Ralph Lord Of The Flies Character Analysis

At the time, Ralph heavily influences the boys and their actions for he resembles “the men with the megaphones” (18). He attempts to create order among the boys with rules, but most of the boys would rather play than follow the rules—for there are no adults to enforce them. With the role of leadership thrust upon him, Ralph has no choice but to stop playing games. His goals are to protect the boys and increase their chances of being rescued; however, the responsibility on Ralph’s shoulders soon begins to weigh him down. As “Ralph [watches the boys], envious and resentful” (75), the obligation to care for everyone on the island is a heavy burden to bear. His role as leader has forced Ralph to forget the joys of being an innocent kid and given him the encumbrance of responsibility, which causes the start of his maturation.

Ralph showed courage when it came to being open minded and optimistic about surviving and being rescued. “I’m chief. I’ll go. Don’t argue” (104). This shows that when they reach an area of the island that they have not been to yet that as a leader, Ralph has to set a good example for the boys on the island, and in doing so may have to face many tough and challenging obstacles and problems alone. This is why he has to show courage in front of the kids to complete the obstacles. “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of a man’s heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy” (202). This quote concludes the novel and displays how Ralph accomplished his goal of being

Ralph is the main protagonist in the story and he is the leader of the children on the island. Since Ralph was voted leader, he has the characteristics of leadership and he brings civilization and order to the story. Unlike the other boys, Jack and Simon, Ralph’s main focus is to get off the island instead of having fun. For example, Ralph tried constructing huts with Simon; meanwhile, the boys are playing and running off having fun. In the beginning of the story, Ralph’s power with the children was secure; however, towards the end, that power is being transferred to Jack. Ralph represents the

“Listen, everybody. I’ve got to have time to think things out. I can’t decide what to do straight off. If this isn’t an island we might be rescued straight away. So we’ve got to decide if this is an island. Everybody must stay round here and wait and not go away. Three of us-if we take more we’d get all mixed, and lose each other-three of us will go on an expedition and find out. I’ll go, and Jack, and Simon.” (Golding, 24) The boys find that they are indeed on an island using Ralph’s intuition. “There’s no village smoke, and no boats,” said Ralph wisely. “We’ll make sure later; but I think it’s uninhabited.” (Golding, 30) Ralph concludes that they are alone on the island. Again we see Ralph using his leadership qualities to help the group

One of the strongest forms of adversity came in the form of a strong and outspoken boy Jack; Jack often overwhelms and disregards things that Ralph, the chief of the boys on the island, has said to be done. Ralph, we can see, struggles to hold his control over the group of boys when Jack refuses to believe the importance of these jobs. Ralph’s biggest struggle against adversity against Jack happens during a time of

Ralph's common sense and ability to recognize what is best for the group also shows his excellent leadership skills. His main focus throughout the book is getting rescued and tells the boys to make a fire and to keep it burning to make a signal. However, the boys do not listen and he becomes angry. "The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don't keep the fire going?" (p. 86) Ralph's determination to get rescued is not only for himself, but for everyone else

Throughout William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Ralph, the fair leader, responds to his unique setting in many ways. At first, Ralph is ecstatic to be on the island and to have freedom from society’s rules, adult oversight, and authority. However, he soon finds that an irrational fear of a beast threatens to cause chaos amongst the boys. When all rules are forgotten and savagery reigns without authority, he takes it upon himself to enforce the island’s laws in an effort to maintain order and morality. In the end of the novel, Ralph starts to lose the specific character traits that define him as a productive leader as the boys around him turn savage and civilization fades from their society. As the novel progresses, Ralph takes a turn for the worse as he forgets his core principles and is tempted by savagery.

