitler were capable of having reason and being diplomatic and not full of hatred. Imagine who would have come off of the island if Jack was reasonable and did not lead himself and his followers to violent solutions. The world would be better off with diplomacy and many examples show us this. Even, the Vietnam war. Society can clearly see that after attempting violence and war, millions of people died and still violence is not a solution. When dealing with bloodthirsty individuals violence is the answer, and diplomacy will not resonate with them.

In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, Golding tells the story of a group of boys who find themselves stranded on an island and have to learn to fend for themselves In the duration of their time there, they managed to simultaneously create and destroy a functional society. In the real world, we often see similar situations play out. In revolutionary movements, the leader is what represents the focus. When that leader is lost, their followers lose their focus and stray to the wrong path.

Martin Luther King is one of the most well known African Americans in the Civil Rights movement. He led a number of protests and created a lot of milestones in black history during his life. However, his time as a leader was at times difficult. In 1963, King was imprisoned after ignoring an injunction against protesting. After spending so much time in jail, the separation from his followers caused a lot of uneasiness and doubt. In Adam Fairclough’s - a British historian-, To Redeem the Soul of America, Fairclough recounts a scene in which King was speaking to a crowd. Fairclough writes, “Attendance at the mass meetings was higher than ever, but the stream of volunteers for jail had dwindled to a trickle. Kunstler watched in dismay as both King and Abernathy exhorted a packed church for an hour in order to persuade a dozen people to volunteer." In other words, because King was in jail for such an extended amount of time, his followers began to lose their energy and doubt the power behind his demonstration. From this example we can tell that passion and execution go hand in hand - one can feel as strongly as they want about something, but if there is no execution plan, that emotion has no outlet.

In this scene, Ralph is frustrated by the lack of motivation on part of the boys and decides to confront them about it. Golding writes, “‘I was talking about smoke! Don’t you want to be rescued? All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!’ ‘But we want meat!’  ‘And I work all day with nothing but Simon and you come back and don’t even notice the huts!’”(54) In other words, Ralph feels as though he is doing all the heavy work with lack of support and aid from the ones who claim to stand behind him. This is important because as a leader, one of the easier parts is lighting a fire in the heart of those who look up to you. However, it can be increasingly difficult to have those people keep up their energy and consistently provide you with the aid you need. When Ralph invested trust in the younger boys of the island, he expected them to keep their word and aspire to the various goals they had set, such as hunting and setting rules and efficiently keeping the fire alive for rescue. However, their priorities became solely focused on the hunting, which further proves how important it is for a leader to be present to keep the central focus on par.  

In Michael Dyson’s, I May Not Get There With You, Dyson recounts the experience of hearing of Martin Luther King’s death and what it was like for him as a young African American. Dyson writes, “But even that seismic event [referring to the 1967 Detroit riot], as riveting and as local as it was, failed to capture my attention the way King’s death did. The bullet that shattered King’s jaw ended his life; it’s shrapnel lodged deep in my psyche and burned me awake to race in America.” In other words, a group of followers can do as many demonstrations and acts of protests as they wish, but the leader has the biggest impact on the public (at least, in this case.) Dyson explains that his eyes were not opened to the issue surrounding him until he heard MLK’s moving speech. This emphasizes the importance of the voice of a leader. Majority of the most known leaders in the world are praised for their motivational speaking abilities and possessing powerful voices that people remember for years. King’s I Have a Dream Speech was and is so popular not just for the content and meaning behind the speech, but the power in which he spoke with. As a leader, it is crucial to be able to have power and know how to police it effectively and successfully.

In the middle of the book, Ralph, Simon and Piggy have diverged from the group, unknowingly allowing Jack to to climb up the hierarchy of the island. Golding writes, “‘I’ll blow the conch’, said Ralph breathlessly, ‘and call an assembly.’ ‘[Jack] We shan’t hear it.’”(151) In other words, Jack, angling for control of the group, immediately rejects Ralph’s efforts at reuniting the group because Ralph, the previous leader, removed himself from the eyes of the public. In reference to the real world example, this scene from the book represents what happens when the leader loses their voice and all their power along with it. Jack denying Ralph’s request is the beginning of their unity as a group breaking apart and causing further issues in the future. In the beginning, the conch shell was the centerpiece of their morals; it represented control, respect, and unity. However, now that Ralph has lost his power over the boys, everything he stands for has no power. Even though Ralph did not discover the conch himself, the conch had become a way for him to wield his power. To contrast, in the beginning of Lord of the Flies, Jack and Ralph’s roles as leaders were clear. The younger boys respected them and they respected each other, making it easy to keep order. However, as the book progressed and their roles started to blur because of Ralph’s isolation, cooperation became more difficult to achieve and Ralph lost much of his power.

