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Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel that represents society and it's components in a tale about a children stranded on an island. Of the group there are two who want to lead the boys for the duration of their stay, one of which is Jack Merridew. Although he doesn't have any power at the beginning of the novel, he took every chance he had to try to take the position of chief which he eventually got. He ruled with an iron fist, allowing no one to question him or his leadership. Jack represented the wanting for a single, all powerful leader to guide the followers of society using any means he feels necessary. Golding grew up during a time when he was taught to believe that man was good at heart.
Books like Tarzan, and Coral island showed him that it was indeed society that was evil and that man was good at heart. These views were demonstrated in some of his earlier writing, but that changed after his experiences in the war. After Golding returned from WWII, he had a different view on man. He saw a lot of action and destruction during his time with the navy, and this influenced his beliefs on man quite drastically. The mass destruction and killing pushed him to think that man can be evil, selfish and power hungry. Jack spawned out of these beliefs.
Jack was a very power hungry young boy. He liked to be in command of things and when he wasn't, he tried to put himself into that position. This desire for power was shown throughout the novel, as was the fact that he loved attention that accompanied it. He loved to be the centre of attention and would do anything to boost himself above other people. To make him more evil, he was not able to conceal any of these characteristics, he had to let them loose. Upon the arrival of the boys to the island Jack was put in the middle of a power struggle.
Although the conflict was brief, there was still a very obvious confrontation between Jack and Ralph. Once the boys had assembled themselves there was an election to see who was to be chief. Despite the fact that Ralph was voted leader, the wanting to be in command never left Jack, not for a minute. He already had some leadership skills, being head choir boy at his old school, and felt that he should be leader and continuously challenged Ralph.
Among several things they argued about, the most common was the debate over the fire. Ralph felt that it was necessary to keep it burning at all times while Jack believed that hunting pigs and getting meat was much more essential. He disagreed with many things that Ralph did. Jack's view on how things should be run in the group didn't completely show through until he actually became leader later on in the novel, but there were hints before that as well. His wanting for a strict leader was evident ever since he and his choir boys were introduced as characters.
He kept them very much in line. 'The group of cloaked boys began to scatter from close line. The tall boy shouted at them. 'Choir stand still!' Wearily obedient, the choir huddled into line and stood there swaying in the sun. ' He allowed them little room to manoeuvre, made them listen and follow orders without question. He was a dictator. Jack's dictatorial style of leadership contrasted very directly with the more democratic and passive style of Ralph. As mentioned before, Ralph was elected shortly after their arrival to the island, but his time in power came to end quite gradually. He tried to run his group through a democratic type system in which all major decision were first discussed at an assembly before they were put into action.
At these assemblies his views were questioned not only by Jack, but by the other boys as well. Even the ideas that the assembly could agree on usually weren't put into action due to the fact that Ralph would not enforce them. They had decided to build huts to live and sleep in, but after only a few hours most of the boys had gotten bored and left. Their punishment for slacking off was nothing, and so they got away with accomplishing nothing. Jack saw this along with many other flaws in how Ralph ran things and continually tried to force him and his style of governing over the boys.
When Jack first became chief of his tribe, he immediately started taking things through force. He stole what was the essence of fire to the boys from Ralph and he took it through brutal force. He sent a small group of boys to ambush Ralph's group. They jumped them in the night, beat them, hurt them, and left with Piggy's glasses. He showed no remorse for the fact that because of him Piggy would no longer be able to see. He did what had to be done for his tribe at the expense of all else.
He ran his tribe like a dictator and he had complete control over everything. Jack was ruthless in keeping boys in line. He beat one child for pretty much no reason, and convinced Samneric to join his tribe by threatening to hurt them. Due to the fact that he was feared, things ran smoothly and the tribe was working more as a team.
What Golding was showing by contrasting Jack with Ralph was in fact contrasting a dictatorship vs a democracy. Ralph attempted to run the group of boys through a non-violent, everyone-has-a-say type of governing. This had little effect over the group because he had nothing to enforce what he was saying and he allowed everyone to directly question his commands. He was weak, un-controlling and ineffective. Jack knew that the tribe needed someone to take charge and give orders without allowing them to be questioned, and he quickly became that leader. Ruthlessly he ruled, allowing no one to question him, and because of this the tribe was a better team.
Through this, Golding gave an example of a situation in which a dictatorial style leadership was needed. The boys were out of control and they weren't organised in the slightest, and Golding showed that in this situation a democracy would fail but a dictatorship would hold strong. Perhaps he believes that democracy's work better after organisation has been established over a period of several years, but the tribe never got to that point. Jack was a very good leader.
He may have wanted to become leader because he was jealous of Ralph moreso than he thought he was needed, but once he got into power he did a good job. Through brute force and fear he ruled, allowing no one to question him. He was a dictator.
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