To further illustrate, in “Lord of the Flies” the character, Ralph, is a round and dynamic character. Ralph can be classified as this type of character because of the changes he undergoes as the story unfolds. To explain, at the beginning of the story, Ralph is confident and optimistic when himself and multiple boys crash on an island. He takes control and earns the trust if the group. Ralph conducts assemblies and his words are determined and civilized, “All at once he found he could talk fluently and explain what he had to say… ‘we want to be rescued; and of course, we shall be rescued…we must make a fire”’ (Golding 32-38). Ralph’s words and actions show his boldness to take control and his strong belief in being rescued. However, as the story continues, the system and trust Ralph establish begins to diminish, resulting in two separate groups. The one group contains Ralph and very few civilized boys, and the second group is made up Jack and the savages. Although the groups are at peace at first, multiple fights and Piggy’s stolen glasses causes Ralph to partially change. This change is revealed to the readers when Ralph and Piggy go to the saves to retrieve the glasses, “Truculently they squared up to each other but kept just out of fighting distance… ‘Ralph-remember what we came for. The fire. My specs”’ (Golding 177). During this mission, the once civilized Ralph begins to fight with the savages and he acted barbaric himself. Ralph’s and actions and Piggy’s words show the reader how Ralph transformed the course of the book from being civilized and confident with his word; however, Ralph is now becoming a savage and loses his optimistic attitude. Piggy’s words to Ralph, shows how Ralph is forgetting the idea of being civilized because Piggy must constantly remind Ralph of their mission, but Ralph seems to just want to fight. Ralph’s shift in personality shows the reader that he is a dynamic and round character. Therefore, Ralph’s character undergoes development; however, Brutus in “Julius Ceaser” changes in an equivalent way.

The ability to create characters of depth plagues many modern writers. Ralph’s character exemplifies an author’s superior style of character development. In “The Lord of the Flies,” a novel by William Golding from 1954, Ralph’s character changed from negative, positive and neutral. In this novel, there are five main moments that defines Ralph’s character the most. These shows how Ralph’s character evolve throughout the novel.

Determination has played a motivating role for characters in many novels. One such example can be found in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. Ralph shows his determination to get himself and the other boys off of the island. Ralph, the authority figure and protagonist, is a determined individual because he persistently assured the boys that they would get off of the island. Throughout Ralph’s efforts to get the boys rescued, he experienced a number of hardships and uprisings.

Ralph’s attempts to control the kids and maintain the peace on the island ends up being ineffective, and his commands during the fire went unheard as “the crowd swayed toward the island and was gone—following Jack” (37). Ralph’s way of leading through order and rules would have kept those on the island alive and well, but the kids did not desire to follow. They prefer the fun that coincides with Jack as their leader. Ralph lead the correct way through rules and order, but since the children lacked maturity and reason, Jack prevailed over

Not having been rescued yet has finally had a told on Ralph who seems to be getting more impatient as days pass by. Essentially what happens is he orders an assembly to take place where he will discuss with the group of boys how they need to follow orders how they need to do this or that in order to get rescued and at this point the boys no longer want to listen to him. They think he has "too many things" to say so they want to replace him. It was a great move for Ralph to do, remind the boys they need to take part being rescued. However, because at the beginning of when they were first on the island he had been a fun a chief they are not used to the idea of him wanting things to be done. They do not respect him anymore. They do not want to

How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don't keep a fire going?". Also, another motivation that he has is living a life of civilized survival on this foreign island. In chapter 3, page 64, he says,"We need shelters". Also, another example, is that in chapter 5, page 107, Ralph states that if anyone has to go to the bathroom, that they use "those rocks right along beyond the bathing pool as lavatory...sensible...tide cleans the place up." This shows me that Ralph is utilizing his authority to try to make logical and sensible decisions in order to try to benefit the group as a whole. Ralph is not only concerned about the well-being of himself, but also about the welfare of his fellow "subjects". He tries to be firm and pushes them to try to construct shelters to live in, basic food and water to find, as well as the act of working together. Ralph is also motivated by his father, who happens to be a naval officer. In the story, Ralph says positive things as he remebers his dad, such as "...father's in the Navy...are'nt any unknown islands left...got a picture of this island... ", which leads the boys to feel "...cheerfulness and better heart...", on chapter 2, page 45. The way he speaks about

For example, ralph is very strict about keeping the fire on the mountain alive, so that they can be rescued quicker, and also shows priority to building shelters. The novel demonstrates this on page 52 by stating “If it rains like when we dropped in, we’ll need shelters” and on page 38, “If a ship comes near the island, they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire” showing that he know what the group of boys will need if they want to survive on the island.

Leaders are everywhere in today’s society because everyone needs a leader. In Lord of the Flies, two leaders are prevalent. One leader, Ralph, is considered a good, moral leader. The other leader, Jack, has evil characteristics which make him an evil leader. Each boy ends up leading his own tribe on the inhabited island.