“Your emotions are the  slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.” Elizabeth Gilbert once said. In this world that we live in, our emotions impact what we do. Whether we get married because of our love or kill because of our anger, our emotions control what we do. But there is one emotion that even controls other emotions and that emotions is fear.  We could actually be scared of losing the person so we fall in love and get married in order to not lose them. We could be scared that someone might hurt our family so we get angry in order to kill someone else. Fear is a powerful emotion. Because of how powerful fear we fear fear itself. There are many real life examples of this and they will be pointed out today. Another really good example of humans fearing fear is in a novel called the Lord of the Flies by William Golding. In this novel and in my real life examples, the readers can clearly see that because humans are scared of being scared, they will do anything to get rid of that fear.

To prove my point, there is a section in the Lord of the Flies that I would like to analyze. In this section, the children were doing a ritualistic dance around a campfire chanting “Kill the beast. Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” The beast is a creature of the night that one of the little ones claimed he saw and has taken form in many of the children’s mind. Suddenly Simon, one of the children of the camp,  runs towards the group of children. He comes bearing news of what he found while he was away. He had found out the truth of the beast. That there is no beast. It was just their fear taking over their imagination. But of course, things does not go as planned. When the children saw Simon, they didn’t recognize him, though he was the beast and attacked him. ´¨“ The beast was on it’s knees in the center, its arms folded over its face. It was crying out against the abominable noise, something about a body on the hill.“ (152) This relates back to my thesis because the children were too scared of being scared they tried to hide the fact that they were scared and instead put on a brave front. They decided to kill the beast, the epitomy of their fear. Many people would think that this would not be them running from their fear but instead just being completely crazy. It is easy to argue that case but I myself, never liked thinking of things inside the box.

The example from the book relates to the Trayvon Martin case. In the Trayvon Martin case, Trayvon Martin was walking home from the store, when he was shot and killed. George Zimmerman, the man who shot him, claimed it was out of fear. He did it because he was scared that Trayvon would kill him. “I know that if I didn't act, act the way I did, um, I wouldn't be here.” George Zimmerman says as quoted in the Tampa Daily. George Zimmerman was so convinced that Trayvon was suspicious that he acted out of fear. He tried to get rid of the object of his fear by killing the person who emitted this fear. George Zimmerman was scared to be scared so he tried to get rid of it even if it wasn’t the right thing to do.

Another example in the Lord of the Flies that proves my point is the killing of Piggy. Piggy, is a character in the book that is very underappreciated. He is a very smart fellow and knows how to keep a calm head in the face of danger. However, because he has this much knowledge, the kids don’t like him and never take him seriously. In fact they insult him even when he presents good ideas. One day, Piggy is trying to help them out but they were all scared of listening to what Piggy said because they did not want to admit that Ralph was better, they killed him. “ Which is better- to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is?“ (180). By this point in this story, the readers would just think that the children of this island is crazy but in fact that they are just acting on normal human instincts. They just do not want to be scared so they are running away from that fear.  Like in this example, they are just running away from their fears and are trying to save what little of their human selves they have left.

“As long as their are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable.”Albert Einstein made this statement, at the end of World War II. This quote, while old; is still remarkably relevant in today’s society.  Throughout history, war has changed technology, mindsets, and the culture of everyone in the world. For example, the Vietnam war displaced thousands of civilians, spreading their culture and food throughout the world. It changed the way people view warfare, and how people treat veterans. Veterans are the people that are always affected in different ways from war, whether it be because of a traumatic injury or whether it’s PTSD. War and trauma also affects children, perhaps even more than adults, because their minds are more prone to have this disorder.

