resort to savagery at the end to save his life. Throughout the story Ralph shows courage and struggles to continue to believe that people are fundamentally good. He finds it difficult at first to accept that Jack means him evil. Although he has all of these good qualities, he needs Piggy who is in fact more intelligent than him and comes up with all the good ideas. There is increasing obvious rivalry between Ralph and Jack and it is significant that Jack is more successful as a leader because he can persuade the boys and they believe that he is better able to protect them. He is more effective at keeping the tribe together and controlling them. Ralph on the other hand spends time trying to persuade the boys with common sense and does not realise that they can be persuaded more easily with bribes and the temptation of fun. Ralph is a thoughtful leader, who does try to take people’s feelings into account, by for example appointing Jack as leader of the choir but he does go far enough to realise that Jack will compete with him and become his rival. Ralph has tried to establish a democracy, where everyone has the right to vote, but he is beaten by Jack who operates a dictatorship and gives no one else the opportunity to make decisions. However, sometimes the strongest person is not the best choice. Authors often show how humans select this stronger person, in order to give an understanding of the different powers that some people can posses over others. In William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies Ralph though not the stronger person, demonstrates a better understanding of people which gives Ralph better leadership qualities than Jack, although he is ultimately not succesful. In a way Simon can be seen to represent Jesus Christ and Jack is evil and represents Belezebub. It is ironic that Jack starts out as the leader of the choir and ends up by being the most evil of the boys. Ralph is like Peter who was the disciple that Christ lov...