For the first quote, the plane that had the boys had just crashed. Piggy and Ralph first met each other in the jungle. Piggy was talking weirdly, in incoherent sentences. They were talking about the plane crash. “He must have flown off after he dropped us. He couldn’t land here. Not in a plane with wheels’, ‘We was attacked!”(Page 9). This quote shows how they were paranoid, and scared about what was happening. They immediately assumed the worse; that they were attacked by somebody. This quote proves that they were not only at war; but their mindsets were changed because of this. It reminds me of PTSD, or Post Tramatic Stress Disorder. People who have PTSD are often war veterans or those in plane cash and the effects it has on you. PTSD affects your mind, and your actions. People who have PTSD are in a constant state of paranoia, just like the boys were while they were on the island. People who have it become unaware of their actions, and unaware of the severity and consequences of their own actions. To quote a veteran of The Gulf War, “I had ahold of my son by the throat. I don’t even remember having him by the throat, my wife does. I don’t know what he said to me. I don’t even remember.” The kids are just like this veteran; violent, forgetful, and unable to make rational decisions while under this disease. The kids have it worse though; because their minds aren’t as developed as this veteran’s are, they can remember the severity of their actions as well as the consequences. With this quote, the reader can assume that the children had gotten PTSD from being on the island.

In the next quote, Jack and Ralph are talking. It’s nighttime, and everyone is asleep. They’re discussing the little children, or the “littluns”, right after Ralph had come back from hunting. “They talk and scream. The littluns. Even some of the others as if - “ (Page 52) This quote discusses how even the little children were affected by both the island and the plane crash.  Some symptoms of it include insomnia, night terrors, etc. This could also be the reason the “beast” was made up by the PTSD the boys had, a figment of their imagination.  This relates back to the PTSD because of the symptoms. If the beast was a figment of their imagination, part of the PTSD; then all these symptoms are clear signs that they have it.

Part of PTSD is losing interest in daily activities. In this example, the author is explaining the concept of “biguns” and “littluns”. “They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort. Apart from food and sleep, they found time for play, aimless and trivial, in the white sand by the bright water.” This quote explains that the kids were changed by the plane crash, and that they were different than they were before. They thought of playing as trivial and aimless, useless in a way. They also had night terrors, which proves that they experienced a traumatic event that gave them the PTSD.  

For one of the final quotes, Jack was at Castle Rock, leading some of the boys with him. When they wouldn’t listen, he had an outburst where he was irrational and emotional. Right before the quote, the boys were listing reasons why they should make shelter where they are, because it was a good scouting point to look out on the island. “Right onto the bridge--’ ‘I say we’ll go on!’ Shouted Ralph, furiously. ‘We’ve got to make certain. We’ll go now.” (Page 108) This quote shows that Ralph is irrational, with the disorder taking over instead of him. It also shows that Ralph was having emotional outbursts, where his emotion would take over. He went from being calm to all of a sudden being furious.

In the final quote, it’s the moments after Piggy died. After he pushed down the rock, Jack kept fighting with Ralph. While there was some hesitation, it wasn’t like the first death on the island where the boys felt guilty for awhile. “Suddenly Jack bounded out from the tribe and began screaming wildly.’ “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore…” (Page 181) In this quote, you can see that while there is hesitation, Jack actually is aware of his actions in this situation. He intended to kill Piggy by pushing the rock down, and feels no guilt for it. The first person to die in the book, Simon, died as a Piggy felt guilty for Simon dying, even though he wasn’t one of the people who killed him directly.

There are always people that believe in the underdog because sometimes the underdog is a more useful thinker than the favored person.

In the book “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, Ralph got chosen to be the leader over Piggy. Piggy was more of a logical thinker versus Ralph who was more of an on the spot thinker so he didn’t really think about long term issues. “Piggy stirred . “I’ll come.” Ralph turned to him. You’re no good on a job like this””. Ralph wasn’t thinking about the more people the better. He only thought about piggy right then or as dead weight even though Piggy could have given really good input for their expedition. He could have even been an extra pair of eyes on the trip. He didn’t put much thought into how piggy could help in their expedition.   

During his second term George Bush probably wasn’t seen as the best leader by a lot of people. But he was the more popular person, probably since he was already president. But John Kerry was probably a better leader since george bush left the economy pretty bad when he did leave the office. But people still voted for him to become president. This is like lord of the flies because ralph wasn't the best leader but got chosen over piggy because of popularity.

Piggy wasn’t seen as a leader by most of the group. From the beginning of the book he was made fun of by the other kids on the island. His original name was fatty until ralph introduced him to the group as piggy. Since Piggy didn’t stand up for himself the name just stook with him. That’s another problem Piggy has he lets people step all over him without correcting them. This is probably why he didn’t picked as the leader. Can’t have a leader that’s easy to push around. A leader should be able to tell any of their followers to do something and they do it, not just laugh at him and ignore. A leader should have certain qualities. It shouldn’t be easy to boss them around or change their opinion very easily. Piggy should stand up for himself more and Ralph should become his own thinker.

A leader should be able to relate to his or her followers. If the leader doesn’t relate to its followers either he or she doesn’t have very many followers or it just becomes a blind leading the blind situation blind.

How do humans make their decisions? Many people would like to say they do what they want and don’t care what other people think, but they are lying. For some reason, they are created by peer pressure, trying to get a viewers vote, from fear or even from embarrassment. They tend to impress the folks by saying something, just by an appearance or their behaviors, instead of the actual truth. Honesty does not play a key.

In chapter 1 of “Lord of the flies” by William Golding, the children, after experiencing a devastating plane crash meet up on a part of the island. They decide to hold a poll for a leader or in the books case “chief.” “This toy of voting was almost as pleasing as the conch. Jack started to protest but the clamor changed from the general wish for a chief to an election by acclaim of Ralph himself. None of the boys could have found a good reason for this; what intelligence had been shown was traceable to Piggy, while the most obvious leader was Jack. But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet the most powerfully, there was the conch, The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing that balanced on his knees, was set apart.” (Pg. 22) This quote from Lord of the flies shows the kids thoughts on who should be “chief”. They chose Ralph as chief because he was the person who blew the conch. With the following lines “Him with the shell.” (Pg.22) “Ralph! Ralph!” (Pg.22)  “Let him be chief with the trumpet-thing.” (Pg.22) The kids did not take the time to understand and analyze who fits the role of “chief”, but instead decided based on appearance.

The example from Lord of the flies closely relates to the election that is currently happening. According to the article by editor Carolina Moreno at Huffington Post. The article quotes Donald Trump’s statement that  “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending you/ They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re bringing rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” When Donald Trump made this remark he received attention, both positive and negative. This is how he got noticed, people agreed with him and his opinions. However he’s only saying the things he said to impress the people of America in order to get on the ballot and win votes for the presidential election. At the same time there is no evidence showing immigrants committing more crime than native-born Americans. However first-generation immigrants are pre disposed to lower crime rates than native-born Americans. Thus, showing Donald Trump is just making his decision or movement based on impression.

A moment in Lord of the flies that shows a decision being made from being under pressure is when Ralph began wanting to leave the island, however Jack’s plans interferes with Ralphs. He makes rules because they spotted a ship, however Jack’s “group” went to go hunt and forgot about maintaining the fire lit. This made Ralph feel like he missed out on a chance of a lifetime. Ralph says to his followers in chapter 5, “And another thing. We nearly set the whole island on fire. And we waste time, rolling rocks, and making little cooking fires. Now I say this and make it a rule, because I’m chief: We won’t have a fire anywhere but on the mountain. Ever.” (pg.81) This shows that Ralph was pressured by his surroundings. It frustrated Ralph, which prompted him to make the decision to make rules.  After seeing the ship and missing the chance at an early escape of the island, Ralph felt the way he did because Jack refused to obey Ralph’s commands.

The same situation happened during the upcoming on World War 2. The United States of America signed a treaty with Germany so they wouldn’t speak about what happened and to stay in peace, however from embarrassment Adolf Hitler plan secret meetings known as the nazi party. During these nazi party meetings Adolf Hitler would speak and his words inspired the german people to follow his commands, especially putting the blame on jews because it was there fault that germany lost during the first world war. After some time Adolf Hitler became the dictator of Germany. After quite some time Adolf Hitler made a name for himself after invading poland, and killing a large amount of jews. It reached to a point where the U.S had to step in and sent reinforcement into Germany to put a stop to this war. Adolf Hitler reached a corner in his plans and instead of paying for his crime he killed himself. The decision was based on fear.  According to History.com Adolf Hitler quotes that he was becoming paranoid, “Doctor what is the best way to kill myself?” Adolf Hitler  made the decision he made because he needed an escape route, especially with full forces coming into Germany at both sides west and east, this is why a treaty was later created making the U.S and Russia keep watch over Germany.

In conclusion we can see that both Lord of the flies and the real world examples show that decisions can be made by countless of things however these are the main ones that sparks out. From fear through good intentions we can tell that people's decision making can't be countered and would have to deal with hiding the exact truth from each other.

People have many different groups or activities they are a part of. It makes them feel safe and at home. Like they are contributing to something greater. From being apart of a certain political category or an extremist group, everyone thirst for this feeling. In William Golding’s, Lord of the flies, a plane crash left a group of British boys stranded on an island with no parental supervision. They go through many obstacles such as voting for a leader and starting a fire. Throughout these struggles, they battle with war versus diplomacy. As a society, people are taught that it is important to contribute to the success of our communities. Like voting for a president that people feel will make a difference, inputting their opinions, but in the end, unless they have power it is out of their control.

In this scene from, Lord of the Flies, the group of kids just got done the voting for a leader. They chose Ralph to be the leader and Jack was not too happy about this decision. "This toy of voting was almost as pleasing as the conch. Jack started to protest but the clamor changed from the general wish for a chief..."(22) This quote shows that diplomacy is effective because people can bicker and complain about the decision, but the decision is final. Later in the scene, Jack was given the choirboys but Ralph is the overall leader. From the choirboys perspective they have no say in the matter, they have to follow Jack and listen to his commands. They are too young to control their own decision making and leave it in the hands of anybody with “authority”. This relates to what is going on in the presidential elections and how that most of Bernie Sanders supporters are young. In an article, from newyorker.com, which talked about the attendance of Bernie Sanders rally stated, “Another was how many young people were turning out to see an irascible seventy-four-year-old senator from Vermont.” Since a lot of Bernie Sander supporters are below the age limit they are not able to vote. They are like the choirboys not able to make the important decisions because they are too young. The young Bernie supporters can voice their opinions on social media, but in the end they can’t control the outcome. They have to leave it in the hands of their elders.

In pursuit of control many people start extremist groups to create change. In a Cnn article talking about the increase in extremist groups in america it stated, “"They believe the Constitution is being raped. With hate groups, things are going to get worse because they feel like they're in battle,"” Many extremist groups feel that they have a duty to fix what they feel is wrong with society and the government. They try to put their values out there through protesting and in extreme cases acts of violence. Since they do not have political power they feel that doing this is the only way to get heard. In their opinion the “injustice” that has been committed is big enough to start a group against. These types of group is like Jack’s viewpoint. In this scene Jack had just got done getting into a heated conversation with Ralph. In which said that Jack would even get scared if he saw a beast. This got Jack real mad and he called a meeting to impeach Ralph. He stated, “...The next thing is that we couldn’t kill it. And the next is Ralph said my hunters are no good. I never said that! I’ve got the conch. Ralph thinks you’re cowards running away from the boar and the beast” Jack tries to turn the group of boys against Ralph in this quote. He even lies about what he said, like a extremist group, he is trying correct the “wrong” that he was dealt. He left the group with his minions and formed kind of a cult that sacrifice animals to the so called Beast. He tried to change the group he was in, but failed exiling himself from the group. He was able to become leader of his own tribe but made enemies of the people around him.

In this scene a boy name Roger was walking across the island and was stopped by one of his clan mates. The clan questioned him because Jack wanted them to challenge everyone they met. They talked about what was happening to Wilfred and stated, “He’s going to beat wilfred. What for? I don’t know. He didn’t say. He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up. He’s been...he’s been tied up for hours waiting.” This quote shows that power over a whole group has gotten to Jack’s head. He is becoming a dictator, punishing anyone he pleases. The followers of Jack just go along with it either fearing that they will be next or trusting Jack because he is in a position of power. Jack doesn’t tell the group why Wilfred was being punished leaving them to think that he committed a heinous crime. This shows how power can shift people’s viewpoints of you and what you can do. He harnesses the power to take over the island, something he couldn’t have achieve before.

In conclusion, power rules the way people act and treat others. Without it they are not able to change the perspective of people around them. As we can see in, Lord of the Flies Jack gaining power affected how he treated the people around him. He began ruling with fear instead of being diplomatic like Ralph. In real life the youth lacking the power to vote affects the outcome of the presidential election which is out of their control. No matter what though people are going to try to voice their but without power nothing will change.